NORTH2014 – Nordic Food Festival brought Nordic tastes to NYC

The first edition of NORTH established the festival as New York’s prime Nordic Food Festival by bringing Nordic haute cuisine to a selected few. This year, NORTH took a more democratic approach by staging more than 25 food events, including a street food festival, a Nordic hotdog championship, and panel debates about the future of Nordic food and lifestyle.

Street food added a popular touch
NORTH took place between the 12th and 20th of September 2014. More than 4,000 foodies and 200 journalists attended the event – three times as many as last year.

As a result of the cooperation between New Nordic Food and the festival organisers, Kalle Bergman and Honest Cooking Magazine, NORTH launched a street food festival that gave New Yorkers a taste of the Nordic Street Food revolution. It was conducted together with one of the main figures behind the Nordic Street Food movement, chef Richard McCormick of Richard McCormick’s Food Truck in Helsinki. He impressed with his servings of modern street food based on Nordic flavours. Among the other participating chefs making the street food festival a success were Sami Tellberg, Frida Ronge, Fredrik Andersson, Greg Hozinsky and Martin Høedholt.

“We were pleased too see that the street food festival made NORTH more democratic, rather than focusing solely on fine dining,” said Charlotta Ranert, project manager of Nordic Food Diplomacy.

Winner of the Nordic hotdog championship was Norwegian chef Neal Fraser, representing Norwegian Seafood, who presented a hotdog made of traditional hotdog meat, halibut, scallops and salmon. While this was a clear favourite among the judges, the People’s Choice Award went to an updated version of the classic Danish grillpølse.

Many highlights at the NORTH pop-up restaurant
NORTH’s pop-up restaurant at 168 Bowery - at the edge of SoHo and Chinatown - was the venue of some amazing highlights during the festival.

Frida Rånge of vRå restaurant in Gothenburg and chef Fredrik Andersson introduced the hungry New Yorkers to raw Swedish seafood and fish from her “Sweden meets Japan” menu, while the Faeroese terroir was presented by Leif Sørensen, founder of Koks Restaurant, and renowned chef Ruben Maarbjerg Busk from Hotel Hafnia. They treated their guests to fermented goodies as well as scallops and seaweed.

The foraging trend was represented by Finnish Forager-in-Chief, Sami Tallberg, who has never knowingly passed a plant he didn’t want to taste. True to his passion, his entry into the Nordic hotdog championship was a carrot wrapped in kale, thus challenging the concept and the guests’ taste buds alike.

Finnish Michelin-starred chef Sasu Laukkonen also invited the New Yorkers to a beautiful culinary experience - taking them on a journey to the home of his acclaimed restaurant Chef & Sommelier in Helsinki. Finally, Torsten Schmidt, head chef of Danish restaurant Malling and Schmidt, had the honour of wrapping up a highly eventful week at the pop-up with his multi-course dinner, which brought the Danish countryside and Nordic cuisine straight into the heart of NYC.

NORTH in numbers
Two panel discussions, one opening party, seven pop up dinners, seven cooking classes, four cooking demos, one street food festival, one hot dog championship, one happy hour, one coffee house, four guest chef dinners at NY restaurants.

For more information:
New Nordic Food II:
Charlotta Ranert, Project Manager Nordic Food Diplomacy, charlotta@charlottaranert.se
Elisabet Skylare, Project Manager Food & creative industries, elisabet@skylare.com

Read more about NNF and NORTH - Nordic Food Festival:

NORTH2014 - Paneldebates of the future of Nordic Food and lifestyle

Legendary chef Leif Sörensen puts Faroe Islands on culinary map #NORTH2014

Nordic food takes over New York #NORTH2014

Links:
NORTH: www.northfoodfestival.com/
AXS article: www.axs.com/north-nordic-food-festival-made-triumphant-return-to-nyc-20563 Forbes article: www.forbes.com/sites/davidmacdougall/2014/09/15/new-york-looks-north/