It's about food and travel

Swedish Chef of the year awards

2012-01-26T11:49:00.005+01:00

This event is the largest happening in the swedish food industry. The Chef of the Year!

There is 6 chefs in the finale who compeets about this prestigieuse award.

These chefs have gone from being selected in the first round of 147 down to 24 in the semifinale and now to 6 chefs.

The criteria for the finale this year was to make 14 dishes of a beef on the bone from Gotland. This ingredience was known to the chefs in advance so they have been practising like crazy on this one.

The other dish was revealed the night before to the chefs and this year is was lobster. The needed to create 14 hot and 14 cold lobster dishes! The time they have is 5 and a half hour.

Loads of pressure!

The competition was this year held in the new Stockholm waterfront building. An excellent spot in my opinion!

Here is a picture of the diffrent kitchens where the compeditors are working. Loads of people are watching! TV is there, reporters and sponsors. You are also being interveiwed while you are cooking... More pressure!

Here are the judges table, They are the most renowed chefs in the country. There is also a guest judge. This year it was Bo Bech from Denmark.

I was lucky to win a lunch in Electrolux chefs table where Tommy Myllymäki gave us a supertreat! Tommy is a fantastic chef. He won the chef of the year award in 2007 and he won the silver medal in the Bocuse d' or last year. So this guy knows what he's doing :-)

Right here they present the first course with Norwegian lobster. Insanely good!

Second course was halibut baked with red seaweed, a bluemussel sauce, cucumber and salmon roe. Yum!!!

Then a perfectly cooked beef with beetroots and onion. On the side we got a cocotte with fried mushrooms, a brown butter espuma and loads of Perigord truffles!! hahaha! What a lunch!

Thank you Tommy for the show!

Then at the evening after some mingle it was time for the price cermony...

They start by announcing the third price. Albin Wessman was number 3.

On the stage stands two chefs who at this moment doesn't know if they are number one or number two... Klas Lindberg and Daniel Engellau. The winner is announced by HRH Prince Carl Philip. Hanna Halpern is the CEO of the competition is also on stage.

And the winner is......................Klas Lindberg!!!

He is a worthy winner and an amazing chef!

Time for the banquett. 900 people sitting down for dinner... The dinner is presented by Andreas Hedlund and Magnus Johansson. Pretty tough assignment I must say, I mean there is a few chefs in the crowd....

We started off with Kalix roe, creme fraiche with lemon and a toasted brioche. Very nice!

A loin of a special breeded pig. It's been fed with grapeseed oil and it was delicious! Here with a cream sauce, herbs and pickled vegetables.

There was also entertaining going on during the festivities. Titio was performing a few songs and she nailed it!! Very nice!

Magnus Johanssons dessert! A bavariose on an almond crust topped with bramble sorbet! Soo good!

A picure of a very happy winner!!

I feel lucky to be invited to this banquett for the second time now and this year was an amazing venue!

Revisit, Restaurant Djuret. Stockholm

2012-01-09T09:47:00.004+01:00

I know it wasn't such a long time since I was there and "raving" about this place. Check blog in Oct 2011...

Perhaps I should try something new?

Ahh.. who cares?

This is a restaurant who once again proves to be one of the absolute top restaurants in this city.

The constantly high quality they deliver is also something for the michelin guide to consider..this is fantastic food!

Well, fish and pure veggie dishes is not really an option here...Read the name, Djuret=The Animal!

Chef Michael is showing very high skills in this profession.

I mean this type of food very few cooks of today knows how to make...

I've worked with cooks who never got the opportunity to learn how to cut out a whole leg of lamb or likewise. A lot of meat that arrives to restaurants today is vacuum packed and cut up in the pieces you ordered. How can you then teach young chefs the respect for the animal and the true fact about this animal died for the sake of our survival? Ok more of this later in another blog...

As you can tell we where very satisfied this time around too :-)

The beautiful bonemarrow with Kalix roe, pickled red onion and toasted brioche...YUUUUUM!

Beautiful food, not just rustik and rugged.

Here is a tartar of the steak from the animal this week, Reindeer.

Topped with Kalix roe and eggyolk. Served with borscht purée and horseradish.

A fantastic dish!!

This is what I meant about chef Michael's special skills. Top picture is supercrispy pork cheeks with black pudding cream. Then a insanely good trey of home made charcuterie.

I just wanna hug the world!! And the chef of course :-) This is craft, pure craftmanship!

Here is the loin of the reindeer with bourgogne braised parsnip, parnsip purée, brusselsprouts and a redwine sauce infused with brown butter...ohhh mama!!

We also ordered from the "always on Djuret menu". Redwine braised pigfot, stuffed with a chicken and sweetbread mousseline. Tons of black truffle and just amazingly astonishingly good! Haha!

A sausage made from the neck and the shoulder of the reindeer with Iberico de bellota Gran reserva inside aswell...

Pickled salsify, jerusalem artichoke purée and more of the black truffle.... God stuff comes togheter and taste super!!

We also had a cheese tray but I didn't took any pics.. I was getting very full...

Dessert was 2 in one..

Breadpudding with a coffee and caramel ice cream flavored with prunes.

Chocolate tarte with a rosehip and milk ice cream and a spice infused pear.

Wow!! Soo good and well balanced!

Now you know where to go next time you are in the city of Stockholm!!

2011 bye bye and welcome 2012

2011-12-30T16:51:00.013+01:00

Hello readers!

I want to wish you all a Happy New Year!

To take out some "chocolate chip's from the cookie" of the incredible 2011 is pretty hard but there is a few thing that stands out...

The trip to Mexico and New York in the beginning of the year was very nice.

Best visits that trip:

Gramercy Tavern, NYC

Morimoto, NYC

Scarpetta, NYC

Eataly, NYC

Pujol, Mexico City

February:

Veal tounge at Restaurant Volt, Stockholm

Such a fantastic dish!

March:

Seared Weever at Stefan Eriksson Matstudio, Stockholm

Soo amazingly good!!

Another thing in march...

The unbelieveble heliskiing in St Anton!! Wow! Just Wow!!

April and May:

We moved to our new apartment! Not so much dining and wineing... but..

We did had a superb dinner at Vassa Eggen in Stockholm!

June:

The trip to Piedmonte was very nice!

Eataly, Turin. Visit a Grada Padana producer. Real Balsamico vinegar, Modena,

The best risotto ever at Dulces Vites by Chef Bruno! Yes, truffles from Alba in Alba :-)

July and August:

The grand trip! 5 weeks travelling through Europe

The whole trip was incredible! Epernay, Champagne, Herve Mons, Roanne

Troigros, Roanne. Last pic was the fennel dish at Martin Beresategui.

One of the top destinations. Cinque Terre, Italy.

We also visited Montenegro, Serbia, Austria.

Here Dr Loosen's fabulouse wines and the Riesling grapes from Leitz.

Kiin Kiin in Copenhagen was also one of the very top restaurant visits we made!

October:

Good things comes towards the end of the year.

Frantzén/ Lindeberg Stockholm

No doubt, the best visit this year!

Troigros was also very very good but F/L was a bit sharper...

Djuret, Stockholm

What a great evening! Everything served with love for the product!

December:

The Christmas table at Fjäderholmarnas krog.

The best X-mas buffé ever!

Looking back I feel lucky to have experienced all this in 1 year.

I could only ask that 2012 will be as great as 2011.

There is a few things planned already..

A skitrip to French alps and one week in NYC is in the agenda.

I hope you will follow on the blog.

Cheers,

Cevicheria Aji y Ajo, Stockholm

2011-12-13T17:14:00.004+01:00

In my opinion Stockholm lacks of great ethnic restaurants.

It's a pity, because I believe they can do very well here.

I mean, Swedes eat most mexican food in the world except for the mexican themselfs of course. Well the truth is the Tex Mex we eat here is not really Mexican food...

But still... we crave for more!!

I know we have La Neta who is ok, but it's not enough.

This goes for asian restaurants too..

Where is the amazing Chinese place?? I mean amazing...folks..

Luckily I found one place outside of the main city. About 15 min drive south. Hökarängen is the name of the small subarb and if you wanna go by the subway it's also the name of the stop.

Here in the tiny shopping square lies a Peruvian food gold mine!!

The place is ran by a guy who has a passion for his food and don't cut corners about the products!

The sign. Simple and very cool!

I came for lunch and I was a bit early. I immediatelly got the question what restaurant I was from!! Haha! Was it that obvious? It was such a great lunch! There was another person sitting in the diningroom aswell and the 3 of us fell into a conversation about Pervuvian food and food in general. What an atmosphere!

Ok how was the ceviche?

Chef Franjo asked if I liked spicy and I said sure!

Out comes a fantastic ceviche with cod, squid and shrimps! Served with sweetpotatoes and roasted corn. OMG! so smooth and full of flavours!

I sat there with a smile on my face and just enjoyed the moment!

It felt like I was back in South America!

The small but very charming restaurant.

Mr Chef Franjo himself.

This wasn't my last visit here I can tell you that much!

Gastrologik, Stockholm

2011-12-08T21:29:00.006+01:00

There is a lot going on in the restaurant industry in this city.

New fine dining places opens up like no tomorrow...

Gastrologik is one of them and the restaurant is runned by two chefs who has an clear idea about their food. They choose thier products with great care.

It's been a bit talk on the town about their opening and also some frequent press.

Time to visit!

The restaurant decor is very cool and minimalistic. Also very tastefully designed...

Every guest gets a small book with the story about and the philosophy of the restaurant.

Ok, here we go.. Paperthin almond potatochips with dillseeds. Good stuff!

Pickled pumpkin with a spice sugar crust. Very good and tasty, maybe a bit on the sweet side.

Parsnip ice cream with crumble. Strange choice for a amuse in my opinion.. Could have been a presdessert instead?

The third amuse was deep fried cod in sourdough batter. Good but not great.

First course, point cabbage from Ugglarp with whipped brown butter and bacon broth. Very very good!

Baked root celery or (celeriac) with apples, parmesan cream and a froth from the celery leaves.

I really liked this one too.

Especially with the Riesling from Leitz in the glass..:-)

We got an extra course. Sea urchin soup in it's shell. Mixed with butter and yes it tasted butter and a litte urchin... good.

Next course was small Anja potatoes with brasied oxtail, beer gelée, and dried beet roots, also on the plate an oyster from Limfjorden. A strange course for my pallet.. not 100%.

Main course, Roasted steak of reindeer with a cream of "skrädmjöl" raddiccio letttuce and a sauce of red cabbage. Hmmm where to start... The meat was perfectly cooked, the sauce was good but the lettuce ruined it...extreme bitterness. Killed the wine too, poor sommeliere... The course wasn't intresting to me.. sorry.. and way too small..

Cheese course. Goat cheese from Wilhelmdalhs dairy topped with pear and rye crisp. I like it a lot!

Pre dessert, Bergamott sorbet with meruinge.. No no no... this was like accidently drinking your after shave!

This one was so much better! Sorbet of cox orange apples with almon cream and marsmallows.

Fantastic!

Cooffee sweets, lemoncurd with infused lemon, hazelnut crisp with hazelnut cream and chocolate fudge. Nice!

To sum it up.

It was like a rollercoaster ride with the dishes. Some highs but also some lows that brought the whole experience down..

It was too long wait in between the courses.

I was still hungry when I left the restaurant....that should not happend after the bill ends over 250 €...

Wine choices where great I must add. But hard sometimes to match...

Christmas table at Fjädeholmarna in Stockholm

2011-12-06T14:46:00.004+01:00

Eating "Christmas table" is a tradition in Sweden that goes way back.

To simplify it, it's an upgraded "smorgasboard".

You normally eat this on Christmas Eve at home with your family in Sweden.

But a few restaurants also serve this traditionally during the entire december.

It's perfect for companies who wants to take out their employees for a treat at the end of the year.

We are a few friends who have made this into a tradition aswell.

Last year was not so nice with a pretty lame buffé..

This year we booked at Fjäderholmarnas restaurant. Located on an island in the beginning of the arcipelago outside Stockholm.

Arriving with a boat of course and we started out with a cup of hot"Glögg". Redwine, spices and sugar, basically...

Gathering around the fireplace before dinner...

I didn't take so many picures of the food because it wasn't the best light to make the food justice.

But the buffé is designed by Gert Klötzke. He was the manager for the

Swedish culinary team for about 10 years or more...He's the guy in this picture.

I must say the food was amazing! It was the best christmas table I've ever had!

Everything is small bites and not loaded up in piles on big plates.

Here everything feels very fresh and light. Traditionally you makes 7 rounds to the table.

You start with the pickled herring and move on to salmon dishes and fish terrines, meat cold cuts, hot plates and so on up until the desserts and christmas candy.

Yes you do get full as a stuffed turkey but that's we have the aquavit to digest :-)

I highly recommend this place! Great service and fantastic food!

That's why you go out to eat right?

Aquavit-the liquid, not the place

2011-11-21T16:21:00.003+01:00

I was invited to a "Snaps or Schnapps" testing last week. Very nice!

It was NK Foodmarked who was the inviter.

Every year, the Swedish Wine & Liquor company makes their own blend into the Christmast aquavit.

To celebrate this event and making sure that aquavit is not just something to get seriously hammerd on, we got to try diffrent flavoured food in comparation with the spirits.

Mr Jonas Odland is the master of flavouring aquavit and

he was on sighth to tell us about the diffrent spices he used for the 4 shots we had.

Very intresting!

So from the left to the right... First O.P. Andersson- the number one aquavit in Sweden.

Caraway seeds, anise, and fennel is the spices and it match the pickled herring like a hand in a glove!

Second is Läckö Castle aquavit. Dill, caraway seeds, fennel and coriander. Goes amazing with Kalix Roe.

Third is O.P. Andersson limited edition. An amazing taste! It has been aged in Sherry cask for 11 years and I had Wästerbotten cheese on hard bread together with it and it was a match made in heaven!

Fourth is the Christmas Aquavit flavoured with caraway seeds, coriander, fennel and ginger.

It also has a splash of the Spanish strongwine Tarragona. Yummy with chocolate and also liqourice!

Here is the master himself!

Thank you NK for this and it's always nice to learn new things. Yes and drink shots at 2 in the afternoon :-)

Taking out the meat from a kingcrab leg...

2011-11-16T01:44:00.005+01:00

Here is a video how to take out the meat from a king crab leg without cutting it open.

The voices is in swedish but you can still watch this...

I hope you will like this.

The meat can then be panfried or seared on high heat without the skin breakes... It's pretty awsome...!!

Buffé at the Chocolate factory, Stockholm

2011-10-21T23:34:00.003+02:00

I realized I hardly ever take pictures at my own food.

Well, I did it a couple of weeks ago at home....but that doesn't count :-)

Tonight I made a buffé at Chokladfabriken here in Stockholm for a company I can call my clients or my customers. They had a big feast and I know they are very food oriented.

The great staff at the Chocolate factory held a dessert class for them at first, making thier own chocolate desserts. Yum!

They started with a lobster and shrimp cocktail, cucumber and broad beans in a lobster vinaigrette, topped with dill and chervil.

A roll of arctic char, smoked with spices and served with an autum salad. Dill cream, potato terrine, lemon braised fennel, pickled red onion and black trumpet mushrooms, spice bread croutons.

Thyme roasted veal steak with salad of beets, (red, yellow and striped). Herb and parmesan dressing.

They also got roasted duckbreast with redwine braised duckleg, infused pearl onions and a truffle cream...

But this is what the factory is producing every day.... Yummy chokolate pralines, cakes and desserts.

This was a very good day!

My job isn't that bad...:-)

Djuret, Stockholm

2011-10-16T17:14:00.004+02:00

Being a foodie in this city is great!

There is so many fantastic restaurants to visit :-)

Situated in the old town is Djuret (the animal) and their concept is as simple as genius.

The theme or "animal" changes every week and from this specific animal diffrent courses is presented. On the menu they also have "always at Djuret". Signature dishes...

Their new Chef is a friend of mine and he is more than perfect for this restaurant.

He's cooks a style that suits this place like gin goes with tonic water :-)

This week was more than just one animal. The theme was Game meat: wild duck, boar and deer. Very excited!

Here is Mr Michael in the kitchen I use to work in for 4 years. Leijontornet... Actually, that restaurant is still running but is a concept of it's own...:-)

What a great way to start a restaurant visit! Champagne and deepfried pork crackeling with chili mayonnaise in the kitchen!!

Well we did made it to the table... Michael was treating us with a surprise dinner...

Bone marrow served in it's bone with Kalix roe, toasted brioche and pickled red onion. What a start!

This is love on a plate!! I had to take 2 pictures of this dish. Michael is the true master of terrines and patées. This is a terrine made with veal tounge, sweetbread and foie gras...Wow what an artist!

But wait, there is more on the same platter! Game meat paté, liver paté and rooster liver paté. Served with pickled forest mushrooms, conichons and mustard...Ohh beauty!

The wild duck comes with the breast roasted, confit on the leg, a croquette with root celery and the liver of the bird. This is Michelin food, no doubt, Very well executed and fantastic flavours!! We are happy!!

Yes there will be more food... I told you it's also Deer on the menu right? Well here is the loin, roasted with braised shallots, brussel sprouts and pumpkin. Wow! It's such a beautiful autum dish. Great, just great!

Intermezzo to clear our pallets. A quenelle of lemonsorbet...Nice :-)

Mr M is born and rasied in Småland ( for non swedish readers, it's a province in Sweden). They make a special type of cheesecake down there and this one kicks ass! Here served with cloudberries and whipped cream. Loved it!

For your information... we shared the desserts :-) So here is the last one. Chocolate terrine with milk sorbet and baked apples....Yuuuuum. I almost turned into Joey in the TV serie Friends...Joey don't share food!! :-)

Thank you Mr Einarsson and Mr Crespi for the show!

Great weekend!

2011-10-09T15:20:00.007+02:00

I had a pretty good week and weekend!

There was a demonstration of very nice shellfish at the Restaurant Academy in Stockholm on thursday. The people from Norvegian fish made a great job.

Live King crabs, Sea urchins, Norvegian lobsters, live scallops and so on. Very very nice stuff.

I learned how to take out the flesh from the crabfish legs without breaking the "skin". I use to cut them open before but now I know...:-)

So at home we had fresh king crab legs, fried and glazed with brown butter, black trumpet mushrooms and a ragu of our own planted potatoes, zucchini, lemon and herbs. Yummy I tell you :-)

Together with a bottle of the unbelievable Riesling from Dr. Loosen!

Waking up this morning getting the morning paper. There was an article in DN about the cooking class I held last weekend at the Restaurant Academy. The topic of the course was butchering. The article was very well written so a big thank you to Johan Åkesson at Dagens Nyheter.

Unfortunately there is no link to the article online yet...

Yup, great week... :-)

Here is the new Michelin rated restaurants in NYC

2011-10-05T10:49:00.003+02:00

Three Stars

Three Stars

Two Stars

Three Stars

Three Stars

Three Stars

Two Stars

Gordon Ramsay at the London

Two Stars

Kajitsu

Two Stars

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - Four Seasons Hotel New York

Two Stars

Two Stars

Two Stars

Two Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

The Modern - Dining Room

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

Seasonal Restaurant and Weinbar

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

One Stars

Frantzén/Lindeberg 2** Stockholm

2011-10-02T09:30:00.007+02:00

Sometimes it's so much fun to blog :-)

This is one of these times.

There is a small restaurant in Stockholm, a 24 seat place with 2 Michelin stars and if you foodies from outside this city and country read this you will realize to get your self there!!

There is no menu in the traditional way. The kitchen serve you what they think is the best at this moment. Believe me, it IS the best this moment!

This is my second visit. I was here in 2009 and then wrote this has to be 2 stars at least! At that moment they had 1*.

I met the chef Bjorn early this year and he said -well,when you come back there is a whole diffrent restaurant now, incomparable almost...hmm wow!

Leaving the restaurant I totally agreed with him and also saying this is a restaurant who deserves 3 ***!!

Nothing is missed. From the moment we arrives to the restaurant, being greeted by a gentleman in a hat outside on the sidewalk showing us to the table, to leaving with a huge smile on our faces. Every little detail is so well thought out.

No compromises, is a frase a lot of restaurant use but this is the place who can stand tall using it!

The sign that tells you where to go on your next restaurant visit!!

Carrot and foie gras macaroon. Just melts....amazing start!

Ok the show is about to start... here is our waiter mr J who is showing us the Norvegian lobsters that soon will become a dish for us.

I can write so much about this bread. Sourdough that rises infront of us on the table for at least 20 min in a beautiful box.

I love this! This is a detail that shows how much thay care about the product and that is the whole deal here. The product is in complete focus!!

Baked! The cripsy surface is thinner than paper because of the hight heat it's been baked at. It's the best bread I've ever eaten in my life!! Unreal!!

Another amuse, tomato water from 40 diffrent tomatoes with crabmeat from Bohuslän, mustars seeds and dill. Very yummy!

The norvegian lobster is back, here as a tartar with watercress and a wood sorrel. Not in the picture was also a emulsion of seaweed. Amazing amazing amazing!

A small pancake made of bark flour! and goat milk. Stuffed with chantarell mushrooms, cream of pine shoots, truffle, thyme and brown butter. Insanly good!!

40! Ingredient dish with vegetables from their "own" garden. Beautiful in all ways!

Mr J is churning the butter infront of us :-) We had 3 kinds of butter during the evening and we finished them all! Can't live without good butter!

This dish deserves a story by it self. Just look at the beauty of this!!

Inside the shell, a magical scallop with lemon and black truffle sabayonne made of duck eggs from Blaxta farm.

It was unreal :-)

Then came a bouillon made of dried scallop, seaweed and mushrooms in the same shell....

...together with a tartar of scallops with the roe on the side and this was a totally match between Japanese and Swedish flavours. So good I almost fell out of my chair!

Coming up from the floor I was hit by the next smash! Monkfish, grilled and slowly baked in porkfat. Jerusalem artichoke purée, chantarells, hazelnuts, crispy chickenskin and ryebread.

At this point I was ready to pay the bill and leave because it can't get any better than this!!

Great great dish!!

Ok settle down... But hey! Here comes an intermezzo of Discovery apple and rowanberries.

It tasted exactly as the autumn smells!!! WOW!!

It's far from over...I tell you! Mr J again. Here he grilles with a japanese charcaol the meat that will become a tartar a bit further in the menu...

3 servings of a 40 month cow from Ejmunds farm.

First out is a black mini pancake, natural duck liver and lingonberry.

Sooooo tasty!! Yum!

Here is the tartar from the topside of the cow. Topped with Kalix roe and served with sourcream flavored with smoked eel from lake Mälaren. Very very good!

Entrecote or Rib Eye from the cow with the first root celery of the season, chessnuts, truffle and nutmeg. Holy shit, this was great!!!

The funky dessert! Icecream of chantarell mushrooms! Apricots, pickled chantarells and cocoabeans. There is always a first time for everything! Cool and unpredictable! Yes and very good!

Variation of carrots and seabuckthorn. I loved it!

Goatmilk and lavender icecream with dried Åkerö apple, almonds and appleseed oil. Just great!

Finishing off this insanely fantastic meal with some perfect macroons.

I was so impressed with everything and I aslso know that this kichen is almost smaller than my home kitchen!

The time and effort the chefs put in to find the best products is impessive as anything. In this country they don't come to you, you have to look them up...

I knew they where going to deliver but they way they delivered was a blown away feeling!

I lift all my hats of for this place and I hope that the big ass tire company will realize that this is a restaurant in absolute top world class!!

Thank you for the show!!

Visits to look forward to...

2011-09-19T14:41:00.003+02:00

Since the big travel adventure this summer I've been working like a crazy person... Go figure :-)

I was a bit blogged out too...

But as a true foodie I have to go out to eat sometimes.

Another aspect is also the fall has not so many "lights in the tunnel" when you moving towards the dark period of the year...

So what to do...?

I booked a table at Frantén/Lindberg and now there is a light to aim at :-)

I haven't been back since the fall of 2009. I expect some changes...haha! It was fantastic at that time and I've only heard great stuff so far!

So soon to come....

Cheers!

Kiin Kiin, Copenhagen

2011-08-15T16:58:00.003+02:00

We have now come to the end of our journey. It's been an incredible trip. You fill your head with so many impressions all the time it's almost hard to keep up.

But this is what I love!! Traveling is amazing to me!

We made another stop in Copenhagen on the way up to Stockholm. It's a very nice city and we both liked it so much.

Their restaurant scene is very interesting as well.

A place I've wanted to visit for a long time is Kiin Kiin. It was closed for summer when we first came down.

This is Thai kitchen who's got 1 star Michelin!

I've heard so much good about this place and first time was from blogger colleagues, Duå.

Now I've experienced it myself!

I was super impressed!

You enter the lounge and have a glass of their Kiin Kiin beer they brew together with Mikeller or a glass of Champagne...

With this, a parade with small appetizers came in and they where very very good. Here a small sesamcrisp with tuna tartar in the middle...yum!

Baby lobster with soy and peanut sorbet! I can still taste this when I look at the picture. Sooo goood!!

The picures was hard to take because the light in the restaurant was dim and cosy. So I wont put up all the pictures. This was red curry with scallops and litchi...ohhh mama!!

All the dishes we got was packed with flavour! It was fun, vibrant, interesting and so freakin' good!!

Orange sorbet cover and inside a parcel of goodies!! Fantastic!

I had to use the flash... Pandus leaf ice cream and also here a heaven of texture and yumminess!!

Insanly great desserts over all!!

It's always great to visit a place you heard so much about and they deliver a snap higher than you expected....

I can't do anything else than lift my hat off for this place and definitely come back in the future.

What a great ending on a great trip!!

Rheingau and Mosel, Germany

2011-08-14T09:57:00.006+02:00

Instead of just put the "pedal to the metal" and get back home to Sweden we made a trip of it.

We had an overnight in Salzburg and then made our way up to Koblenz. It's located very good geographically in the region towards Mosel and Rheingau. It's an incredible wine region!

German wines are famous and also infamous for "sweet" Riesling.

But lately they have been showing more to it's famous side...

We had a booked tour with this amazing producer, Josef Leitz.

We had a great time! Here we are driving around in the vineyards and being educated by the master himself, Johannes Leitz.

The beauty and history of this region is impressive!

The grape, Riesling in it's prime

Imagine the strength of the pickers when the slopes are like this...

Well, it all comes down to the golden juice in the bottle :-) M's excited to try the beautiful wines.. Leitz is defenitely one of the top producers in Rheingau.

The small cozy streets of Rüdesheim...

Another top producer is Künstler. Amazing wines and a pretty nice building too :-)

Yep it taste as good as it looks :-)

Day 2 we had a Mosel day. We made a booking at Dr Loosen.

I'm familiar with their wines from before so I knew they make fantastic wines.

2010 was no exception! Incredible wines and 2 boxes went into the little Prius...:-)

This is how some wineproducers live...:-)

We also made a booking with Dr. Thanish. This was upon recomendations from S back in Sweden. This was also an amazing producer, very classic Riesling. Great!!

Of course we asked where to dine here in the region... There was a few tourist traps so Michael at Dr Loosen recomended this little pearl.

This was a hotel, a fine dining restaurant, a cooking studio/banquett restaurant and also a bistro. The bistro was open so we went there...

M's salad with fresh garden greens and seared beef stripes was very good.

My home made sausage with mustard and sauerkraut was amazing!!

Finishing off with wafers and redwine infused cherries....yeah!!!

There is a lot of people travelling around in the region and sometimes busloads of seniors comes crashing in, but it's a great place.

Follow recomendations and try to find these little cool places and you will love it!!

Belgrade, Serbia

2011-08-11T22:43:00.006+02:00

Driving from Cetinje in Montenegro to Belgrade is about 500km and it took about 8-9 hours...

Then you can imagine how the roads looked like...

The Balkan drivers do overtaking as I've never experienced before... They expect you as on coming traffic to slow down and almost stop so they can pass :-) Crazy shit I tell you!!

Well, we arrived in Belgrade safe and sound. Our hotel was very modern and supernice! We stayed in the very center. It's a huge city and holds about 2 million people.

It's not the most beautiful city I've seen but it has it's moments.

You also have to keep in mind that this whole country was at war during the 90's...

Here is a picture facing downward the river Donau and a bit of sunset...

They do have a way of showing off the official buildings I must say...

This is the parlament. One thing that was a bit confusing was the fact they used cyrillic letters on street maps...who can read that as a tourist??

I had it explained to me from M saying that this was something about wanting to go back to the "ancient" Serbia before Jugoslavia and trying to keeping it real... Then they want to become a part of EC...hmmm...

Well, we did find some good food in the city though.. This place is called Public.

Here is a platter of cold cuts from the region and also some local cheese. I loved a goat cheese on this one. It was covered in the bark from the oak tree. That is also the name of the cheese.. Bark cheese :-)

Very very good!

Grilled octopus with polenta and vegetables. Good but not great.

But the T-bone steak was fantastic! The meat was so rich in flavour. Another thing I liked about this place was the fact they only served fish 2 days of the week. That's when they get it fresh... me gusta, me gusta!!

M's family lives outside of the city and this is country side for real! Very very beautiful!

Everything flaunts and just look at the size of these tomatoes!

There was an orchard of plum trees outside the house and the trees were purple from all the fruit!

From the plums they make a special liquor called Rakia. Strong as hell and cures you from every disease you may have!! :-)

I will be back soon with some more winetouring in Rheingau and Mosel...

Budva & Cetinje, Montenegro

2011-08-07T19:22:00.005+02:00

I haven't been blogging in a while...

But we are moving on through Europe :-)

From Italy we jumped on a ferry to Montenegro. Ancona - Bar.

The drive from Firenze to Ancona was the worst so far... Hitting Bologna we ran into some serious traffic...3 lines on the freeway but sometimes we came to complete stops at several times...then after Rimini we could speed up again! I mean, we made the ferry....right? :-)

We stayed with some friends in Cetinje. It's located up in the mountains about 30-40 min drive from the coast. Believe me it's a drive... :-) The city use to be the capital of Montenegro.

Down by the coast there is a few villages and towns situated along the mediterranian sea. Budva is one of them closest to us but also Sveti Stefan, who is famous as a

celebrity hang out :-)

Here is the boulevard in Budva, packed with restaurants and shops.

The harbour was very nice!

Beach sunset is something to long for in the winter....

Budva aslo has an old town located right by the waterfront and it's very cool, narrow streets with small boutiques and restaurants.

Here you see the montains in the background.

This is the opposite picture :-)

M's friends since 20 years back is running a restaurant located just outside Cetinje and their concept is local products and old traditional cooking. Restaurant Konak is the name.

Here we sitting with 2 reporters from the newspaper Podjeda. They wanted to interveiw me because I'm a chef from Stockholm coming here to explore the food and the Montenegro country! Quite fun!

Here is the guy who runs the place with passion, Pajo.

Here you can see on the map where the restaurant is located :-)

Just next to the original place he is building a new one, hopefully it will stand ready next year.

What about the food then? Well it's very traditional as I said before but it's tasty.

Here is one of my favourites, a homemade sausage of pork, dried and then grilled on charcoal. Amazing flavour!

This is hotter than a sauna! This is their signature. Pod sac, Charcoal braised meat on the bone.

The charcoal is underneath and on top of the pot. It almost becomes like a pressure cooker.

At Konak they use lamb and veal.

And here is both veal and lamb, it's served simple as this and it's delicious!!

Budva is a party town and if you wanna go "all in" you take a taxi up the montain to Top Hill night club. It's a massive place, it can take up to 5000 peolpe. It's an open air place carved out of the mountain and you can dance until 5 in the morning...

Cheers!!

More is coming up soon.....

Firenze and Tuscany..

2011-08-02T18:37:00.006+02:00

I promised you something more from Italy.

We hit Firenze after the beautiful Cinque Terre.

The city was packed with tourists and I must say I wasn't too impressed about it...I know you Italian lovers will pick on me for this but it's just my opinion...

The river Arno who runs through the city...

The very impressive Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore. The line outside to get in was insane....we skipped that one...

We left the buzzing city and went winetouring instead :-)

After a few missed turns we finally came to Fonterutoli. Here we had a booked meeting at Mazzei. They are the top producer in Chianti!

Here are a few pictures from their super designed wineceller!!

The place was impressive I must say!

They had done a totally new rebuilding and their production is very thought trough.

The wines was as impressive as the rest of the facilities!

They also have a Osteria in the nearby surroundings and it was great!

Yep, this is what is called...

Totally sold on Caprese as you can see...hahaha!

My papardelle with a ragu of wild boar was very yummy!

But M's raviloli with pesto and semidried tomatoes was the smash!!

Together with a Chianti this was a perfect lunch!!

The next report will be from Montenegro!!

I'll be back!!

Cinque Terre Italy!

2011-07-31T18:14:00.004+02:00

The car has now stopped at a very special place on this planet.

Cinque Terre! It's 5 small villages located on the coastline outside La Spezia in the Ligurian Sea.

We had a beautiful drive from Cannes all along the coast of the bay. I lost count after 30 tunnels through the mountains! The region is very famous for their olives, well both Nice olives and also Ligurian olives and mostly the Tagiassca olive. Great, great stuff!!

Cinque Terre means "five worlds" in italian. We stayed only 2 nights in the region but I believe we hit a home run with everything :-)

The beauty of the village Manarola is stunning!!!!

In 1997 the region became a national park and is also now on the Unesco list of worlds heritages. No wonder!!

Intresting how the small fishing boats gets winched up from the sea. Well, they will get crushed towards the rocks if the sea gets rough during the night...

As I said, we hit a homerun when it came to where to stay. Manarola was the village we loved the most and this is the wiew from our room :-)

A picture says more than words sometimes....

Alright, what about food? Homerun status? Yes! This place was next door to where we stayed and it turned out to be the best place in the whole region! Billy's...

The food was great! Simple but delicious! A classic Salad Caprese, amazing mozzarella with tomatoes, basil and olive oil. Fantastic!!

A hot octopus salad with potatoes, soo yummy!!

Taglirini ala Billy. Fresh pasta with sauteed shrimps and a spicy sauce...very very good!

We had two nights in the region and went twice :-) This night we had the scampi, grilled norvegian lobsters, very good but a bit small. The other night we had the pasta with lobster. The lobster pasta was incredible!

Everything was great flavours and so was this almond chocolate cake :-)

After this meal you just wanna do as this extremly cool cat we had on our terrace....hahahaha!

More of Italy is coming up :-)

Ciao!

Le Park45 , Cannes

2011-07-28T20:26:00.004+02:00

The Europe tour goes on :-)

We entered Cannes, the city mostly famous for it's film festival. But there is a few good restaurants too and the beach walk (or the Croisette as is called here) is pretty great :-)

If you like exlusive cars and people with nice evening gowns this is the place for you!

The street is also packed with the shops for those who likes Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton...well you know..

We wanted to eat something good and I heard about the restaurant in the Grand Hotel called Le Park45, it's 1* Michelin.

Tried to capture a bit of the ambience of the hotel, the restaurant is located on the ground floor facing the ocean.

Very nice outdoor seating!

We order the 4 course dinner with wine pairing for about 95€.

It started with a few snacks and this glass of "caprese". Mozzerella panna cotta in the bottom and a tomato soup on top. Pretty simple but very very good!

Courgettes stuffed with crabmeat, flavoured with ginger and a crab foam. Pretty rich but very good flavours.

Seabass with a basil crust and a ragout with mussels, clams and white beans was delicious!!

Great flavours!! Perfect cooked fish. Very basic, but hey.. it's good!

Hazelnut crusted veal tenderloin from the race limousine, with baked tomatoes, truffle and ricotta ravioli. This was also very tasty!

The dessert was a whole baked peach! Served with a lavender ice cream, a mousse of some sort in the glass... This was ok. Not at all fantastic, but good.

I thought the food was tasty and good but a bit old school. I keep coming back to how far Swedish restaurants has come in the high end places. I mean, Lux has only one star, a pity in my opinion.... I've been eating at several one, two and three star restaurants now in Europe and sometimes I miss the quality and the ambition. Also the innovation!

Soon Italy!!

Ciao!

Asador Extebarri 1*

2011-07-25T19:20:00.005+02:00

The morning after MB was more than tough...

It's also hard to say why we became as sick as we where. I was worse than M..

But as I said before we got ourself together for the evening dinner..

The place was booked, Asador Extebarri. 1 * in the Guide.

On their website they talk about the importance of charcoal and of course how they recieve the best products around the corner.

The place is located up in the mountains between Bilbao and S.S.

Thank God for a GPS! This is a "one dog town"about 68 km from S.S and pretty hard to find.

As you can see, the surroundings is gorgeous!

We arrived only 10 min late so the picture was a bit fastly taken...hahaha I cut half of building, but M's there :-)

The tasting menu was not an option tonight, sadly but true. We went for some seafood, main course and dessert. Here, the amuse, a cream of green peas with dried Iberico ham. Good!

Lobster salad. The food is supersimple. The Lobster is perfectly cooked and the dish is good. Is it 1*? I don't know...Tomatoes and iceberg lettuce...

Grilled shrimps. These are one of best shrimps I've ever tasted. You can smell the charcoal and it's cooked with love to the product. Amazing! Served just like this :-)

Main course, I ordered the beef chop. Grilled on the bone. This was pretty lame actually...

It was a good steak but just served with a salad of iceberg lettuce and vinaigrette. But come on, for almost 40 €... You freakin' expect some more... I was at this point longing for Vassa Eggen in Stockholm...:-)

M's baby squids came like this and was also grilled great but she did'n get any salad...:-)

We went for the desserts. Blueberry tartlette with reduced milk ice cream. Good, but 1*? No.

Apple on puff pastry with vanilla ice cream. Supersimple but good, not more.

Well, I must say driving for almost 140 km with the return, it wasn't worth it. The shrimps was amazing but it just doesn't make the cut...

I'm still amazed by the big Tire company....

Martin Beresategui

2011-07-23T19:14:00.008+02:00

Ok, the teaser is not a teaser anymore ;-)

Here is the 2nd 3*** Michelin this trip.

Martin Berasategui.

In November last year I visited his restaurant in Barcelona, Lasarte (2** )and I was blown away! It was amazing!

Now I know why it's called Lasarte (I think..) Probably because this restaurant is located in Lasarte, a small community just outside San Sebastian.

I have to say my expectations where high...

The logo by the entrance..

The restaurant is a single building and it's beautifully located, the whole landscape was.

Down to business... We ordered the tasting meny of course and I asked one waiter for a wine paring to go with this and he said well..we normally don't pair all courses with wine, we normally make a few suggestions and you choose from them... Hmmm?? Strange..

Then another waiter comes along and asks the same question about the wine list! I said to him we want the wine to pair with the food we ordered, he said ok I will send in the sommeliere and you talk to him...extremly confusing start....well we did get a wine pairing in the end :-)

The amuse bouche was a bit larger than I had expected :-) But anyway, Mille-fuille of smoked eel and foi gras with apples and spring onion was fantastic but too big in my opinion..

The second amuse was a salmon tartare with cucumber, seaweed and grapefruit was spot on amazing!!

M is not for the oysters so she got baby squid with an ink ravioli in conommé. Funny...we got the same dish at Lasarte :-)

Oysters with cucumber, kaffir lime and coconut milk. Wow!! Strange combination, but very tasty!

This is one of the top numbers on the meny... Fennel in diffrent texture, risotto, raw, pearls, and emulsion. I love fennel so this was heaven!

Followed by the next top number... The egg! With a liquid salad of beets and a dewlap carpaccio you will see on the next pic how much I liked it...

U...hu...:-)

The signature dish... This is to me a 3*** dish. A luke warm salad resting on a gelee of tomato water, lobster meat, asparaus and you name it. It's there!!

The next course was not my favourite... In the bottom a curd of seweed and on top blue mussels and a piece of the carabineer, the red big shrimp and a consommé made from the shrimp. Tasty but not my favourite..

The Master himself and I'm getting use to have this kinds of pics...:-)

Speaking of masterpiece... Maybe not the combination itself but the fish...

A mullet served with skin and the scales too and they where crispy beyond understanding...

Still a perfectly cooked fish...impressive, very impressive!

Meat course, a sirloin with a chlorophyll swiss chard and cheese spheres. Good but not amazing..

Before we could finish our red winewe got the desserts... So I kind of ruined the picture, I started to eat...

Anyway, cold essence of basil with lime sorbet and raw almonds. Fantastic!!

Chocolate and acaia honey with unsweetened Irish coffee. Yuuuum!

I went into the impressive kitchen and found the guys who made it happend!!

The food was amazing with a few repeatings on the meny about seaweed in 3 places and a lot of gelee work but all and all very happy.

The service on the other hand was not 3*** at all. The wine pairings was off in a few occations and we had to ask to pour wine for us upon several occations....!! 3*** hello!!! Not acceptable..sorry..

It brings it down a bit, but I know you get the stars from the food and not the service. But the things they missed was not ok at a corner restaurant either...

Ok I'm an honest guy...we also became food poisoned... We came home late and I woke up in the middle of the night and ran....I don't have to say more...

We still suffering from it...a bit...

We "man up" and went the next evening to Asador Extebarri...far up in the woods... Coming up...

San Sebastian!

2011-07-23T18:44:00.003+02:00

We have reached a destination where we will spend a few days. The beautiful city of San Sebastian or Donostia as their Basque name is.

The last time I was here I came with a cruise ship and totally fell for the beauty of the city and the insail we had at that time. Little did I know then back in -95 this place is packed with Michelin starred restaurants... Now I know better...:-)

Well we have booked at Martin Berasategui 3*** and also Asador Exterbarri 1*.

But first I wanted to show you something else from the city.. Here M is going for the Jamon Iberico.

The "tapas" of Basque is called Pinxos( it's the name for skewer actually) nowadays almost all of them is served on a small piece of bread. There is a part of the city where there is packed with Pinxos places and you go in, order a few and go to the next...great huh??

The beauty of the spanish ham, it's so darn good!

Since San sebastian is on the coast line of the Atlantic ocean you will find amazing seafood here..

A great beach in the center if the city...

The small fishing port..

I just love the ocean!!

Ok this was a teaser...coming up... MB and Asador...

Until then...

Campsegret and St Emilion

2011-07-20T21:37:00.005+02:00

Moving on...:-)

We drove from Roanne to Campsegret, a tiny little village close to Bergerac and not too far from Bordeaux. This is a fantastic region! Foie gras, duck of course, wine, and in the winter, the black gold- truffle!!

I have to share a secret with you readers...

We were recommended this place by a friend from Stockholm. La Libertie. A bed and breakfast hideaway run by a Swedish couple. This is an AMAZING place!

The entrance..

The place is just top quality straight through!

Here is the owners, chilli'n....

A pool in the back...

The rooms from the garden wiew...

Lounge with free internet...

Breakfast room...

The top of the line breakfast...better than 5***** hotels!!

It's a dream place :-) The owners knows what to do and where to go in the surroundings. They kept on making our days :-) Thank you for a fantastic stay!!

They have a Route de Foie Gras in the area!! Isn't that great??

We went winetasting, foie grassing :-) and eating at some great restaurants in the area...of course :-)

A place you can't miss is St Emilion if you like wines... well it's an amazing village too...

M outside the wine shop we went crazy in...:-)

What to eat if you are in the holy land of duck??

Here for the 18€ three course lunch. I had confit of duck leg...the best I ever had!!

The name of the place? Lard et Bouchon in St Emilion. Great place!

The main grape in the area of St E is starting to ripe...Merlot!!

I just had to show you this... In the small village of Campsegret you eat huge portions... But it's dirt cheap. Here is the main course from the 4 course meal!! One whole duck breast!!

The appetizer...home made foie gras of course :-) On top of this...a big plate of cheese and a chocolate fondant!!! Hahaha! I was full for 2 days!! But it was great flavours!!

Troigros 3***

2011-07-18T08:15:00.007+02:00

In Roanne, a town with about 70.000 people there is a restaurant who has got 3 stars since 1968!!! Yes it's Troigros of course.

Entering the restaurant and also the Relais Chateau Hotel is quiet impressive.

We started with a glass of Champagne in the garden.

The weather have been a bit strange but today it was sunshine!

The amuse was insane!! This was a sablé with watermelon, a "fries" made of chickpeas, and cattle fish with sesameoil on a blackbread crisp.

Small hot tomatoes with a caramellised layer and sesamseeds. What a start!! Wow!

We were asked to walk through the kitchen to our table? Hell yes, I want that!

Ok here we go! Razor clams on a granny smith gelee. Fresh and very good!

This is crisp fried spanish makerell with pickled vegetables (inspired by Venise it said on the meny) This made my eyes tear up!! It was soo good!!

Platelicking good!!

A course that maybe didn't look spectacular at the eye but, wow!

Underneath the milk cover, bluemussels in a light saffron broth. It was super!!

Pling ravioli, stuffed with parsley, hazelnuts and parmesan. Small fried chantarells. Ohh mama!

Rouget with 3 diffrent flavours of butter, olive, sorrel and reduction of rouget. Don't ask me how they did this... The broth was light and a bit on the smokey side. This was perfection, just perfection...Yum!

Crayfish with crayfish bisque with cabbage and lemon verbena...suuuper!!

The lamb, loin and tenderloin with a light sauce and lightly cooked vegetables and a "ravioli" of artichoke. Just amazingly good!

Eating 10(!) courses for lunch you will also have a few glasses of wine. Yes they did poured extra if you finished your glass... The wine pairings was exceptionell of course. But you drink a whole lot of white until you come to your only red.....

Just look at this!! Hard to choose cheese??

Dessert time. Infused apricots on a gelee and a panna cotta underneath. Yum!

The insanity of eating good :-) I love it when they finish with the best :-) Small soft pastries filled with vanilla cream, wild strawberries and a strawberry jus. Whaaaaaaa!! :-)

How to label yourself....

Everything was!! But in a very very cool way!

The Chef himself, Michel Troigros. The end of a perfect meal and a fantastic experience.

Roanne with cheese :-)

2011-07-16T20:31:00.006+02:00

The tour has come to Roanne. It's a small town north east of Lyon.

We had arranged a meeting with Hervé Mons. He's an "affineur". It means he buys cheeses from producers all over France, Italy and Swiss etc and age them in his own caves. Then distrubute all over the world.

As you can understand the cheeses are the top of the top!

The sign.

While entering the office we where welcomed by Fanny and she showed us around. While in the office I saw this picture of a guest appearance from Hervé and Michel Troigros at Franska Matsalen...Roland Persson and a few other familiar faces on this picture!! Haha! Great!

Dressed for success!! Hervé couldn't attend because he had to go to London but as I said Fanny took excellent care of us.

Saint maure, one of my favourite goat cheeses!

100 kg Emmenthaler!

There was about 10 people working with the cheeses to make them ready for the diffrent caves.

About 5 min away the company had an old train tunnel now made into a prefect inviroment for the cheeses. The one you see here is Beoufort among Comté and others.

Then of course a trey of the goodies and some wine :-)

Well we also passed some of the very important producers when it comes to cheese. But these are Charolais and these are more famous for the meat...well we had this too :-)

Champagne

2011-07-14T23:54:00.005+02:00

Champagne!!

The fizzy fizzy wine :-)

We entered the town of Epernay, the heart of Champagne region. It's located straight south of the much bigger city Reims.

Epernay is a very cool little town and is surrounded by vineyards and champagne houses.

They also have a....

and on this avenue this "little" brand is located... just the biggest there is..

Well, we had to take the tour and I must say they did a great job explaining how the champagne is made and stored. It's quite unique to see the cellars where the bottles are...well the truth is...I'm not sure they store it ALL down there...

Say what? Yes of course we tasted it!! :-)

Next to Moet, this fellow is located...

You could also find Castellane on a road down...

Quiet impressive size of this building...

Looking down the avenue de champagne..

Here is a brand I've never tried before and I loved it!! A case is on the way to Stockholm...:-)

M's favourite brand...ok let's drive up to Reims :-)

Time for tiny villages and smaller producers...

If you go to this region, you must come here to Hautvillers!

It's very beautiful and filled with charm :-)

The view ain't bad either...

Just a great place!

This is stuff belongs to Moet & Chandon as you can see...there where a few more of these...

What about the food then? Well in Epernay we went for Brasserie style and this salad de chevre chaud was great!

So cheers! We are now in Roanne. Upcoming on the blog: Fantastic cheeses from MONS and tomorrow lunch 3*** at Troigros...and wine touring in the Rhone valley...not bad, not bad...

Luxembourg

2011-07-14T08:38:00.006+02:00

Alright, we drove straight from Copenhagen to Luxembourg. With a few missed exits and tons of traffic outside Köln we finally arrived after 12 1/2 hours :-) It wasn't too bad, it was supposed to be 11 hours..

The city is beautiful! Here in the sunset we took a stroll to find a restaurant to dine.

The city is divided in 2 parts with a bridge and under the bridge is an older part aswell. Very cool!

I like the architecture and the structure of the diffrent levels and the mix of new and old.

Here you see it better...

Siluette in the last ray of light...

Our stop, a brasserie in the center..

My veal escalope with creamed mushrooms looked like a car crash but tasted very good!

M had a veal liver with mash and it was good, perfectly cooked. It was the kind if food you wanted after a long day...

Walking back to the hotel through the narrow streets...

I wish we could stay longer but Champagne is waiting the next day...:-)

The first stop, Copenhagen!

2011-07-12T21:08:00.005+02:00

Ok we are on the move!

Me and my girlfriend is driving through Europe to eat, drink and explore!

I will try to update as much as I can.

We will visit: Copenhagen, Luxemburg, Champagne, Burgundy, Bordeaux, San Sebastian, French Riviera, Tuscany, Montenegro, Serbia, Austria and Germany...:-)

First stop is Copenhagen, it litteraly poured down rain when we arrived but the sun came out in the afternoon and the city swarmed with people. I love this city! It's filled with charm!

Nyhavn, the "harbour in the city". Here you sit down and watch people and boats and..

Take a beer or two...:-)

Smorrebrod is as Danish as it can get. It's open sandwiches with topping basicly. Here it's with roastbeef and remoulade sauce, deepfried fishfillet with mayo and shrimps, smoked eel with scambled eggs all served on a semihard rye bread, very densed but very good! Enjoy with a cold beer! Carlsberg maybe? :-)

The evenings dinner took place at a pretty newly open place called Geist-(it means spirit in english) The owner is Bo Bech, a famous chef here in the city. He used to run the Michelin rated place Paustian before.

Cool sign..

Truly a beautiful restaurant with a very modern touch almost a bit L´atelier about the decor...

It was quiet hard to order frome the meny because everything sounded good. I fell for the brown crab with tomatoes. All the dishes where very simple in apperance. 3 things on the plate maximum... So here, crab meat, tomatoes and a crab and tomato broth. The tomatoes was a bit overpowering for the crab unfortunatelly..

M had foie gras terrine with green almonds and chocolate. Very good! I really liked the almonds too, superlight and very crispy.

Turbot with fennel ravioli and a yoghurtdressing. As I said before, very simple and it has to be a little more to it when you serve like this. Perfect fried fish for example, is wasn't, but still a very good dish. The ravioli was great!

Monkfish with a aubergine creme and romain lettuce. This was suppose to taste like charcoal grilled fish...well no..sorry it wasn't great.

Look at the massive cheese from Laguiole!

Got a piece!! With a malt crisp and a cane sugar syrup. Fantastic!

Dessert, strawberries with frozen flakes of cream. Good but no surprises...

Sorbet of olive oil with baked chocolate. I liked this but M didn't. I can agree on the fact the chocolate was all in crumbles...kind of wierd..

For the coffee it arrived a huge bowl of cotton candy!! Hahaha! Nice!

Well, I have to say my expectations was a bit higher at this place. I belive it's a great concept with the food about keeping it this simple, but has to be executed better...more egde!

Upcoming: Luxemburg and Champagne!

Sometimes my job is pretty awesome!!

2011-06-30T08:31:00.004+02:00

Early this spring I got a question if I could do a catering event in the archipelago of Stockholm.

Yes of course was my answer!! I just have to contact my dear friend Kristian who runs a Rib Charter company called Sea Safari. We made up a great scedule and I planned a menu based on Swedish flavours.

The weather couldn't been better!!!

This is the lighthouse of Grönskär. It's buildt 1770 and this Island is located in the vert outskirts of the archipelago.

It's just a fantastic place!

Seal safari in the morning! The seals has fortunatelly return to the Baltic sea, it means the water is better in quality and more fish recovering.

Time for lunch with swedish delicasses! I made 11 diffrent small bites. Served on a rock at Stora Nassa.

Then back at Grönskär again for a BBQ buffé with smoked Pike perch, Lamb from Gotland, Porkbelly from Domta with some other yummy stuff.

It's not a Weber....

This is simple but the enviroment is key!! Well, flavour too :-)

Ahhh summertime!!

The Rib, seats 12 in the front and 2 drivers...

The 2 x 350 Horsepower engines!! It moves folks, it flies!!! We made 62 knots maximum...holy sh**!!

Yup, hard life sometimes... But it also involves a lot of preparation...well worth it!

Harvest!!

2011-06-26T22:49:00.002+02:00

Midsummer in Sweden has come to an end and after you've been packed with pickled herring and aquavit you need some greens right??

We planted a few seeds for vegetables at my girlfriends mothers house in the countryside, (about 1 1/2 hour by car from where we live) a couple of weeks ago.

I'm not a big fan of vegetarians (as most chefs) but I LOVE vegetables.

We recieved a phone call and it was time to harvest some of your greens. Yay!!

Today's harvest, arugula salad (rocket), spinach, thyme, parsley and long radishes!

It's nothing like this, the flavour is incredible!

It all ended up in a fresh salad with red baby beets, feta cheese and lamb tenderloins....yeah, pretty nice sunday don't ya think?? Oh and a beautiful red Priorat in the glasses...

Italy continue...

2011-06-19T10:08:00.007+02:00

The Italian 10 days is coming to an end.

On thursday we had another excursion and we hit the city of Turin.

Also famous for it's fotballclub Juventus.

Another pretty famous brand is Lavazza. We had a 2 hour stop here to learn about the company and also of course how to make the best espresso and cappuchino.

Lavazza started in 1896 and the impressive part of this company is that they still have the family of Lavazza running it.

I'm not much of a coffee drinker but the cappuchino was fantastic :-)

Well, here we go!

As you know if you've been following my blog. This place is also situated in NYC, but here is the original!

A foodie's dream! All the best products of Italy in one place....can it be better?

It's also restaurants in all sections. Eat, try, buy...

We started with lunch at the fish market, but let the huge swordfish displaying itself...

Vegetable section... ahhh amazing!!

Downstairs is more. Wine anyone? Huge selection!

They have thier own cheese celler and we spotted a Parmiggiano Reggiano from 2002...yum!

Parma ham wall...

You can spend hours in here!!

Beerselection was extremly impressive with the variations of brands and of course a beer bar where you could both try samples and eat... Why is this only in Turin and NYC...why??...

That same evening it was arranged for us to dine at a 1 star michelin restaurant in a village about 30 min from where we stayed. A great evening with a lot of food and great wines.

Laughing and telling stories around the table made this evening very special.

It was 29 of us Scandinavian people and they had made a special meny for us.

Here comes one of the 2 pasta dishes. Nice with the table serving, you don't see that very often these days...

Shank of veal with gravy and in our glasses a beautiful Barbaresco...

Chiao Italia! I'll be back pretty soon...

Coming up in July... Me and my lady will drive through Europe and visit some amazing places:

Copenhagen, Luxemburg, Champagne region, Burgundy region, Bordeaux region, San Sebastian,

French Riviera, Italy again (Chinque Terre and more), Montenegro, Serbia, Germany with Rheingau, Mosel and maybe back to France and Alsace for a quicky...:-)

I hope you are with us...

Italy's famous producers...

2011-06-14T22:55:00.010+02:00

On Monday we had a excursion to Caseficio, Latteria Satllone a producer of Grada Padano.

We also went to Modena, the home of the balsamic vinegar... So by all means, a great day!

An extreme close up on a cheese who's upside down...

It's an important part of the prosess of making the cheese, to turn it several times..

Here is the big steelbarrels where the milk ends up from the farmers.

In this curdle barrel comes 1050 litres of milk and this will become 2 Grada Padana cheeses the weight of 35 kg each when it's done!

Important to know is that they add eggwhite protein in the process. And it's unpasteurized too.

Divided in two they end up in a cloth and pressed togheter in these plastic containers. This is also when the turning of the cheese starts.

To fix the shape of the cheese it will stay in these steel frames for 24h.

Salting prosess is key for the flavour of the cheese and also for the aging process of course.

18-20 days in 25% salt brine.

Then aged with it's friends :-)

It's 167 producers of Grada Padana in Italy and they produce 4,2 million cheeses a year...

This is a grand reserva, aged 26 months. Yes it was intense in flavour and very very good.

No it's not the same as Parmiggiano Reggiano. The 2 cheeses are similar but 2 diffrent cheeses.

The Reggiano is name branded as well and is made with a milk who contains more fat. No additives and is called the real Parmesan cheese... Grada Padano is just a diffrent type..

We also had the luck to visit this wonderful house outside of Modena, La Ca dal Non.

A balsamic vinegar producer, Balsamico tradizionale di Modena.

The process is quite simple but it's still a workmanship who commits passion and knowlegde.

You take grapejuice and cook it at 85° for 36h and then store it in barrels with diffrent types of wood. Sounds simple? Hmm well, it's more to it...

Here is a batch for the coming harvest and will be produced next year.

Old barrels and the scent in this place is amazing! Sweet, flavourful and tangy!

The company started in 1883 so imagine how old some of these barrels are...

Yes of course I bought one!

This is also importart when it comes to balsamic vinegar:

The bottle must look like this.

Not to be younger than 12 years.

Must be Aceto balsamico tradizionale di Modena on the label.

All other balsamic vinegar are other products!!

Other balsamic vinegar contains additives such as colouring and sugar.

So the real thing is not made from wine...

You learn all your life huh??

Alba Italy

2011-06-13T23:41:00.006+02:00

Alba is a town and also a region in Piemonte.

It's famous for the white truffles and also beautiful wines, for example Barbaresco and Barolo.

We had a day off on Sunday. We stay pretty close to Alba, so as chefs "you kind of don't wanna miss this place on the World map"...

One of the guys who travels with us is a very good friend of Chef Bruno Cingolani.

Chef Bruno runs the restaurant Dulcis Vitis in the town and creates amazingly good food!!

It's a pritty little town and it's got a few big squares like this. It was also the last day of their Jazz festival this sunday.

Ice cream here is as you know pretty amazing... :-) The piemonte region is also famous for growing the best hazelnuts in Europe. So what flavour do you want???

Here is the black gold of gastronomy. Summertruffles from Alba. The white looks very diffrent and has an incredible high price... The season for the white starts in oct/nov.

Chef Bruno's restaurant.

Of course we had a tasting menu and with wines to die for :-) 2 Bottles of Barolo and 1 Barbaresco and also a "killer" Moscati di Asti! Ahh this was a good day...

I'm just putting up a few dishes that we had...

Here is 2 diffrent kind of shrimps, one is from Ancona and the other is from San Remo. Cooked to perfection and severd with peppers and zucchini.. Sooo good!

The most perfect risotto I have ever eaten. Do I have to say more?? You have to ask me what it contain..

Mille fuille with wild strawberries and the Moscati di Asti together with this, we sat with a funny smile on our faces...:-)

His wine celler was more than impressive!!

And so was the kitchen! I've never seen a kitchen as clean as this!! You can give birth in here!!

I will come back soon with more. Grada Padana cheese and the real balsamic vinegar coming up!

More of Italy

2011-06-12T00:18:00.007+02:00

This trip is a promotion of the 5 regions in the northen part of Italy, Piemonte, Lombardia, Veneto, Emilia Romana and Tuscany.

We are not just spending time at the school.

To me this is the most intresting part, to go and see the production of the beautiful primary products they have here.

Italy have a couple of classifications for what they produce and the top quality is DOP. It basically means the best of the best in the region. But you are only allowed to use products from a particulary region. For instanse Parmiggiano Reggiano is DOP.

Here is a picture of our school taken from the village we stay in, Costigliole d' Asti.

The castle is from the 12th century.

Here is the group on a fieldtrip to Lake Garda. A famous region for producing olive oil.

The gentleman on the right is the owner and our guide.

Olive trees at the Montecroce.

Pretty beautiful view of Lake Garda from the Olive oil company....

Here is a olive crush "old style"where the olives are exposed to air and this runs until the olives extracts it's oil then they are moved into a centrifuge where the oil separates from the seeds and the skin.

The machine on the right is a "new style" where the olives are crushed without any exposion to air and is runned for about 20 min. Then transported into...

the centrifuge!

The most important is to harvest the olives and make the process as quickly as you can to avoid getting acidity in the oil.

This producer keeps his acidity level as low as 0,2-0,1 %. You are allowed to have a level to 0,8% to be refered as an extra virgin oil.

The final result!!

Here we stop at the first place in Italy where they started to grow rice.

Rice production started in 15th century.

Pretty cool tractor with funky wheels, dont ya think??

It was munks who first started the growing and production of rice, but as same as pasta it all came from China in the very beginning.

Here is the best rice for making risotto, carnaroli. The seed is hard and high in starch and it doesn't loose its starch that easily when you boil it, so it will keep and "al dente" centre.

It means it wont become a porridge as other rice when you cook it in a broth.

We did stop for lunch and yes, risotto was one of the dishes. Here very rich, with a truffle broth...yum!

We also made a quick stop at a cheese factory, producing Gorgonzola, taleggio, mascarpone, ricotta etc. The Gorgonzola is DOP and very tasty.

Today we have a free day so we will go to Alba. The home of the white truffle!!

See you soon!

Asti Piemonte Italy

2011-06-09T18:59:00.004+02:00

Come with me to Italy!

I was invited by the Italian Minestry of foreign affairs to participate in a cooking school here in Piemonte for 10 days. The purpose is to promote northern italian food and products in your home country.

So we are 36 chefs and sommelliers from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland here at the culinary school for foreigners. We will also make small excursions to visit producers and growers in the area.

I will try to blog as much as I can this week so you can follow..

Here is this mornings introduction and the welcome to the school.

Kitchen area...

Stainless is the key....:-) It's also TV monitors on all stations.

Wine cellar and tasting room.

The most intresting today was the tasing of the DOP extra virgin olive oils.

To the left you see one of the producer from Veneto and his olive oil was very good.

I really liked how they built the tasting room. I'm sipping on the cup no 1 :-)

Here they are! From Piemonte. Lombardia, Veneto and Tuscany... Olive gold!!

Ok, I will be back soon with more..

Great sunday!

2011-05-16T18:36:00.004+02:00

The week before last we moved to our new home.

Moving is hard and you have stuff everywhere and trying to figure out where and if everything is gonna fit??

Cooking during these days are even harder, the kitchen is packed in boxes and you can't find anything...Pizza or any take out is the solution to this :-)

I was more than thrilled and happy when I then recieved an invitation from Gourmet Food to come down to Restaurant Josefina's last Sunday to enjoy some US Beef. Hell yes!!

The sun was shining and it was a fantastic pre-summer day!!

Gourmet Food had gone "all in" and made a great concept with some BBQ stations where you could try diffrent parts of the beef. This with a beer and a band playing, our moving Sunday turned out pretty good...:-)

Maria and Fredrik with a piece of Nebraska Ribeye in his hand.

And here on the "barbie". The meat is unreal! It's so tender and tasty and I get hungry when I write this...

The diffent stations with markings where on the animal the diffrent parts is located, smart move!

You could also buy straight there...

This is one of my favourite parts. Flanksteak! BBQ it, let it rest for a while and slice like this across the fibres. Heaven!!!

Maybe not the most common part on the animal but damn it's good!!

The cover band was rocking out!

Well, I have to say I've had worse Sundays than this one...

Thank you GF!!

Vassa Eggen Stockholm

2011-05-11T13:31:00.003+02:00

I haven't been blogging in a while... We moved last Thursday so it's been a upside down life these last couple of weeks.

Anyway, we managed to put a visit to to Vassa Eggen on our priority list :-)

This restaurant started on Kungstensgatan and moved further down to Birger Jarls gatan in the early 2000.

In the beginning it was a fine dining experience among the top restaurants in Sweden.

Due to the recession they decided to change the scene to a top noch steak house instead.

This turned out to be a strike of success! The place is always packed and the food is straight forward and amazingly good.

Unfortunatelly I forgot my camera at home so these pics are from my iPhone.

Chef Mikael wanted us to go "all in" so we did!

These pics are just a few samples of what we had...

Fantastic start with small cones filled with goodies :-) Lobster with black truffles, foie gras with figs and pistachio, Kalix roe with lemon cream. Yuuumm!

Mr M's inturpitation of "vitello tonnato" Veal and tuna...si claro!!

Crispy duck springrolls...nice, so nice!!

The meat was beautifully prepared and stuffed with flavour, served with some heavenly sidings and with a red Bordeaux in the glass...ohh mama!!

Finishing off with a rhubarb and ice cream dessert...spring is here and we love it!!

Thank you Chef M and your staff for this evening of pure joy and happiness.

Stefan Eriksson Matstudio Stockholm

2011-03-28T15:30:00.005+02:00

When I wrote about Petite France, I said I loved the fact that this city is turning into a foodies wet dream.

I was more convinced after this Saturday at Stefan Eriksson Matstudio!

Mr SE won the swedish chef of the year award in 2005 and just afterward he opened up his own place at Rådmansgatan 16 here in the city. At that time Andreas Jerrhag was with him and the place was called Jerrhag/Eriksson. They compeeted togheter in the champinionship and Stefan won with Andreas as a second runner up. But after a couple of years Andreas moved on and Stefan took over.

To me Stefan is one of the most dedicated and talanted chefs Sweden got at the moment.

The business he runs is mostely for private parties, caterings and cooking classes.

But on occations like this Saturday they turn the studio into a restaurant with private invitations.

Him and his crew went down to the fish auction in Gothenburg to see what they could find for this 2 day event.

They found a lot of goodies!!

The logo and some of the menu...

In for a great start... Small sashimi slices of a spanish makerell and coalfish, lightly brushed with soysauce.. Nice!!

King prawns with a soy mayonnaise, yum!

Four diffrent types of roe: trout, lumpfish, king prawn and whitefish roe from Piteå.

Here with sour cream with lemon and potato crisp....it was fantastic!

Very intresting detail of a cod. The neck! Here, lightly smoked and served with an egg cream, capers, dill and horseradish. Very swedish and very yummy!

We got some extra from the kitchen. The liver and the milt from the lumpfish. Perfectly cooked and I really liked the milt more than the liver I must say...

On the menu it said "the various box". Very basic and very delicious! Samples from the auction, perfecly cooked and with a slice of levain bread in the bottom and a very powerful aioli together with it. This was accomplied by a white Bourgogne from Bret Brothers, wow what a match!!

The highlight of the dinner shall be last...shouldn't it?

Seared weever, here with crispy skin, beurre blanc and cabbage and a small slice of jamon serrano...

Holy moly this was great! The texture of the fish was amazing and the light sweetness of the cabbage was so so good. And a Cotes du Jura Blanc in the glasses...say no more...

Here is the little weever....

Finishing off with a blood orange sorbet, cookies and a great coffee, the evening was complete!

Thank you Stefan for having the energy and the ambition to run these "Restaurants".

This was my first visit but not the last.

Want to come back for the veggies....:-)

I love Stockholm!

2011-03-26T16:46:00.002+01:00

I didn't wanted to tease you with saying I was going to St.Anton.

Here is some pics too...

Being on a skitrip is not just relaxing and kickin' it in the slopes.

Here we are walking up one of the mountains with the skis on our backs. It only took 1 hour!

As you can see the weather was more than amazing!! And the best part was, it had been snowing the whole day before!!

The next day we went "all in" and rented a helicopter to take us up the mountain...holy shit! This was the best skiday of my life!

I'm not saying anything here...

We also made 2 other tops and this is the backside of Valluga. The highest point of St.Anton.

What about the food? Well, not always a culinary experience here in the Alps but this was amazing. A tafelspitz with applesauce and horseradish. Really hit the spot after a full day skiing!!

Leaving for 5 full days of skiing!

2011-03-17T09:03:00.002+01:00

I try to go skiing downhill at least once a year.

The last 3 years I've visited St Anton am Alberg in Austria.

This is the place where the downhill skiing started in the World, so you can tell it's pretty "rad"!!

This won't be a gastronomical journey but I LOVE to ski...

But who knows? Maybe we can find something great food this year in this valley... At least I know we will find great skiing!!

Petite France, Stockholm

2011-03-05T15:22:00.004+01:00

I love my hometown.

I choosed to live here for about 25 years ago. I've had my regrets and wanted to live abroad a couple of times. But I'm staying and this is where I want to be.

The quality of the restaurants in this city is amazing. Sometimes it's hard to pic a place to go to and I feel it will increase with better places along the years to come.

One of my favourite place in this beautiful city is Petite France. Great name and great place.

It's not only a fantastic bakery, cheese shop, coffee place. It's also a great restaurant. Lunches here is always cooked with passion and heart.

Mr Sébastien who runs the place is one of the top bakers in this country and you can read about his pastry adventures at his blog www.brodpassion.se.

He's also a macaroon master!! :-)

Pictures from a very busy Saturday morning..well it was after 11...Brunchtime!!

Hmmm what to choose....

You can buy great cheeses and also homemade jam and preservatives.

The famous and absolutely fantastic Macaroons!!

This is my brunchplate. Pork belly confit, poached egg, mashed potatoes, red wine infused red cabbage and a grilled cheese croissant. It's now 4 o'clock and I'm still superfull!!! It was sooooo goood.

M's omelette with goat cheese and vegetables. Great flavours and well prepared.

You can tell it's a popular place when it's a line outside winter as summer...

Thank you PF for making Stockhom a greater city to live in.

Restaurant Volt Stockholm

2011-02-15T11:49:00.004+01:00

In december 2010 restaurant Volt opened up.

It's runned by 4 guys who has worked at a number of great restaurants mostly in Stockholm but also abroad.

The concept is "Gastro bistro". Well that's hard to explain but you can say it's a fine dining experience but super relaxed..

The ambience and decor is drawn towards the -70's. Surprisingly I found that in some of the food aswell :-)

We got a great table overlooking the dining room and started off with Champagne of course, it was Valentine's day...

Dining room...

Levain bread with a butter and a blue cheese spread, very good.

First course on their 7 course tasting menu. King crab with crab roe, parsley root and herbs. Light, nice and great textures. Good start!

One of my favourites this evening. Low temperature baked cod with cod roe, lemonconfit, salsify and tarragon. Yum!!

Then this dish that I still debate with myself if I liked :-) Haha! It did made and impession on me though.. Lightly soured cabbage with pickled onion, butter foam and truffles.

The one thing that bothered me was the lack of truffle flavour...I mean...??Duh.. But it was a strange dish that was more interesting than delicious...

This one on the other had I really liked. Braised salted veal tounge with beetroots and horseradish. This should be their signature dish! Very 70's and very good.

Another great dish! Pork variation with apples and cabbage. A super winter dish. Yummy as hell!!

The cheese course. A blue cheese I've forgotten the name of but served here with muscat grapes, bread crisps and muscat grape purée. I really liked this one!

The dessert was a bit strange to me actually. Caramellised fennel with fennel salad and buttermilk sorbet. Hmmm not really my cup of tea...but with the beautiful wine the liqourice flavour of the fennel came out pretty nice..

Finishing off with the coffee, a newly baked small spounge cake appears. Nice and very cool.

The service was super and I like the ambience of the restaurant. I do wanna come back in spring and summer to see what great ideas comes out from the kitchen..

Thank you guys for this time!

Nordic glance at Bocuse dÓr

2011-01-28T09:33:00.003+01:00

Happy days!

I just wanted to say congratulations to Tommy who won the silver in the World championships

for chefs.

Great great job!!

It took place in Lyon in France, the home of Paul Bocuse.

The winner was Rasmus Kofoed from Denmark and the hat off to him for sure. The guy has participate 3!! times.

The bronze went to Norway so the nordic countries has once again proven thier capacity.

I guess this says something to the Michelin guys...aswell...don't be soo cheap with the stars..

The first trip 2011! New York, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta then Back to NYC again :-)

2011-01-15T15:38:00.007+01:00

As the titel of this says...we went to a lot of places.

We started off in NYC and I just had to go back to Gramercy Tavern...

Here is one of the many highlights we had that evening. Sturgeon with broccoli and leeks.

This was the first time I think I had this fish (except the roe) and it was fantastic!! Cooked to perfection!

The pralines at the end of this huge meal...we had so many courses it was insane :-) These was amazing!!

Since NYC was in a state of chaos and chock after the huge snowstorm we had to push a few visits ahead of us, Morimoto and a few others...

Coming down to Mexico City and with lost luggage and a few bumps in the road we ended up at this beautiful restaurant. Pujol is the name and the chef makes fine dining with mexican ingredients. We had a tasting menu and not everything was great but there was some fantastic things there!

Here one of the amuse bouches, a hard smoked chicken skewer served as the picture. Very cool. A bit too smokey though...

This is a quenelle of goat butter, served with the bread. I couldn't stop eating this!!

This is a very cool picture but unfortunately it was horrible :-) Raspberry sorbet with wormsalt and tequila...not a good combo...I tell you..

This was only place I can recommend though...our other experiences in Mex City was a bit unpleasant...food poisoned and all...

Well, heading toward the sun and the beach in Puerto Vallarta and new horizon on the food sky I hoped...

It started off great at the resort with a buffé breakfast which was very very good. This is my omelette. Stuffed with chorizo, bacon, mushrooms, onion and tomatoes etc...on top, salsa fresca and fresh green salad on the side. I had this every day!!! Yum!!

After trying diffrent places during our stay we finally went to the place who grilled shrimps and snappers. We got 4 pounds of shrimps, garlic and chili. Sooo good!! The best meal in Mexico actually!

Then back to NYC again. We had 3 nights so we made the most out of it.

Not the best picture but a great meal to remember... DBGB again and the main course we had was amazing. This is my appetizer, pork rilette with croutons and cornichons... Love this place!

If you are a foodie and walking around NYC you have to stop here. Mario Batali's new baby..Eataly. A huge food Mecka with everything from Italy. I mean the top noch stuff from Italy. We sat down for a lunch with a glass of red Piemonte and this...

Ahhhh parmesan..... The place is superclose to The flatiron building. Go go go there!!

One of the places we had to come back to since the snowstorm and other stuff happend before new years was Morimoto. Wow! What a restaurant!!

Here is a sample of the cuisine he makes. Oyster with sea urchin and foie gras topped with a terriyaki sauce. Holy shit!! The only problem was it was to small...:-)

The sushi chef with our sushi platter. Best meal this trip. We had the omakase of course.

Lunch the day after took place in East Village. Yuba is the name of this place. It's two guys who used to work with Masa in the Time Warner building who started it . So the expectations was high :-)

We got beautiful pumpkin dumplings as a starter.

The sushi held really high quality and was very tasty. Next time I want to come back for the dinner menu...

The last night we booked a table at a restaurant I've heard so much good about. Scarpetta in Meat packing district.

I realized why everybody was raving about this place! Great food, great atmoshpere and service!

Here is a deepfried mozzarella with glaced tomatoes. Fantastic!!! Yum!

Ok signing off, as you can see it was a pretty good trip...

Happy New Year!!

2010-12-24T14:28:00.006+01:00

Wow!

What a year! 2010….

I must say a very good year for me, professionally and personally.

Travelwise it been amazing.

It started with New York and Buenos Aires.

Then Gran Canaria.

Ski trip to Italy

Seattle to check out for a dinner I made in May.

Another ski trip, this time to Austria.

Back to Seattle again and made a dinner for 280 people at The Four Seasons…ohh remember the vulcano on Island??

Frankfurt with Visit Sweden.

New York again in June and The World cup in soccer was everywhere…

Oslo in September with Visit Sweden

London weekend with my honey J

Paris less than 24 hours with Visit Sweden.

Barcelona with Visit Sweden

Now sitting on a plane to New York again and will also visit Mexico..

Looking back like this it’s a bit crazy actually…hahaha!

But hey, I love this!

Best meal 2010.

I have to say Martin Bersategue in Barcelona is definitely the best meal this year and came pretty high on the best ever list J

Had some fantastic meals in Seattle too..Anchovies and Olives was very very good!

Corton NYC, super!

Lux Stockholm showed they definitely are one of the best!

Rolfs kök...always great, always!

Ohh Sportsman Seasalter!! Yeah yeah!!

Roka in London kicked some serious ass!

Gramercy Tavern (NYC) put up a big food show for us and I’m coming back now.

50m2 in Visby Gotland was soooo good!

Matbaren at Mathias Dahlgren was amazing as always.

Esperanto showed a 3 star quality in presentation.

Loved Pubologi!

Griffin’s kicked ass aswell!

Råkultur, best sushi in Stockholm, no doubt.

So many great meals but any dissapointments?

Yeah, I have to say one of the biggest ones was Tamarind in London.

I still have to ask if the Michelin guide were on drugs when they decided to honour this place 1 star??

Oro in Oslo...sorry but it wasn't good..

On another level I had a even better year. I met my girlfriend in April and we are now living together.

I must say a great year!!!

I wish you all a great 2011 with tons of fantastic food and great travels.

See you soon.

Magnus

Lasarte Barcelona 2* Should be 3* :-)

2010-12-03T12:28:00.005+01:00

I had the opportunity to visit Barcelona this week and it was hard to choose from the incredible quality of restaurants the city provides.

After not going to Gaig the choice fell on Lasarte. A 2 star restaurant runned by Martin Berasategui. He originates from San Sebastian and opened up this place in Barcelona in 2005.

This was such an amazing experience! Probably will slide up to top 3 best restaurant visits ever for me. Everything was just perfect! The food was cooked with such heart, love and perfection.

The wine and beer(!) choices was the best ever, I had. It was just unreal. Service unpeckable!

Ok here we go.

Some small bites, the croquette was almost liquified inside....ahhh what a start!!

Pumpkin soup with foie gras...

Spanish mackerell with potatoes and mojo rojo...beautiful and great.

First course...:-) Baby squid consommé with squidcrisp and ink ravioli. Eating intructions...take the whole ravioli in one bite. Wow!!

The best oysterdish I've had? Well Cortons oysterdish was amazing too... But how to get the crunch so crisp and yet the oyster so tender...high skills in the kitchen. Holy shit this was good!

Caviar of smoked tuna on top and grapefruit salad in the bottom.

The next amazing dish.. vegetable leaves with lettuce cream and lobster. The intire salad is resting on a jelly made of tomato water!!! Ohh mama this was good!!

The only dish that didn't suit my palette was the prawn.. but it was cooked amazingly perfect and served with a royale of sea urchins, a burnt goat milk caviar and almonds. A bit too bitter for me.. We had a sweet sherry with this and that was fenomenal!

Hello low temperature cooked egg! Here with a red onion consommé and roasted bacon...this is a breakfast for champions!! :-) Soooooooo goooood!!

Ohh bad pic of the Sole but tasted so much better than the picture :-) Shellfish infusion, walnuts and mandarine. Fantastic is the word!

Pigeon with pigs ear and spinach...just amazingly great!

Best dessert ever?? Straight from the menu: Juice of ricepudding and cardamon, frozen cream, olive oil cream and frosty "reinetas" apples. So freaking delicious!!! I could eat this every day!!

Second dessert...Chocolate and acaia honey with bitter irish coffee ice cream...yeah it was also very very good.

Petis fours sent down from heaven :-) One was tiramisu and it blew me away!!

We had to see the kitchen of course :-)

Ohh what a meal...so so so so good. You do feel happy and super content after a meal in this caliber...

No it wasn't expensive at all in my opinion...tasting 115 €.

If you are a foodie. You know what to do...

Pubologi

2010-11-24T10:37:00.005+01:00

This is a place who opened up in September this year. The new era of "gastropubs".

It's located in Gamla Stan Stockholm "Old Town".

Their ambition is to have a relaxed approach to food and beverages but with high standard.

I think they have made it!

I wish there could be one of these little places in every part of the city...

The menu, napkin/towel and cutlery is located in a drawer underneath the tabletop.

I really liked the interior and the atmosphere was very relaxed and cozy.

Butternut squash ravioli with truffles from Gotland was very good. Perfect texture of the ravioli and sublime flavours. Nice!

I had trouble to choose from all the nice choices on the menu. It fell on this home made salsiccia with lentils and onionrings...I wasn't dissapointed at all...:-) Fantastic flavours!

My girlfriend went for the braised shank of lamb. It just fell apart when you pushed the fork into it!! Wow! So good!!

Finishing off with the blueberry pie and vanilla foam. Their ice cream machine was broken so we didn't get the nougat ice cream...

It would have made it a bit better I guess...

All and all, a great place and I will be back!

I must also mention the value for money you get...check it out online..folks!

Barcelona is coming up next week. Reservation is made on Gaig and a dessert place called Espaisucre...can't wait!

Any other suggestions anyone?

I'm there for work so we don't have much time. I wanted to reserve tables outside of Barca but it wasn't possible at this trip...

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

2010-11-17T18:24:00.011+01:00

So I went on a super quick trip to Paris for work and had one night to spend on a great restaurant. Where to go....? I mean the city do have a few to choose from :-)

Not being able to make a reservation at L'Atelier we showed up pretty late, 9pm and got a table at 11pm. Hey, lets do this! Dine late, spanish style!

We didn't regret it...

Having only 40 seats placed as a bar surrounding the beautiful kitcthen. You can follow the work of the chefs preparing everything.

Interior is red and black and it gives a cozy and elegant atmosphere.

I've also been to his L'Atelier in Tokyo and yes, it does look very similar interior wise..

Finally being back in Paris dining at a 2 star restaurant. You do go for the tasting menu!

Chilled jerusalem artichoke soup with olive oil as amuse. Very very good.

Scallop carpaccio with sea urchin. This was soo good. A perfect tangyness from the lime on the scallops and combined the bittersweet of the urchin...great!

Probably my favourite dish... caviar with smoked eel and horseradish... absolutely fenomenal!!

Ok debating on the evenings favourite dish...here is the foie gras. Fried and served with cocobeans...mmmmmama!

Hot chantarell foam with poached egg and forest mushrooms...superb!

Seared red mullet with olives, tomatoes and pistachio oil. The fish is so perfectly cooked and the flavours of the vegetables is fantastic! A great dish!

G ordered the wine and for the main course we asked for 2 glasses of red. The someliere brings this beauty...only 3 litres...of pure nectar from the Gods!!

You had a choice of 3 diffrent meat courses and I choosed the quail, stuffed with foie gras and truffle potato purée. I was a happy guy!!

G went for the lamb and he was a happy guy too :-)

Pre dessert..passionfruit and banana cream with rum granité and cococnut foam...yes! Yes!!

"Royale gala" with caramellised apples, cassonade sauce and caramel ice cream...so so good!

I was only in Paris for less than 24 hours but it was great!

I felt though like I had a small amuse on an empty stomach and wasn't served anything more...I want to go back so badly..

They say that spring there should be nice.........;-)

Ohh Barcelona is coming up soon...within a week or so...leaving on the 28th..

Griffin Stockholm

2010-10-31T19:17:00.008+01:00

There is a few new places opening up in Stockholm this fall.

Griffin's is one of them and I've been wanting to visit since their grand opening in the beginning of october. The restaurant is located in the new waterfront building.

The location of the restaurant is not the sexiest but the interior and the atmosphere is great!

The guys who runs the kitchen won the Swedish chef of the year award and if you continue to read.... this will show :-)

The concept is steakhouse "extraordinaire". I like it!

A mood pic from the cool and nice bar!

I do get some NYC feel to this...

Ok food time... yellowfin tuna with watermelon and truffledressing...yuuum!

This was my favourite appetizer, beef "Pelle Jansson" Carpaccio style with Kalix roe, great!

Artic char with caviar, fennel and horseradish dressing.. just beautiful!

Mains arrived on a huge tray and all grilled meat came with 4 diffrent sidings, Bearnaise butter, ovenbaked tomatoes, crudité of autum vegetables and a chioce of fries or potato purée.

Above: lambsteak with lamb sausage and beets...amazing!

Top blade with a cream of roasted corn. The texture of the meat was unreal! Sooo tender..

Roasted duck breast with nacho crispy foie gras and pumpkin purée. Taste as great as it looks!

I was pretty full after the two courses and just wanted something small sweet afterwards. Guess what? You order chocolate truffles, lemonfudge, mashmallows and rapsberry jelly's!! Perfect!!

Well mr C at our table had to go "all in" so he went for a creme brulée with seabuckthorn curd and cloudberries. Mmmmm....

I'm telling you, this wasn't my last visit ...

Thank you Mr H for a great night!

Hakkasan & Tamarind, London

2010-10-20T07:07:00.007+02:00

The guide who always amaze people.... Yes I'm talking about the Michelin one...

Sweden is not spoiled about stars in their "Bible". But working at restaurants who recieve these acknowlegdements is a huge boost for the whole restaurant and the industry. Also for the entire society of a city I will say..

What I mean is, people do come to cities according to the guide and explore the restaurant scene, it brings a lot of tourists to a country...

Do they know what kind of power these people posess?

I won't make this such a huge thing...I'm just a bit pissed off...

Hakkansan in London is a great place by all means. They made history by being the first Chinese/asian restaurant who recieved 1 star in the guide. Making way for others too I believe.

But sitting there and order 4 appetizers and without taking two sipps of your drink, the appz arrives on the table! It took less than 3 minutes from the order...

Mediocre taste on two of them and the other two was pretty good. The main course was ok but the dessert was a disaster. Hazelnut parfait wrapped in white chocolate and they pour warm chokolate sauce on top. The parfait was rock hard and the whole thing was just too much!

I wasn't allowed to take pics so I can't show you...

1 star michelin? I don't think so...

But hey, leave the star issue behind, just go there to explore the place and especially the bar.

The drinks and the ambience is fantastic! :-)

On sunday we wanted to give Tamarind a chance to show why the had recieved 1 star in the "Bible".

I've heard good things about this restaurant and I love Indian food so why not try something out of the ordinary..?

Traditional papadam crisps with dip sauces

Scallops with a tomato and cumin sauce...was ok but nothing more than that..

The also had a seafood week this week so I wanted to try something from this menu.

Crab cakes with a tomato and cumin sauce...they tasted nothing but spices and garbanzo bean or chick peas...

The waiter recommended the giant shrimps... they where beyond overcooked...

Sea bass with guess what? Tomato sauce with cumin.... We didn't order dessert...

I have one question. How in the hell could Operakällaren in Stockholm loose their star??