Manifesto for the New Nordic Kitchen

As Nordic chefs we find that the time has now come for us to create a New Nordic Kitchen, which in virtue of its good taste and special character compares favourable with the standard of the greatest kitchens of the world.

The purposes of the New Nordic Kitchen are as follows:

1. To express the purity, freshness, simplicity and ethics that we would like to associate with our region.

2. To reflect the different seasons in the meals.

3. To base cooking on raw materials which characteristics are especially excellent in our climate, landscape and waters.

4. To combine the demand for good taste with modern knowledge about health and well-being.

5. To promote the Nordic products and the variety of Nordic producers – and to disseminate the knowledge of the cultures behind them.

6. To promote the welfare of the animals and a sound production in the sea and in the
cultivated as well as wild landscapes.

7. To develop new possible applications of traditional Nordic food products.

8. To combine the best Nordic cooking procedures and culinary traditions with impulses from outside.

9. To combine local self-sufficiency with regional exchange of high-quality goods.

10. To cooperate with representatives of consumers, other cooking craftsmen, agriculture, fishing industry, food industry, retail and wholesale industry, researchers, teachers, politicians and authorities on this joint project to the benefit and advantage of all in the Nordic countries.

Hans Välimäki Finland	Leif Sørensen Færøerne	Mathias Dahlgren Sverige
Roger Malmin Norge	René Redzepi Danmark	Rune Collin Grønland
Erwin Lauterbach Danmark	Eyvind Hellstrøm Norge	Fredrik Sigurdsson Island
Gunndur Fossdal Færøerne	Hákan Örvarsson Island	Michael Björklund Åland

Supplement

Re point 1

• A kitchen represents the possibilities, the conditions and the values of a country or a
region and thus is an important part of the inhabitants.
• Consequently the creation of a New Nordic Kitchen also involves development of values and identity.
• We want the New Nordic Kitchen to be based on traditional Nordic values, but also put it into discussion.
• We want a New Nordic Kitchen with a strong integrity.
• Not all that is old is good – and not all changes are progressive.

By purity we mean
• Natural food products
• Absence of synthetic ingredients
• Low degree of processing

By freshness we mean
• The special feeling of being in the sparsely populated Nordic region as well as the cold climate.
• A special Nordic sensuality as regards smell, taste and atmosphere of our kitchen.
• The aromatic intensity, the juiciness and the ”crispness” in taste we meet in the fruits and wines of cold climates.

By simplicity we mean

• Simple cooking which emphasizes the taste of the raw materials – food that is rustic as well as elegant
• Honest food – the food is prepared without unnecessary efforts, complications, manipulations and transformations.

By ethics we mean
• Responsibility
• Honesty
• Sharing of knowledge
• Paying respect for the nature and the welfare of the animals
• Using local products
• Proper conduct
• Absence of DMO and growth-promoting substances
• Minimizing waste

Re point 2

The light as well as the change of seasons is some of the qualities by living in the North. We appreciate the clear differences from one season to another, and these changes should be experienced in the Nordic recipes, drinks and meals.

Re point 3

A number of berries, fruits, cereals and other starchy crops have especially favourable con-
ditions in terms of growth and taste here in the Nordic. We want to make sure that they get a bigger and better role in our kitchen.

The raw materials from the Nordic woods, beaches, mountains, hills and tundra’s – the wild plants, berries, mushrooms and animals – represent some of our finest resources and should play a far more important role in our food culture.

The Nordic is rich on lakes and surrounded by seas, which in salinity vary from the fresh and brackish waters of the Gulf of Bothnia to the salt Atlantic. Low temperatures, slow growth, more taste in fish and shellfish and a big variation of species are common for the Nordic countries. Fish and shellfish should play a more important role in the Nordic Kitchen, and they should be distributed in such a way that freshness and taste are preserved.

Re point 4

The one-sided – but not unimportant – information about the unhealthy influence of fat has
superseded the fact that health is not only a question of the absence of certain ingredients. It is even more a question about the contents of the food we get.

We will develop new kinds of good taste, which is not based on the high contents of animal fat known from the traditional Nordic Kitchen. At the same time we ask for the science of nutrition to pay attention to the neglected Nordic food products and the unconventional methods of culti-
vation and production that – apart from promoting the taste – may have a favourable influence on health and immune defence.

We refuse using fat if there is no gastronomic or nutritional reason, and we reject the use of fat as make up for a meal or a product.

Well-being in relation to food and meals is not only about feelings, but also about confidence to the meals having been made in due consideration of nature, working environment, animal ethics etc., which we want to promote in the Nordic.

Re point 5

The quality and variety of the Nordic raw materials are unknown to most people. The purpose of the new Nordic Kitchen is to promote the knowledge to its many culinary possibilities.

There are more than 50 different wild, eatable berries in the Finnish forests – and more than half of these are used commercially. When have they been offered to the rest of the Nordic?
The Nordic Gene Bank has registered more than 150 different types of horseradish with various taste qualities, but do we grow the right type?

We have a lot of fine raw materials, but why is our present working up traditions characterized by lack of gastronomic ambitions?
The raw materials of the vivid Nordic cultural inheritance are not only to be registered as genes, but are also to be judged culinarily. Besides information about growing/existence, qualities,
culinary possibilities, history, cultural importance etc. should be given to professionals as well as to the public.

The monopoly situation within several branches of trade counteracts the variety. We believe the big companies have a special obligation to aim high as regards innovation and thus contribute to strengthen the variety of products and producers. We encourage to all kinds of cooperation between big and small companies – to the benefit of both parties and thereby developing the
Nordic Kitchen.

Re point 6

The new Nordic Kitchen must contribute to promote validity, respect for the wild nature and the welfare of animals.

Today all Nordic countries have an extensive practice, production and consumption of organic food. Research, learning and development programs support all development – and besides it is part of a clear international tendency in which we intend to be participating actively.

Re point 7

We will explore and renew the traditional Nordic recipes and cooking methods.

We will listen to good advice from old people, from perusal regions and from other sources.

Salting, smoking, drying and preserving of the autumn harvest, catch, bag and slaughtering is part of our cultural and culinary inheritance – a way of working up raw materials.

Re point 8

The new Nordic Kitchen is open to inspiration from outside – as always. It is not an introvert museum kitchen.

Re point 9

We want to support the development of alternative supply lines (e.g. city markets and local products in the different shops) and to be engaged in securing better conditions for small,
innovative food companies. We request the authorities to register and secure the preservation of original products and traditional kinds of production.

The authorities should promote decentralized production of food. The agricultural policy must attach importance to the fact that the Nordic is self-sufficient with most agricultural products in the categories where our region is known to have first-quality products.

Re point 10

We invite for co-operation with the agriculture and fishing industries, big and small food
producers, food scientists, gene banks as well as big public and private kitchens, hospitals,
nursing homes etc. in view of research and product development to increase the quality of the Nordic cooking.

We invite teachers and educationists to co-operate in teaching Nordic children and young
people how to prepare, respect and appreciate the food and the meal. Children in day
nurseries, kindergartens and pupils in schools must have access to tasty, well-prepared meals. This could be achieved by skilled cooks having time-limited jobs as regional cooks in order to inspire and help various institutions, including hospitals and nursing homes, to increase the
culinary level. We reject the conditions, which means that the weak in society – i.e. the old
people, the sick and the children get the worst meals.

We invite politicians and authorities to co-operate about legislation, rules and administration of the food to make sure that we get the best opportunities to produce high-quality food and meals in the Nordic – to the benefit of all.

We request the Nordic Council of Ministers to establish a secretariat to anchor the future
process in order to develop and expand the potential of the Nordic Kitchen.