Ten Roux scholars get a culinary tour of Sweden

Ten previous Roux scholars set course to Sweden to eat at top restaurants and experience the country’s culinary delights

Pleasing a table of Britain’s best chefs is a daunting task, but on the Roux Scholarship’s recent trip to Sweden there was a dish that won every one of them over: hummus.

As they sat in Two Forks, the tiny farm-to-table restaurant in the city of Malmö and listened to chefs Matan Levy and Charlotte Nycander explain how they painstakingly create a perfectly balanced chickpea and tahini dip, nobody around the table could stop serving themselves with the hummus, plates of crunchy salads and the soft cheese dishes that form part of their menu of Middle Eastern cuisine. As small and casual as the restaurant is, everyone found Levy and Nycander’s passion for growing and using top-class produce, with little waste and maximum efficiency, deeply inspiring.

The meal at Two Forks was a highlight of an eight-day itinerary that saw 10 of the Scholarship’s previous winners and Alain Roux enjoy a huge range of experiences in Stockholm, Malmö and the Skåne region. Steve Love,who won the scholarship in 1997, said: “It’s great to see the simplicity of some of the dishes. It’s so good to refresh your brain, take the blinkers off and see what other people are doing, fellow scholars included.”

And this, in a nutshell, is the purpose of the Roux Scholarship’s educational trips which, prior to the pandemic, operated every two years. In the past, the previous winners explored the culinary landscapes in Germany, Italy, Japan, New York and California. For this trip, the chefs wanted to delve further into the Scandinavian food scene, which led them first to Stockholm, starting with a meal at one-Michelin-starred Ekstedt, which chef Niklas Ekstedt had opened that Monday evening especially to welcome the scholars.

Ekstedt weaves new Nordic cuisine with traditional Swedish wood fire cooking. “I didn’t want an electric stove or a convection oven, I wanted a completely open, cast iron, birch wood fire,” he explained. As the scholars stood around his small kitchen, Ekstedt and his head chef Florencia Abella explained their techniques and served ember-baked, hand-dived scallops with sturgeon caviar, and wild oyster and beurre blanc.

The highlight of the meal was a seaweed-baked langoustine: “The langoustine dish was so simple but so focused on the quality of the product, it was the perfect execution – cooking on charcoal is so hard,” said Martin Carabott, 2018 winner and head chef at Hide in Mayfair.

Fishing trip in Stockholm for the scholars

As part of their stay in Stockholm, the chefs also ventured out on a fishing trip with Per Vidlund, who supplies Stockholm’s top restaurants and is the only fisher to use the Japanese ike-jime method to kill fish, which he demonstrated and invited the chefs to try. They then spent the afternoon with carving axe artisan Julia Kalthoff, who set them all up with carving stations in the woods to learn the different techniques. Her story to becoming one of Sweden’s top axe makers was one of passion, and her dedication to achieving aesthetics as well as perfect function was something everyone could relate to. The evening finished with sausages cooked over the campfire.

A visit to Stockholm wouldn’t have been complete without a meal at Frantzén, and the Roux Scholarship already has a strong relationship with chef Björn Frantzén after he was honorary president of judges in 2021. Spencer Metzger did a stage there after winning in 2019 and Oli Williamson staged at Zén in Singapore this year. From the moment they stepped through the discreet door of the restaurant, they were enthralled by the exceptional service, as important to the experience as the food. “All staff were so confident and knowledgeable, the chefs served food at the table and talked about wines and ingredients,” said 2010 winner Kenneth Culhane from the Dysart Petersham.

Apples in Malmö

The second part of the trip took place in Malmö and the southern Skäne region, where the visit was to acclaimed chef Magnus Nilsson’s apple orchard, which he established after he left Fäviken in 2019. As the scholars stood on the deck of his home near the town of Båstad, overlooking the apple trees and towards the North Sea, he explained how he was dedicated to producing apples for flavour, rather than just aesthetics. This year’s winner April Lily Partridge said: “I love meeting people who are passionate about something unusual. He had so much knowledge of something we take for granted: the apple.” Following the visit, the scholars tucked into lunch at Ferdinand wine bar prepared by Martin Brag, Sweden’s Bocuse d’Or coach.

As the trip drew to a close with a visit to Botildenborg Urban Farm, the chefs were brimming with enthusiasm from what they’d seen and learned. But the main highlight, according to Williamson? “Making new connections with the other scholars.”

Carolyn Boyd is the Roux Scholarship’s communications manager. Entries for the 2024 competition open on 6 November