Every night chef Nicolai Tram steps away from the coals to visit his children upstairs: his restaurant Knystaforsen, a new MICHELIN Star in Sweden, is a prototype for human, family, and environmental sustainability.
The story
"More than a restaurant, a way of life" is how chef Nicolai Tram calls his Knystaforsen in Rydöbruk, southern Sweden, which has just earned a MICHELIN Star in both red and green for sustainability. And the format is as original as the story behind it.
After some experience in Spain, Nicolai was a cook in Copenhagen, where he also hosted a TV show, until he and his wife Eva, a writer and photographer, decided to change their lives. Together with their two young children, they wanted to get closer to nature, escaping the stress of the metropolis. So, five years ago they sold everything they owned and moved to an abandoned sawmill next to a river in the woods, where they established first a house and then a workshop.
The initial intention was indeed to start a pop-up in Florida but plans soon changed. A full renovation followed, with the creation of the open space, the kitchen in the center, and five satellite tables. "We live above the restaurant, in fact it's our dining room and living room, so much so that before guests arrive, we go by and pick up the kids' toys.”
But naturalism is also on the table. The entire culinary proposal, divided into fifteen tastings, interspersed with a pause outside around a bonfire, focuses on fire, the soul of an indomitable and mysterious cuisine. It is the realm of embers, but also of manual dexterity, since cooking is not controlled with probes, but with the touch of the fingers or by observing the emergence of bubbles. The raw materials themselves, besides wood, are local, including lichens and even hay, which burning produces nitrates with unexplored aromatic virtues. Vegetable peels themselves, in a primordial zero-waste approach, are not thrown away, but left to char, without prior hulling, and then used as ash as an enhancer.
"For us, fire is the thread that binds our new life here. It represents the sixth sense, after sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. From the beginning it was clear that we should use only local produce and game from the forest, creating our menus according to the season. In winter there is not much choice, unlike the summer months, when there is plenty." The beverages curated by Eva follow the menu, who has arranged a double pairing: Swedish "wines" also made from apples, currants, and blueberries or homemade drinks, such as dill-fermented elderflower juice.
Source: 7canibales.com - msn.com
Photo: @Knystaforsen
