Contrast in Norway: aquafarming versus the new Nordic cuisine
Recently, Monique Mulder and Paul van Ravestein gave a lecture and workshop as guest lecturers to design students from the University of Bergen, Norway. Theme: the use of creativity for food. They seized the opportunity to make a round along a number of renowned chefs in the region.
OUR MOVEMENTS ARE AN ANTITHESIS OF MODERN, COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE….
After the oil industry that has made Norway rich since the 1970s, fishing, production and export is Norway’s second economic base. 70% of this is filled by “aquafarming” of salmon.
Monique Mulder (Mattmo Creative) often makes culture scans abroad where she wants to meet the creators of the country. Besides her lecture and workshop at the University of Bergen about ‘Ecological Design & Aquafarming’ for the new generation of designers, she visited a number of New Nordic Cuisine chefs in Bergen to see how the vision and creativity of New Nordic Cuisine has been integrated after all these years.
Lysverket is a distinctly modern, minimalist and refined restaurant and bar in the high-end segment. It is located in the art-center KODE4, with a focus on fresh fish dishes from the best local sources. Christopher Haatuft, chef and founder but above all a punk, worked at Dan Barber’s Blue Hill in New York and returned to his home ground in Bergen six years ago.
Christopher knows all about his country’s history and culture and is always looking for new products from small-scale producers; it’s the identity he is proud of and can’t live without. A ‘locavore’, socially conscious and collaborative. His specific philosophies and cooking are a story about Norwegian coastal geography, organic mountain farmers and sustainable aquaculture. He experiments with products such as seaweed, makes different types of jelly from it and searches for the old indigenous bread-making techniques of flatbread.
Curious, that’s what he is, and that’s what he wants to convey to the new generation. Christopher Haatuft is ‘A rebel with a cause’. He skillfully explains his motivation: “Norway has the largest coastline in the world and we are in a small, rugged area of that world – with a specific landscape. I want to do something specific to this place.” He continuously connects culture, landscape and the history of his soil with the creative disciplines of today to be inspired and feel free. That also makes our restaurant culturally relevant for all creative industries in Bergen. “Musicians, fashion designers and artists inspire me and designers are a connecting factor that can connect all these disciplines.”
“I can be a hardcore anarchist, but I am a pragmatist; I can cook and I don’t always want to say that I am against something like large-scale agriculture and commercial aquafarming. They are standardizing our food and polluting our fjords. It is better to stand for something to convert the opposition, so my restaurant Lysverket is what I want to be, my stage and I now cook the way I cook. I really hope to influence and to prove it on the plate. That way I bring the story closer to people, I tell the breathtakingly beautiful story of our nature of sparkling lakes and lush green mountains and of our small organic farmers. They are my friends.”
His specific position in global gastronomy can be summed up in the rise of the New Nordic Cuisine. And he plans to create a more progressive and sustainable economic ecosystem between the suppliers he values. He calls it a “closed circuit economy” where trade takes place between “people who love us and who we love.
He speaks with great respect about our Dutch food culture; “You don’t get stuck in the clichés of the windmills, it is an internationally influenced cuisine from both the colonial past and the present. Adoptive and innovative. A ‘sci-fi kitchen’, as he calls it, with vertical farming and large-scale food production in greenhouses, creative innovations and products and many bottom-up initiatives.”b
In his opinion, Dutch Cuisine cannot be explained in 10 minutes due to the enormous mix of diversity. “I endorse the principles of Dutch Cuisine. They are close to the principles of New Nordic Cuisine and are self-evident to me, but I also promote them to educate my students, who often come from abroad, with my ethical values of New Nordic Cuisine. We must create inquisitive minds and tell them about our food culture, cooking techniques and product knowledge. The schools here do not create the right investigative and entrepreneurial attitude in the students and I do not think the level of knowledge is good.”
But Dutch Cuisine is a blend, a “Juxtapose” for me, just like your progressive politics. In the Netherlands, the mix is interesting. I have an Iranian neighbor here, a Chinese one further down the road. I find that diversity of their ‘pure cooking’ interesting. And creativity is the innovation that they put into it themselves. I organize meetings with international chefs about everything and put a stamp on all my interns, for 15 years now, because they have to have a curious attitude – something that is not taught in schools.
He can also see that Dutch Cuisine and New Nordic Cuisine can share their considerations and knowledge, because many subjects, attitudes and ethics are similar. The relationship with the Netherlands dates back to the fourteenth century. We are Hanseatic cities and trade in food was paramount. Stockfish was one of those products that was brought from Bergen. At that time, the cities were concerned with economic cooperation; now let us seek cultural cooperation.
He also initiates the search and the direct lines with the producers himself. In addition to his organic farmers, he works with his own divers and searches for interesting seafood. Projects such as Matchmaking and the Routes of Dutch Cuisine are interesting developments for him that are still missing in the New Nordic Cuisine, where producers are not yet part of that movement.
What Christopher is very enthusiastic about is creativity. From his own creativity he always wants to experiment with influences from other cultures. That takes him further. When he lived in New York and encountered the entire world food culture at the highest level in one city, he saw that unique mix as a great source of inspiration and wealth to discover the world. “This is also possible from Bergen, there is still a whole world to discover here.”
Restaurant Cornelius was founded by a seafood diver and a chef. Monique spoke with chef Haakon Pansuna in the restaurant that is located on an island – Holmen, just beyond the bay of Bergen. Every day they work with the yield of the diver and let their creativity run wild. There is no menu to choose from.
They have set up a special company to be allowed to keep their harvest of the day in a basin and because of that they can practice their philosophy of getting fresh seafood on the plate, it doesn’t get any fresher. Haakon tells that they not only cook organic and fresh, but he explains that they cook with the climate. Meteorological Menus are served here. The seafood products give off different energy, depending on the climate.
Inspired by the weather, they adapt their menu to the weather conditions. When it rains, you need different energy from the product as a human being, says Haakon, than when it freezes. They are therefore as close to nature as possible, that is their motivation. “The preservation of our own nature starts with ourselves. We fish with policy from our own local waters and we pick our berries and mushrooms from the islands. The sea has always been the source of our food. We are concerned with the natural balance and we also tell our students that.”
On the other side of the islet, where the restaurant Cornelius is located, is the cooking school. We are also welcomed by students of the cooking school who explain the philosophy, the diving experience or the history of the dish with every course. Very involved and driven they tell a fascinating story and are proud of Cornelius.
We are taken outside by the chef, there are the basins with various shells, seaweed and crabs from the bay and the seawater has exactly the same temperature as in the fjord. A little later we walk into the kitchen with Haakon, with passion and love for seafood and they use their innovative culinary techniques for the preparation of the meteorological menu. Beautiful to see. After 4 hours we are picked up again by the boat, pouring rain and a cold wind. In Bergen you experience all seasons in one day.
