>> Funding for this series has been provided in part by the following... >> Up Norway, curates Norwegian travel experiences in the footsteps of "New Scandinavian Cooking."

>> ♪ No, take me home ♪ Take me home where I belong >> Vgan, the full taste of chocolate.

>> Grieg Suites.

Chocolate with apples from Norway.

♪♪ Havila Voyages.

Pure Northern.

>> Viestad: Even though I'm going to serve these with butter, I think this is going to be calorie-neutral with all the exercise.

[ Theme music plays ] Hi, and welcome to "New Scandinavian Cooking" from Oslo and to a culinary journey on the Sorland line, the railway line that takes us all the way from the capital to Stavanger in southwestern Norway, I'm Andreas Viestad.

And we start the journey here near Oslo Central Station at Norway's best restaurant, Maaemo.

And Maaemo is one of the most interesting exponents of what's referred to as the New Nordic Cuisine.

This New Nordic cooking has changed not just the way Norwegians, but the entire world, views the food from this region.

One of the most important principles of the New Nordic Cuisine is the focus on the ingredients.

I'll go fishing for langoustines, or Norway lobster, and cook them the simplest, best, and most unfussy way I know.

On a grill.

In Southern Norway's main city, Kristiansand, I'll meet up with Nicolai Ellitsgaard Pedersen, master chef, and he'll make a modern version of a very traditional Southern Norwegian summer dish, mackerel with cucumber salad.

The New Nordic Cuisine is inspired by the poverty of the past and the affluence of the present and the contrast between the two.

In the old times, one of the things we ate a lot of was herring because we had to.

Today we eat it because it's so delicious and healthy.

The New Nordic Cuisine.

It might seem like a very abstract thing, but it is actually something quite real and something that has revolutionized the way we view the food of the north.

When I started working with Norwegian and Scandinavian cooking 15 years ago, many people considered it a bit of a joke, that they talked about the lutefisk and some of the rather strange dishes that we had brought with us from the past.

But with the New Nordic Cuisine, there's been a new confidence in our own traditions, in our own chefs, and in our own ingredients.

The most important restaurant in Norway is Maaemo.

They started in 2010, and after only about a year, they gained two stars in the "Michelin Guide."

That's something that's quite unheard of.

And to some, it might just seem like a luxury restaurant, but one of the things that make this my favorite restaurant in Norway is that the food of the chef, Esben Holmboe Bang, dares to be simple and quite sensitive, and it says something about him but also about our shared experiences of living in the north.

A meal here is not about filling yourself up.

It's a journey consisting of up to 20 small dishes, some of them new and totally unexpected, like this combination of frozen nyr cheese and bleak roe.

Mmm.

Or simply fava beans marinated with horseradish.

Or rommegrot, the sour cream porridge like you've never before experienced it, here with fine shavings of cured reindeer heart.

And a wood sorrel ice cream.

That tastes a bit like taking a walk in a forest as a child.

When I was a child, I would always go and pick wood sorrel.

So, Esben, what do you think is the most important sort of single element or single movement that this New Nordic Cuisine has brought to the table?

>> I think it has brought several things to the table.

And I think we can discuss if it's old or new or what it is.

But the most important thing for me is the nature, to make food that reflects where we are and who we are and in what time we live in, with having a look back on how we used to live in this region before and try to bring that to the plate in a new way.

I think that's very interesting.

What we have here that is not represented in maybe Southern Europe is that clean, cold, crisp nature.

And I think to be able to reflect that on the plate is something truly special.

>> Viestad: And today, people from the rest of the world suddenly look to the north to find inspiration.

>> Mm-hmm.

It's, of course, there was, years back, it was everybody looks to France or Italy or Spain, and I think that something is happening in the north, and I think that truly, I think five of the best restaurant experiences in the world is to be experienced here, in my opinion.

And I think what is also very interesting is the sustainability, the way that a lot of restaurants is having a reference point in nature, is very unique.

>> Viestad: It's not just about buying a luxury product.

It's about going out and finding something that is an expression of nature that is there sometimes regardless of us.

The wood sorrel would be here.

>> Exactly.

And I think true luxury is to be able to experience something personal and something that somebody has put their heart and soul and time into creating for you.

It's not about caviar or lobster or truffle.

It's about somebody creating something truly personal.

♪♪ >> Viestad: If you look at Norway from afar, and I'm not talking bird's-eye perspective.

I'm talking further out into the atmosphere, from a satellite perspective.

Then all the houses will disappear, and the fields and the roads and railway tracks and even the cities.

And what you're left with is a long, rugged coastline and a great big forest.

And these two elements, the central components of Norway, if you will, the coast and the forest, are the foundations of Maaemo's most famous and I also think most interesting and delicious dish, a combination of langoustine and spruce.

And here I've got a langoustine tail.

It's raw.

I've cleaned it.

And here I've got butter that I have melted.

This is a fondue pot that I've set to the lowest possible setting.

So now it's about 65 degrees Celsius, 150 Fahrenheit, and I'm going to poach the langoustine.

Now, cooking on such low temperatures requires a lot from your ingredients.

If you're not 100% sure about the freshness of the langoustine, you should cook it at a much higher temperature, at closer to boiling point, 100 degrees Celsius, or 212 Fahrenheit.

Now, I'm just going to poach the langoustine tail for about 15 minutes, and the result is very juicy, very lightly cooked.

So now the langoustine is done, which means that it's slightly undercooked, exactly how I like it.

And to this I'm going to add something a little bit sour, fresh tasting.

It's a spruce syrup.

And it smells and it tastes of the forest.

And then, as always with ambitious restaurant food, there's an element to the presentation as well.

And at Maaemo, the langoustine is served on top of a rock, on top of some spruce branches.

And as if that was not enough, at the end, a few drops of lightly scented water, water with a little bit of spruce in it, are poured around the dish.

And that's when you discover that there's some dry ice underneath.

This smoke smells of spruce, and to a Norwegian, it has a profound effect.

It's like being in a forest on a winter's day and getting that little whiff of spruce in the air.

This is a complete dish.

♪♪ You can find all the recipes at our website...

If you see a map of Norway, you'll notice that the coast is never straight.

It's full of mountains and fjords.

And as a consequence, the main railway line was built several miles inland, and a small network of subsidiary lines connected to the coast, like the coastal town of Arendal, where I'm heading.

♪♪ And I haven't given up on the langoustines yet.

I'm meeting up with my good friend Lars Kullerud.

Most of the year, he is president of the University of the Arctic.

But on his free time, he is an avid fisherman.

One of the things that we've seen the last couple of decades is that people are starting to embrace the ingredients of the north.

>> No, because they realize the food from the north is the best in the world.

>> Viestad: And we're after one of the true delicacies, the best shellfish there is.

>> Yes.

>> Viestad: The langoustine.

>> And it's a lot of labor.

It's the best food that exists.

And you gain almost nothing.

Are you strong enough for this?

Give to me the ropes to pull.

>> Viestad: [ Grunts ] That's heavy.

There's got to be something in here.

Even though I'm going to serve these with butter, I think this is going to be calorie-neutral with all the exercise.

>> Wow.

Catch!

>> Viestad: Two.

One big, one small.

They look a little bit exhausted, but probably not as much as me.

And there is the last one.

Oh, yes.

[ Laughs ] There are two big ones.

When it comes to langoustines, freshness is absolutely the most important thing.

I've cut them in half.

I consider that to be the most humane thing.

You want to do it as quick and as painless as possible.

And I've placed them on a really, really hot grill.

And they are so fresh and so freshly killed that you can see them twitching, but they are absolutely 100% dead.

I grill it for about one minute with the flesh side down, and then I flip it around, and the rest with the shell side down so it doesn't lose too much moisture.

And after just three or four minutes, the langoustines are done.

You can see it's boiling vigorously in its own juices.

If you grill them too long, they become dry and rubbery.

So they need to have a lot of moisture in them still.

And I rather like them undercooked rather than overcooked.

Then I serve it quite simply with some herb butter that I made with fresh herbs, some that I brought with me and some from Lars's garden.

There's some tarragon, some lemon balm.

There's some chervil.

A little bit of fennel, some parsley, anything that's sort of slightly sweet.

And you can mix and match as you please.

Would you like a bite?

>> I would love it.

>> Viestad: It can't be more than 15 minutes since they were still alive.

>> I look forward to this.

>> Viestad: Mm-hmm.

♪♪ [ Speaking Norwegian ] You can find all the recipes at our website... ♪♪ The next stop is Kristiansand, the main city in the south of Norway.

Normally, it's a busy administrative hub, but in summer, life halts to a stop.

All people care about is fishing and enjoying life.

I'm meeting up with Chef Nicolai Ellitsgaard Pedersen, who's the head of Ellitsgaard Food.

He spends his summer foraging for wild herbs along the coastline.

There are some amazing flavors to be found, aren't there?

>> Yeah, there is.

Try this.

It's pineapple weed.

>> Viestad: Pineapple weed?

>> Yeah.

>> Viestad: [ Chuckles ] >> You get the name now.

>> Viestad: Yes.

We're not anywhere near being able to grow a pineapple here in this country, but it's amazing that we have a plant with much of the same flavor.

>> Yes, it's fascinating how much herbs and different kind of seaweed you can find, and berries, who has a high exotic flavor.

>> Viestad: So how many different wild herbs and seaweed do you have on your menu right now?

>> Right now we have 26.

And we have five different kinds of seaweed and four kind of berries.

>> Viestad: Fishing has always been important here along the coast.

But generally, the fisheries are not so good during the summer.

But there's one notable exception.

Mackerel.

And the main dish in this region is mackerel with cucumber salad.

And today Nicolai is going to make this classic with a modern touch the New Nordic kitchen style.

I wonder if my expectations of the dish will be fulfilled.

>> Here I have my raw mackerel.

>> Viestad: So even the fundamentals are different.

You're not even going to cook the mackerel.

>> No, not today.

And then I don't use salt.

I use my dried, the three different seaweed from before.

>> Viestad: And that's sea lettuce, sea belt, and dulse, right?

>> Exactly.

>> Viestad: Mm-hmm.

>> Put it on the plate.

Then I have some cucumber powder.

>> Viestad: Cucumber powder?

So that's -- >> Yeah.

I sliced the cucumber, and then I dried it for three days at like 60, 65 degrees.

>> Viestad: It looks like pepper, but it tastes almost more cucumber than cucumber.

>> Yeah, and I like the combination about the dried cucumber and the pickled cucumber.

>> Viestad: Because here you have pickled cucumber.

>> Yeah, pickled cucumber.

>> Viestad: And then some of the wild herbs?

>> Some of the wild herbs.

Yeah.

And first I take the pineapple weed.

>> Viestad: And then I know this is...

I know that one.

That's the grass leaf.

>> Yeah, it is.

And you can...

There is two different types.

There is the one from the garden, and then there is the one who is nearby the sea.

And the one nearby the sea has a much more salty taste, and I love that taste.

And this is the seaside sandplant, and it will bring, like the cucumber, it will give a fresh, green taste.

>> Viestad: Mm.

And one of the things that I really love about Nicolai's cooking is that he actually uses the wild herbs to get a flavor through.

Sometimes it's just used for decoration, but with Nicolai, it always serves a purpose.

>> Mm-hmm.

There is no meaning using a herb, if it doesn't have a taste.

>> Viestad: Mm.

>> And this is the secret ingredients.

If you smell it, tell me what it smells about.

>> Viestad: It's truffles.

I thought you -- >> It's a seaweed, dried seaweed, and unfortunately, I can't tell you the name.

>> Viestad: So there's a truffle in the sea.

Is it because you can't tell me or because you won't tell me?

>> I won't tell you.

Not yet.

Maybe in a year or two.

>> Viestad: [ Chuckles ] And then finally, that emulsion of... you said oyster and sea lettuce.

>> Yeah.

And then it is finished.

>> Viestad: Mm.

Can I taste?

>> [ Chuckles ] Of course.

[ Speaking Norwegian ] >> Viestad: Mmm.

Mmm.

[ Chuckles ] All the flavors of the traditional dish are there except the flavor, that fried flavor.

But you have the mackerel.

You have the cucumber.

And then you have all these different layers of flavor as well.

>> Yeah.

Exactly.

>> Viestad: And with the truffle, ah, that is brilliant.

That's a pretty good dish.

>> Yeah.

Thank you.

♪♪ >> Viestad: A culinary journey along the coast can't pretend to cover all the aspects that are of interest to us food lovers, but it can bring us a little closer to the core, the ingredients, the nature, the people, and the flavors.

And a journey by train is also to be reminded of history, like here on Snartemo station.

Work on the Sorland line between Oslo and Stavanger started in 1872, but it never seemed to get finished.

It kept going in small, small intervals and was only completed in 1944 during the Second World War.

At that point, Norway was under German occupation, and the Germans used a labor force consisting mainly of prisoners of war.

It was a brutal history.

And here at the station of Snartemo there is a monument to some of the people who died during the completion of the railway line.

♪♪ So far, we've been going south, but just about an hour ago, we passed the southern tip of Norway, and we're now going westwards with a slight tilt to the north.

We're approaching the city of Egersund, and Egersund is one of the oldest settlements in Norway.

We know there were people here in the Stone Ages.

During the Viking era, it was a busy fishing and trading post, and it's still the busiest fishing port in Norway.

And traditionally, the main fish has been herring.

Herring is what has sustained the highest number of Norwegians for the longest duration.

But during the 1960s, the fisheries collapsed.

And now, thanks to regulations and I guess a bit of luck, herring is back.

There's now more herring than there was 50 or 100 years ago.

One of the things that I find fascinating with the New Nordic Cuisine is that it highlights the contrast between poverty and affluence, between tradition and innovation.

In old times, we ate herring because we had to.

We had to sustain ourselves.

Today we eat it because we find it delicious.

Here I've got two wonderful fresh fillets of herring and one piece of lightly salted herring.

And I'm just gonna finely chop them.

And I cut them in thin slices lengthwise and then crosswise.

And since herring is a fatty fish, I'm going to add some fresh-tasting flavors.

Little bit of apple, and I don't bother peeling it, not just because I'm lazy, but also because I think it looks nice with those little red dots in between.

And then a little bit of turnip that I've already chopped.

A little bit of celeriac, and celeriac is quite hard.

So I've chopped it into really tiny, tiny pieces.

And then some celery, some stalk celery.

And then for temperament, some strong mustard.

Mmm.

Mmm.

It's delicious.

It's soft and hard at the same time.

It's salty and sweet.

What it needs now is some dill.

Mmm.

I'll serve the tartare on toast.

And since the recurrent theme in today's program is the New Nordic Cuisine, we have to have some wild herbs.

Here I've got some meadowsweet and some willow herb and some sea buckthorn, the very sour berry that's quite aromatic, almost like passion fruit.

And to top it off, a quail egg.

Now the dish is done, and we're at the end of the line.

We're in Stavanger.

Mmm.

Mmm.

It's delicious, and especially when you get a bite of that sea buckthorn.

There's an almost tropical element to it.

So you think, "Is...

Does this belong here?"

And then you realize it is that angry little berry that grows along the coast, and it all comes together.

Remember that you can find all the recipes at our website, newscancook.com.

Stavanger has a unique access to ingredients from the rich agricultural lands of Rogaland and of course from the sea.

It also has a very international vibe, and these two things have combined to make it a culinary destination.

No city in Norway has so many ambitious restaurants if you compare to size and population.

I'm on my way to Tango Bar and Kitchen, one of the best restaurants in town, to sample a few modern Norwegian herring dishes.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> For more of the "New Scandinavian Cooking" experience, visit our website or Facebook page.

♪♪ >> Funding for this series has been provided in part by the following... >> Up Norway, curates Norwegian travel experiences in the footsteps of "New Scandinavian Cooking."

>> ♪ No, take me home ♪ Take me home where I belong >> Vgan, the full taste of chocolate.

>> Grieg Suites.

Chocolate with apples from Norway.

♪♪ Havila Voyages.

Pure Northern.

♪♪