6-Course Scandinavian Meal with Björn Schmidt in Berlin

[Photographs: Kristal Burtrum]

Last week Kitchensurfing, a New York-based website that seeks to connect chefs without kitchens to kitchens without chefs, held its first Chef Fair in Berlin to mark the imminent launch of its Berlin operations. 12 chefs, 12 meals, 4 days.

We attended a meal by Björn Schmidt, a Swedish ad agency refugee turned Berlin supper club chef. Together with a few friends, he operates one of Berlin's more popular clubs, RollinRestaurant.

For this special dinner, he crafted a four-course tour-de-Nord he dubbed "A Nobel Nordic Suited for Kings and Queens." (His propensity for puns can't really be emphasized enough.) "My mission is to open the eyes of Germans to Scandinavian cuisine. When I say Scandinavian or Nordic, people say 'Well, I tried that at Ikea,' and that is not how I want Scandinavian cuisine to be defined."

He defines "Nordic" as a lot of traditional methods: smoking, curing, salting, and pickling, as well as trying as hard as possible to be seasonal. "This is actually one of the seasons I'm really keen on. I like venison, game, and mushrooms. It's really easy to cook this time of year."

About the author: Conor O'Rourkeis a freelance journalist living in Berlin, he can usually be found losing at pub quiz or at home trying to cook the perfect fish curry.