Raised on a farm and inspired by simple bread and butter, Mathias Dahlgren has grown to become one of Europe’s most exciting chefs. Sweden.se meets him to find out more about Swedish food and what to eat in summer.
Star chef Mathias Dahlgren prefers to use Swedish ingredients if possible. Photo: Åke E:son Lindman
Q and A Mathias Dahlgren
What’s so special about Swedish ingredients?
They grow where I live and cook.
So it’s important to cook with local ingredients?
I would say it’s essential. People and ideas should travel; it’s good for them. But produce should not. Of course some things can travel, such as wine or black pepper, and there are people who take the idea of local produce too far. If I use a leek from southern Sweden, there will always be someone who asks why I didn’t use one from Stockholm. But generally I prefer to use Swedish ingredients if possible.
Does that dictate the kind of food you make?
Traditional Swedish food has become somewhat exotic, but I didn’t want to cook what people get at home. What I cook is more a blend of local ingredients and global influences.
Do you have a favorite season?
A hundred years ago we ate only what was to hand and in season. Today, we can buy cucumber 365 days a year. We have forgotten that cucumber tastes best for a short few weeks in late summer when it is in season. So many foods have their own micro season, which lasts just a few weeks. In August, September and October, you have the best of the late summer vegetables and the start of the game season in Sweden.
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In 2009, Matsalen was awarded its second Michelin star. Photo: Åke E:son Lindman
If you’re spending summer in Sweden what should you eat?
I would say fruit, berries, mushrooms and vegetables — all of which are at their best during the summer.
What’s the quintessential Swedish dish in summer?
New potatoes with dill and butter.
If you like food where should you head to in Sweden?
The only way to explore our gastronomic regions properly is with a local. We are not so good at marketing our food in Sweden. We have fantastic raw ingredients, but we need to get better at making something of them. Look at the fantastic job the Italians have done all over the world.
What would we find on your dining table at home?
I do a lot of cooking at home, but I keep it simple. People come to my restaurant for a seven-course tasting menu. At home I’ll make just one dish, say organic roast chicken and a nice salad. Whatever I cook has to involve finger licking.
You enjoy licking your fingers?
I grew up on a farm in the north of Sweden and will never forget the smell of warm bread freshly baked in the oven, the melted butter running over your fingers. I have been a professional chef for 22 years now and know how to cook, but when I make something new — whether at the restaurant or home — it has to have that bread-and-butter feeling. Then I know it’s good.
Apart from your own, is there another restaurant with that bread-and-butter feeling?
I would say Oaxen, out in the [Stockholm] archipelago. To create world-class food like that on such a small island, that’s special and somewhat surprising.
Nothing beats Swedish strawberries in summer. Photo: Henrik Trygg
Mathias Dahlgren — the facts
Born: March 10, 1969. Raised on a farm in Storliden, near Umeå, in the north of Sweden.
Career: Worked as a chef in Sweden and Spain, before opening Bon Lloc in Stockholm in 1996. In 2007, he opened Restaurant Mathias Dahlgren at the Grand Hôtel Stockholm, with the world-class Matsalen (The Dining Room) and more informal Matbaren (The Food Bar). Dahlgren is also the professor of gastronomy at Umeå University.
Accolades: Dahlgren is the only Swedish chef to have won the Bocuse d’Or (1997). He was awarded his first Michelin star at Bon Lloc and has been voted Kockarnas Kock (chef of all chefs) six times by his Swedish peers. Matsalen recently picked up its second Michelin star, and Matbaren has one too. Matsalen is also on Restaurant Magazine’s S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
Motto: “Believe in your own ideas, respect the ideas of others, and question both daily.”
Last meal: “Anything, as long as I could eat it with my wife.”
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Rob Hincks
Rob Hincks is a former chef-turned-writer and editor. He’s more likely to serve bread and butter than a seven-course tasting menu for dinner though.
The author alone is responsible for the opinions expressed in this article.
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