Magnus Nilsson - chef, author, photographer?

The Swedish chef and author tells us how he took the beautiful photos in his forthcoming book The Nordic Cookbook

Magnus Nilsson is something of a renaissance man. The Swedish chef and founder of the award-winning Fäviken Magasinet restaurant in Sweden has already produced one great cook book, Fäviken, for us.

However, in preparing his forthcoming more wide-ranging publication, The Nordic Cookbook, Nilsson not only read all the other English-language titles ever published on the subject, collected every single recipe for the book, and travelled to every corner of the region. He also took all the photographs.

 

One of Magnus Nilsson's photographs for The Nordic Cookbook
One of Magnus Nilsson's photographs for The Nordic Cookbook

And they aren’t simple camera phone snaps, but instead, comprise a highly accomplished series of landscape and documentary shots. As he explains in this video, shot last week when he visited our offices, Nilsson’s interest in photography began when he was seven-years-old. His first camera was an old Kodak Instamatic previously owned by his grandmother, with an old fashioned four-bulb flash cube fitted to the top. “I used to photograph the same things that I do now,” he said, “which is what happens around me.”

 

One of Magnus Nilsson's photographs for The Nordic Cookbook
One of Magnus Nilsson's photographs for The Nordic Cookbook

For The Nordic Cookbook Nilsson travelled the length and breadth of the region, shooting some truly beautiful scenic images. However, his favourite picture (top image) is one taken of a puffin catcher, on a remote island in the Faroes archipelago.

 

One of Magnus Nilsson's photographs for The Nordic Cookbook
One of Magnus Nilsson's photographs for The Nordic Cookbook

“He’s smoking and he’s waiting for a puffin to come so he can catch it in a net. It’s a beautiful photo,” Nilsson said, “but it also really represents him and the place.” As do many of the other images in the book.

 

Magnus Photography Nordic Cookbook

To learn more about this area and its fascinating cuisine, check back soon. We’ll be bringing you more details of The Nordic Cookbook, which features in our autumn 2015 list. Meanwhile, for more on Magnus and his fellow chefs, take a look at our other gastronomy titles here.

 

One of Magnus Nilsson's photographs for The Nordic Cookbook
One of Magnus Nilsson's photographs for The Nordic Cookbook