Björn Frantzén - World-Class Swedish Cooking: Artisanal Recipes from One of Stockholms Most Celebrated Restaurants

World
Class
Swedish
Cooking

Copyright 2013 by Bjrn Frantzn and Daniel Lindeberg

English translation copyright 2013 by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

First published by Norstedts, Sweden, in 2012, as Frantzn/Lindeberg by Bjrn Frantzn and Daniel

Lindeberg. Published by agreement with Norstedts Agency.

Photography: Fredrik Skogkvist

(Photos on pp. 42, 43, 160, 165, 190, 191 by Stefan van der Kwast Gissberg and p. 30 by Torbjrn Jonasson)

Transcription: Gran Lager

Art Direction/Graphic Design: Stefan van der Kwast Gissberg

Illustration: Martin Bergstrm

Image Processing: Anders Wandin

Prepress: Elanders Flth & Hssler, Vrnamo

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Frantzn, Bjrn.

[Frantzn/Lindeberg. English]

World-class Swedish cooking : artisanal recipes from one of Stockholm's most celebrated restaurants /

Bjrn Frantzn and Daniel Lindeberg ; foreword by Mons Kallentoft.

pages cm

Includes index.

"First published by Norstedts, Sweden, in 2012, as Frantzn/Lindeberg"--Preliminaries.

ISBN 978-1-62087-735-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Cooking, Swedish. I. Lindeberg, Daniel. II. Frantzn/Lindeberg (Restaurant : Stockholm, Sweden) III. Title.

TX722.S8F6813 2013

641.59485--dc23

2013006015

Printed in China

Artisanal Recipes from One of
Stockholms Most Celebrated Restaurants

BJRN FRANTZN AND DANIEL LINDEBERG

FOREWORD BY

Mons Kallentoft

TRANSLATED BY

Stine sttveit

A surprising gastronomical journey led by the demand for authentic ingredients and sustained by the freedom to fantasize and create.

Daniel Lindeberg

Bjrn Frantzn

There lies a vested interest in publishing a book to have everything we work to do each day in print and available for anyone who is interested. But it occurred to us that this was not the only reason to undertake this project. We realized there were many things we had not really thought out and that we still had so many unanswered questions. The awork to write a book over three hundred pages long made us sharpen our focus even more and gave us the opportunity to gain knowledge in order to develop our restaurant even further.

THIS BOOK GAVE US A DEADLINE TO WORK TOWARD. Over a year before the book went to print, we sketched out what we needed to achieve and complete. Before we delivered the manuscript to the publishing house, we went through every statement, fact, assumption, method, and ingredient to make sure the writing was accurate and crystal clear.

The journey of writing this book was absolutely amazing, not only because of the hours spent in the kitchen trying out new recipesmost of which were not served in the restaurant until after publicationbut also because we found new challenges, suppliers, and techniques.

Some of our discoveries while working on this book came about through pure exploration and by confirming things we already knew. For instance, we didnt understand why fish seemed to taste so much better when it was matured under ice and was no longer fresh in the strict sense of the word. The same was true for our preference to receive live crayfish, lobster, and scallops in our kitchen and to kill them moments before serving. We believed they tasted far better prepared this way, but now we understand why. This understanding, in turn, resulted in our working with our fishermen to teach them how to use the Japanese method of killing fish.

To arrive at this conclusion, we had continuous contact and meetings with some of Europes sharpest researchers, some of whom combined an interest in the taste and texture of fish and shellfish with their scientific knowledge. Through our observation and their research, we determined when seafood is at its very best for serving; its all about the fishing methods, killing, draining, temperature, tenderizing, and preparation after it reaches room temperature.

Our cookbook project also increased our contact with the farmers at our two vegetable gardens. After closely following a full growing season, we became more familiar with their work. We came to understand how they work with old flavorful cultivars and fight against industrial sowing. We studied the deep knowledge these farmers hold and grew to appreciate how they developed various methods to create unique ingredients for us. To make full use of our vegetable suppliers, we adjust our menu based on what they deliver; we believe there is no acceptable reason to use unripe raw ingredients that are not at their absolute best in the mere interest of offering the same menu every night. A few years ago we introduced our vita menyer (white menus), which means our guests have no idea what will be served that evening. This gives us considerable freedom to compose dishes in accordance with what is delivered fresh to our kitchen. In one dish, we go as far as to let the gardens decide the flavor, look, texture, depth, and preparation of the dish, and weve even named it accordingly: Satio Tempestas, which with a few added words translates to satisfaction based on season and time of year.

We had achieved such positive results with the fish and shellfish from the cold Nordic seas and the produce from the gardens in Malmkping and Askersund that we were very disappointed when we could not find a Swedish breeder who could deliver the quality we demanded of fowl, pork, veal, and beef. We felt that because our vegetable farmers find the best varieties that are not engineered for high yields and convenient transportation at the expense of taste, we should have the same approach to the meat we use.

As luck would have it, we met a pig farmer at one of our gardens who bred Linderd pigs, considered the national pig of Sweden. We had already experienced the genuine taste of Linderd pork when we bought a 480-pound (220-kilogram) pig named Clarissa who provided us with her own lardo di colonnata for a long time. The Linderd pork is often said to taste nostalgic, like pork used to taste; it has a good fat content that carries a deep and mild meat flavor, with a little hint of the wild.