Top Swede
Sweden's Danyel Couet was among the guest chefs at the Festival of Food and Wine held at Lancashire's Northcote Manor in January. Amanda Afiya reports.
While Swedish delicacies such as rollmops are well known around the globe, the names of Sweden's leading chefs don't exactly trip off the tongue.
So it came as a bit of surprise to see a Swedish chef among the line-up at Nigel Haworth's recent Festival of Food and Wine, held at Haworth's Northcote Manor in Langho, Lancashire, earlier this year.
Alongside the likes of Germain Schwab, Philip Howard, Robbie Miller and Brian Turner was the lesser-known but equally talented Danyel Couet of Stockholm's Fredsgatan 12, an 85-seat restaurant in the heart of the city, and one of just eight Michelin-starred restaurants in the country.
Haworth's decision to include Couet in the festival stemmed from a trip taken by the Lancashire chef last November, when he visited Sweden to cook a gala dinner and work with the students of Riddwesviks Gard Cookery School.
"Danyel's restaurant is at the real top end of where food is going today," Haworth says. "His food is simple yet has a very exact feel about it. The flavours are well defined. But my main reason for inviting him was that he is an outstanding young chef [he was born in 1973] and he helps to strengthen our relationship with the Swedish cookery school."
For Couet, the invitation was a step into the unknown. He had visited the UK before, on food exploration trips, but this was the first time he had visited the North of England and certainly the first time he has cooked here. But did he enjoy it?
"As a chef you always live for the minutes before service and the hours during it - that's the best. But when it's over it's a bit like kids and Christmas - it's fun at the time, but you're sad when it's over. If I was invited to come back [to cook at the festival] I would do so, of course."
Cosmopolitan
In terms of quality and creativity, the food scene in Sweden has changed immeasurably in the past 10 years. It's a very cosmopolitan city, and it is easy to see where fusion, for example, has left its mark. But having roamed initially from trend to trend, the Swedes have now emerged, according to Couet, with three main food groups.
First there is the French-based food group. "For me, classical for Stockholm is not Escoffier cooking, but French-based with a modern style. Swedish people hate it when things stand still, they hate it when nothing changes."
The second group has at its heart the traditional Swedish restaurant, although they too do not stand still. "Again it's real tradition but with a modern interpretation. I think that's the character and personality of Swedish people." Among this category is Sweden's only two-Michelin-starred restaurant, Edsbacka Krog, where Couet himself spent his formative years.
And, finally, there is Couet's group, comprising modern, globally-inspired cuisine. "It's a mix. I hate the words ‘crossover' or ‘fusion' - they have a negative ring about them - but if you can make good food with these influences which causes interest then that's fantastic," says Couet, who owns his restaurant with partner and founder Melker Andersson.
Within this category is restaurant Bon Lloc, also in Stockholm, which is run by a chef who used to work with Couet. Owner Mathias Dahlgren (1997 winner of the international Bocuse d'Or competition) runs Bon Lloc with his Catalonian wife and specialises in modern Spanish food.
Couet's food, on the other hand, has more of a magpie feel about it. There is evidence, for example, of time in France (he worked at Maison Blanche in Paris, now owned by the Frère Pourcel; and at Laurent), in Spain and the USA (at Daniel and Aquavit with fellow Swede Marcus Samuelsson, among others), where he worked prior to his appointment at Fredsgatan 12 in 1994.
"The food at Maison Blanche was really ambitious. They worked with spices a lot. They used every kind of spice, and to real extremes, and I liked that. That was something that stayed with me.
"At Laurent, the food was really classical and it was here that I learnt about technique and especially discipline. I think that I am very Swedish in my ways - I'm calm and I don't think I scream a lot. So the discipline I experienced in France was something I had not been exposed to before."
Working in France also brought Couet closer to his roots. His father is French, and an artist by trade. "He has a very developed sensibility and that has helped me. I am very cautious - I'm not really a spontaneous person and I'm very careful when I make food. I make what I call ordinary food, but at the same time the mischievous side of me wants to shock people and I hope that my food does this sometimes."
Couet believes that he relates to American cuisine perhaps most of all. "I like Thomas Keller, I like his philosophy," he replies to the suggestion that his cooking and Keller's have similarities. "What I especially like about American chefs is their playful way of making food. It shouldn't be serious. Just because you make a fantastic plate, that doesn't make you Van Gogh."
However, he does believe that most chefs are artists. "You have to have feeling in your food. You have to have it in your blood. You can't make a painting if you haven't got that gift. But at the same time we are making food for people to eat. I always try not to see myself as a big chef or star of a restaurant - I try to make good food and if people like it, that's fantastic."
Slightly shocking The meal that Couet served at Northcote Manor back in January did shock a little. There were some murmurs, for example, over "small" portion sizes and some diners did not like the idea of raw scallops in Couet's first course (marinated scallops with green chilli). On the whole, though, plates throughout the course of the meal returned to kitchen scraped clean.
"You are very polite people and you don't say what you think. Some people preferred one dish, others preferred others. But more or less everyone was happy. The kitchen is built in a strange way so I had to stand outside to try and see the plates coming back into the kitchen," explains Couet, who was aided in the kitchen by fellow Swede, Bruno Baudone, sous chef at the restaurant at Stockholm's opera house, Operak„llarens.
"The scallops in Britain have a fantastic flavour - they're much better than what I can get at home - the flavour was totally different from what I am use to. Very sweet, so I had to add some more acidity in order to balance the dish. That's what my cuisine is all about really - is it too sweet? Do I have to add some acidity to it? I always have to find a balance. I may try a dish 50 or 100 times, 50-100 spoons in my mouth until I feel this is the edge, I can't do any better. When I think I would like to eat one more spoonful, that's when I know when to stop.
"One famous chef once said to me, ‘You can't really make food for people that you don't know, because food is so personal and he was right'. But running a restaurant you can't know everyone, you have to have confidence in yourself and do the food you like yourself."
Contacts in Sweden
Fredsgatan 12, 111 52 Stockholm. Tel: 00 46 8 24 80 52
www.fredsgatan12.comBon Lloc, Bergsgatan 33, S-112 28 Stockholm. Tel: 00 46 8 650 50 82
Edsbacka Krog, Sollentunavägen 220, 191 35 Stockholm. Tel: 00 46 8 96 33 00 www.edsbackakrog.se
Operakällarens, Operahuset, Karl XII's Torg, S-111 86, Stockholm. Tel: 00 46 8 676 58 00
Northcote Manor's Festival of Food and Wine
Nigel Haworth and co-owner Craig Bancroft have been running the Festival of Food and Wine for two years.
"The festival evolved from a visit I made to California in 1998 to the Festival of Food and Wine at the Highlands Inn at Monterey, near Carmel," Haworth says. "On returning to the UK, an idea lodged in the back of my head that if time was willing it would be great fun to organise a similar event in Langho. The big challenge was whether outstanding chefs from all over the UK, Europe and then the rest of the world could be enticed to Northcote Manor for the event."
The answer, says Haworth, was to look at the quietest time for chefs. For Northcote Manor, as is the case with most restaurants, it was January. "The other main factor was that - unlike in the USA - the event had to benefit and inspire young college students, so we teamed up with our very good friends, Lancaster & Morecambe College and Accrington College."
Lancaster & Morecambe College supplied chefs during the week-long festival "offering young chefs the opportunity to work with some of the top chefs in the industry," Haworth says. "We are pleased to offer continual support and experience to the college, which is valuable to these young people in their training."
The college was recently awarded Centre of Excellence status - the only Centre of Excellence for Hospitality and Catering in the North of England and indeed one of only two colleges (the other being Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies) - to hold the status in the country.
Danyel Couet's menu at the Northcote Manor Festival of Food and Wine
Marinated scallops with green chilli
Chablis Premier Cru, Montmain, Denis Race 2000
Bruschetta gourmande, black truffle and figs Gewurztraminer, Domaine Albert Mann 1999
Sake-baked Dover sole with crisp vegetables and soy
Sauvignon Blanc, Ponder Estate, Marlborough 2001
Squab roasted on the bone, cauliflower and fresh plums
Pedroncelli Zinfandel, Sonoma County 1999
Lime "Key West", mandarin sorbet Noble Riesling, Brown Brothers, Victoria 1994
