Ten years and still going strong: The Nordic Kitchen Manifesto consolidates the gastronomic Nordic Region

Slow cooking is back and has become very popular, like using the whole animal, to take advantage of resources and smart climate thinking. There is nothing so typical of the new Nordic cuisine than putting a lot of plants and vegetables on the plate, states Swedish chef Mathias Dahlgren, who together with eleven other chefs signed the Nordic Kitchen Manifesto in 2004. Danish chef Claus Meyer was the visionary in this context.

From ideology to manifest

Dahlgren goes on to narrate the background fo the story:

Ten years ago, there were in Sweden and the Nordic countries some restaurants and chefs who were quite well known in the world, perhaps by the success of their restaurants or by cooking contests, but we had not made an international boom as a country or region, like the new Spanish cuisine.

Danish chef Claus Meyer was the visionary in this context, and on his initiative, some Nordic players were invited to the meeting in Copenhagen in 2004. He had with Jan Krag Jacobsen written the Nordic Kitchen Manifesto, and I suppose they both wanted us to get there, have some nice time together, and then sign, as a fun thing.

But instead it turned out to be two intense days where we discussed who we were and what we should do, before we managed to come up with a manifesto that everyone could sign. It was really exciting. This kind of ideological conversation about what we are and what we have and the opportunities that exist probably had not occurred before.

The manifesto made Nordic cuisine a global name

...read the full article at newnordicfood.org