Dining out in Stockholm is better than ever. The Swedish capital boasts many Michelin starred restaurants and Stockholm's best restaurants are run by daring young chefs.
Stockholm has arrived on the European culinary map. You can’t swing a pickled herring without hitting a restaurant spangled with a Michelin star and run by a strapping young chef.
And I mean young. In the late 90s, then-25 year old Pontus Frithiof took over the most expensive restaurant in town, changing the former Erik’s to “Pontus in the Green House.” The restaurant books out the back room to the King when he’s in town and has a Michelin star, too. The wine list is unrivalled in Stockholm.
The city’s trendiest uber-chef is probably still Melker Andersson. Ask anybody under 30 where to eat, they’ll tell you to go to Andersson’s trendy Restaurangen.
While visiting Stockhom a few years back, I stopped by to meet Andersson, who told me he was inspired by the success of McDonalds. Yes, that MacDonalds. Andersson devised a menu where you order food by the flavour you’re looking for and you can get it fast. An antipasto-style serving of three or five teensy dishes tasting of dill, anchovy, chili, gorgonzola or any of 11 other flavours will arrive at your table.
Wine-by-numbers are suggested to compliment your chosen “flavours.” The decor is spartan, warmed up by cinnamon coloured walls and the price ($50 - $70 with a glass of wine) is reasonable by Stockholm standards. Andersson made his name around the corner at F12 - where fusion food is served in a swank, neo-classical building that used to house an art college and offers dazzling views of a canals and grand old government buildings. The Michelin one-star resto is home to one of the summer’s most swinging terraces where up to 1500 people crowd.
“They’re squeezed close together like this… what do you call it?” asks Andersson, squishing his arms together in the international gesture for sardines that describes the atmosphere at other hot spots like nearby Cafe Opera. Andersson had to rent porta-pottys to, ahem, accomodate the crowds.
“We are a little bit fun,” he says, talking about the terrace and the cuisine. “We try to do fine dining in a street kind of way.” The thirty-something chef, who trained at French three-star restaurants before opening Fredsgatan six years ago, goes abroad every summer to learn from other kitchens. He figures part of the success of the nouveau-Scando cuisine is a focus on local product and a casual attitude.
Today’s young Stockholm chefs use Scandinavian basics served up with a fusion twist. You will find dill, Swedish caviar, root vegetables, summer berries and Swedish fish - which Andersson figures to be the best in the world.
