Ny Nordisk Mad: Chef Roger Malmin: Be faithful to the produce and highlight the quality of what the local farmers deliver

Chef Roger Malmin: Be faithful to the produce and highlight the quality of what the local farmers deliver

17-12-2014

Nordic cuisine is supposed to be clean, with original flavors. I see it as primary to be faithful to the produce, highlighting the quality of what the local farmers deliver: vegetables, herbs, fish - with occasional hints of what you cannot get here. Since the manifesto began to attract attention, our chefs have generally become better at exploiting niche producers. You don´t just routinely go to the big suppliers. The concept of New Nordic Food has gradually gained quite a large impact in Norway, states chef Roger Malmin.

I experienced the meeting around the manifesto as a courageous project. There was a lot of discussion before everyone ultimately could agree. Much revolved around Noma then, and I was quite young, 25 years and thought at first it seemed hard to just hang it up on Nordic ingredients. I had, for example, hard to imagine cooking without using lemon. But today, many successful restaurants like Noma, Fäviken and Maaemo in Oslo are faithful to the New Nordic Cuisine.

We already had a strong local profile in our restaurant, and I came home after the meeting strengthened by the discussions. We used local ingredients but mixed it with imported when quality wasn´t good enough. But I must say that local suppliers have done a tremendous job in recent years to improve quality. Today we use about 90 percent Nordic ingredients, and they are certainly good enough, but I stick to my lemons.

The concept of New Nordic Food has gradually gained quite a large impact in Norway. In the beginning it was probably many who thought that it was only a short-lived hype, like the hysteria surrounding El Bulli, and that normal consumers would not embrace the idea. But today there are many, both professionals and amateurs, who actively seek out small producers to get hold of good ingredients. With this focus on quality and local food, the level is much higher.

The Norwegian food industry has at least begun to try to change their thinking, but they have a lot of work to do. I had many discussions with my vegetable supplier why they deliver German onions, when it´s season for onions in Norway. German onion has of course a cheaper price per kilo. But it´s getting better. It is not always economical to invest in local products, but that's what our guests are asking for. My boss Charles Tjessem won the Bocuse d'Or in 2003. It creates expectations among the guests, but they also expect to get Norwegian food when they come to the Stavanger area. In the case of the Nordic signature I am a little unsure, but those who are really interested in food and come on “pilgrimage" from abroad, they want the fish caught here and flesh from the lambs in our meadows, and that it will be of top quality.

Today I see it as primary to be faithful to the produce, highlighting the quality of what the local farmers deliver: vegetables, herbs, fish - with occasional hints of what you cannot get here. The cuisine has gone towards cleaner flavors during recent years. Salmon should taste like salmon and not be rolled in cinnamon. It is important to bring out the unique flavors that the region offers, such as the lambs whothat graze here by the sea get a certain seaweed flavor. If you refine or transform the raw materials too much, they may feel a little estranged.

Since the manifesto began to attract attention, our chefs have generally become better at exploiting niche producers. You don´t just routinely go to the big suppliers. If you are looking for a new cheese for the menu, you´d rather search locally first, and this is good, because it is hard for the small cheese producers to get distribution through the major chains. I think this will attract more and more focus, because people want to have cleaner food. It may well be organic, but nowadays, many look for origin first of all, I often hear this. You can see on the new EU labels how people become more and more aware of the content in food products. And Nordic cuisine is supposed to be clean, with original flavors.

Read the New Nordic Kitchen Manifesto

Picture: Horecanytt.no

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