Fäviken's Magnus Nilsson celebrates his well deserved second Michelin Star by . . . going fishing!

We always knew Fäviken Magasinet was special. Chef Magnus Nilsson’s tiny restaurant 600 kilometres north of Stockholm accommodates only a handful of diners, serving them with food that is farmed, foraged, fished and hunted on the surrounding 24,000 estate. Now it has just become first in Swedish outside of Stockholm to be awarded two Michelin stars.

The 2016 Michelin guide to the Nordic region, published a day or two ago, also recognised René Redzepi’s brilliance. His pioneering Copenhagen restaurant, Noma, retained its two Michelin stars. Redzepi welcomed the news, tweeting that the rankings proved that the trend for Nordic cookery, far from being over, “is just beginning.”

 

Noma, Copenhagen
Noma, Copenhagen

Nilsson meanwhile, felt that the stars vindicated his restaurant’s long-term accomplishments. "We have performed at international top level for a while now,” he told the Swedish press. “More agile guides have noticed it before, and we belong among the most famous restaurants in the world.”

 

Magnus Nilsson
Magnus Nilsson

Indeed, newer gastronomic guides, such as the region’s own White Guide, and the glitzier World’s 50 Best Restaurants list have ranked both Noma and Fäviken very highly for some time now. Nevertheless, recognition by so well an established body perhaps proves that all the impressive flair, regional specificity and complexity of these two restaurants’ cookery still results in dishes which delight more traditional palettes.

 

René Redzepi in Sydney, 2016
René Redzepi in Sydney, 2016

Redzepi was in Australia when he received the news, overseeing his Sydney pop-up, and congratulated his fellow Nordic establishments. Nilsson, meanwhile, was back home in Sweden, and when asked how he planned to celebrate, replied he was planning to go cod fishing in Norway. We hope you hook a big one, Magnus. For greater insight into these two restaurants buy your Fäviken book here and our Noma book here; meanwhile, for greater insight into the region more generally get Nilsson’s Nordic Cookbook, and for visual insight into the region's landscape and terroir, you can also pre-order Nilsson's debut photobook, Nordic