TableAug – Oct
Foraged Tasting Menu
Past the tweezers and theatre
The New Nordic thing became a global style and then a cliche, and a good deal of what is served under its name now is tweezers and theatre. The version worth eating is older than the movement and simpler: a kitchen that cooks what is within a few kilometres because that is what there is.
In practice that means an autumn menu of mushroom, root, game, cured fish, lingonberry, and whatever herb and leaf was picked that week. Fermentation and curing do the heavy lifting, because a country with a four-month growing season learned to preserve before it learned to plate.
The best of these kitchens will tell you where each thing came from without being asked, and will name the person who picked it.