The Swedish entrepreneur Roland Rittman has successfully set up his own company called Jordnära (‘close to earth’),18 which specialises in picking and selling a wide range of herbs, mushrooms and berries. He also sells products from local farms in Skåne (Scania County) in southern Sweden, Roland’s business idea originated from picking mushrooms and selling them at the local market. He became interested in other wild foods that could be foraged and he also started to learn about edible herbs. According
15 Ibid.
16 Bitner, M. J., ‘Servicescapes: The Impact of Physical Surroundings on Customers and Employees’, Journal of Marketing 56, no. 2 (1992): 57-71.
17 Arnould, E. J., Price, L. L., Tierney, P., ‘The Wilderness Servicescape. An Ironic Commercial Landscape’, in Sherry, J. F., (ed.), Servicescapes. The Concept of Place in Contemporary Markets, Chicago 1998, 403-38.
18 http://rolandrittman.com/en/; accessed 7. 12. 2012.
to Roland, the company just grew from there. ‘We are foragers by nature’, Roland commented in our interviews with him.19 Roland actively looked for new customers, but when he offered the newly-opened Restaurant Noma herbs with the flavour of cilantro (coriander), he set something in motion, and his story has become inseparable from the story of Noma.20 The demand among contemporary Nordic chefs for exciting and normally-overlooked locally-grown foods and herbs began to rise. Roland Rittman now employs a group of foragers and sells his products to top restaurants all over the Nordic countries. For the restaurants, the foraged herbs offer not only interesting new flavours for the menu, but also a terroir narrative of locality, history and Nordic nature.
Fig. 1: Foraging with Roland Rittman, 2011. Photo: Hanne Pico Larsen.
Roland Rittman has become something of a foraging poster boy, and favourite of trendy Nordic restaurants, as he is seen to perfectly illustrate the enthusiasm for wild foods within the New Nordic Cuisine movement. Another New Nordic Cuisine theme that Rittman and his company market, is locality – in this case food from the Baltic coastline of Skåne. However, as we shall argue, when it comes to locality and food,
19 Interview with Roland Rittman, 14. 8. 2011.
20 Redzepi, R., Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine, New York and London 2010.
islands seem to have a special advantage in claiming terroir, even for the same products that can also be found on the mainland.
Islands, as pointed out by John Gillis, are perceived as being remote, and remote places are often associated with a quality of times past regardless of their actual history.
Consequently, islands are also regarded as being inherently older, more isolated, and more rooted than other places.21 Performing island-ness is closely tied to heritage production, notes Owe Ronström in his study of heritage production on the island of Gotland. When island heritage is being produced for tourism, island ‘qualities’ such as remoteness, a slower pace of life, and authenticity, tend to be emphasised.22 The Nordic coastal countries, especially those in the area stretching from the east coast of Sweden, through the Åland archipelago, to the west coast of Finland, rank among countries with the highest density of islands along their coasts, in the world.23 Questions regarding branding, identity, and economic survival, are naturally vital to the island communities of the Baltic. Little wonder then that the stereotypes of island-heritage production merge with the tropes of the successful New Nordic Cuisine movement. However, the extent to which this connection is deliberately and consciously made, and turned into a terroir narrative among the island food entrepreneurs, varies.
One example of a conscious performance of island-ness, which incidentally also has a connection to Restaurant Noma, is the apple orchards of the Danish island of Lilleø. The owner of the orchard is Claus Meyer, one of the most powerful food entrepreneurs in Denmark and co-founder of Noma. Meyer is also the owner of several other food-related businesses such as Meyers Madhus and Meyer’s bakeries as well as the commercial production of fruit juices and vinegars made from Lilleø-apples. As one of the early and high-profile advocates of the New Nordic Cuisine, Meyer is clearly familiar with the vocabulary of the gastronomic world. It should come as no surprise then that the description of the island orchards in Meyer’s own web pages is soaked in terroir language:
The island Lilleø has a unique micro climate and is one of the smallest islands in Denmark. It is situated in the sea surrounded by the islands of Zealand, Møn, Falster and Lolland. Since the 1930ties fruit farming has been the main activity of the island which today has more than 25 apple cultivars. There is no irrigation on the island which leads to a smaller yield compared to the traditional orchards. Plenty of night dew, the salty sea air and the smaller yield, contribute to giving the fruits a great intense taste. The fruit trees are normally cut down when they are 15 years old,
21 Gillis, J., ‘Places remote and islanded’, Michigan Quarterly Review 40, no.1 (2001): 39-58.
22 Ronström, O., ‘A Different Land. Heritage Production on the Island of Gotland’, Shima. The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures 2, no. 2 (2008): 1-18.
23 Ronström, O., ‘Island words, Island worlds’, Islands Studies Journal 4, no. 2 (2009): 163-82.
but on this island many of the trees are between 20 and 60 years old which gives them a first class quality of taste. Unique for Lilleø is also its vineyard. Hansen's vineyard produces top quality wines for Noma.24
Thus the island conditions can be said to lead not only to local products of high quality, but also to a unique form of what we have labelled superterroir here. Moreover, the fact that Lilleø apples stem from an island – a clearly distinguishable area – has greatly benefitted their marketing possibilities, explains Hans Lund Hansen, apple farmer and one of Meyer’s collaborators.25 Even when the island was flooded in 2006 resulting in a large part of the island terroir being damaged, the media coverage secured nationwide sympathy and drew even more attention to the apples on the small island.26 Island status is thus seen to confer a stronger level of identity on products.
Fig. 2: Apple picking with a Lilleø farmer, Hans Lund Hansen, 2012. Photo: Morten Sørensen.
This brings us to our argument that traditional Nordic wild and indigenous foods, combined with the idea of islands as being more authentic, remote, and natural than the mainland, produce a perfect terroir narrative – in fact, a superterroir narrative. The island format serves to condense, render exotic, and lend authenticity to foods. From this perspective even a commercial venture such as the large-scale growing of apple trees seems closer to traditional forging than modern-day industries.
24 See http://www.clausmeyer.dk/en/the_island_lilleoe.html; accessed 7. 12. 2012.
25 Interview with Hans Lund Hansen, 14. 8. 2012.
26 Ibid.
Nordic Islands’ Cuisines
A clear awareness of the concept of terroir and a conscious connection with the New Nordic Cuisine manifesto can also be found on the Estonian island of Muhu, close to Saaremaa island. The entrepreneurs of the luxury restaurant and spa at Pädeste Manor on Muhu Island, have emphasised its island status and have started what they call The Nordic Islands’ Cuisine project. The theme of a return to wild and traditional food is prominent in their homepage presentation:
[At] Pädeste manor we decided to tread back, to unfold and sometimes rediscover this tradition. We like to offer our clients a choice of various palates from Muhu and neighboring islands in the fine tradition of Nordic Islands’ Cuisine.
We offer tastes, which gain their character from the produce, techniques and recipes originating from the Nordic Islands. Terroir and the seasons guide us in our cuisine. There are incredible advantages to a rough and rugged climate. Have you ever pondered the influences of our summer, with its long evenings and bright nights, on the flavor of locally grown food? Not to mention the dampness of the fall and crisp winter at its heels with their ever-changing temperatures. There’s no doubt this all contributes to the taste of the food. The slower a plant grows, the better it tastes!
[...]. The islands belonging to the Nordic Islands’ Cuisine area are all quite similar in this sense, despite their location. […] Muhu is home to a great variety of wild animals, and that’s why we often make a traditional Muhu dish from game, called Lomat meats. When using traditional techniques like salting, drying, pickling and smoking to prepare the raw, fresh ingredients from our islands, we get a result that suits our kitchen perfectly.27
In the Nordic Islands’ Cuisine project, the islands of the Baltic are described as having much in common despite different locations and other circumstances. Moreover, the motif of an inherent island superterroir is evident, as is the importance of the theme of foraging. As mentioned above, the foraging narrative is one that lends authenticity to the New Nordic Food movement and is part of the communicative staging and servicescape on offer in this context.
27 http://www.padaste.ee/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/padaste_nic_A4ls_ENG-2.pdf; accessed 10. 12.
2012.
In one of our other case-studies on the Åland Islands it became evident that it was not considered enough just to follow the manifesto of New Nordic Cuisine. Therefore, a special Åland kitchen manifesto was launched in January 2012.28 One of the key figures is the local star chef and entrepreneur Michael Björklund – who also was one of the signatures to the original New Nordic Cuisine manifesto. The number of food businesses and entrepreneurs on Åland has increased significantly over the last decade as has general interest in locally-produced food – something that is evident in the huge popularity of the annual Åland harvest festival.29 Although many of the smaller local entrepreneurs do not directly refer to the concept of terroir, the descriptions of their products make a clear connection between the special conditions of the place and the taste of the product.30 Likewise, many food products are described in terms of a ‘return to tradition’ in combination with local products.31
A somewhat different example of when the themes of terroir and foraging are drawn upon in a local food-branding attempt involves the so-called Åland champagne.
In 2010, a shipwreck containing what might be the world’s oldest champagne (Juglar bottles from the early nineteenth century), was found in Åland waters. The local government on Åland soon turned this into a local asset. Without actually having anything to do with the Åland Islands, the salvaged champagne has become an Åland product of sorts as it is sold at auctions, advertised, and given a stamp of ‘heritage’, locally. Åland entrepreneurs soon picked up on the idea. At the conference centre and restaurant Silverskär, it is now possible to store one’s own champagne in the same conditions as those which applied to the famous ‘shipwreck champagne’ – advertised as the ‘ideal conditions’ for champagne storage.32
Conclusion
With our examples we intended to show that present-day foraging, both as an actual practice and as a trope, is integral to the idea of the New Nordic Cuisine. In other words, foraging for Nordic wild food is a living traditional practice, but, increasingly, it has also become an important element in the building of various Nordic brands.
28 http://www.landsbygd.ax/_composer/upload/landsbygdsutveckling/Alandskt_koksmanifest _30.1.12.pdf; accessed 10. 12. 2012.
29 In 2011, the harvest festival was attended by over 17,000 participants. The total population of Åland is 28, 000 (http://www.skordefest.ax/fakta/; accessed 10.12. 2012).
30 For example, the Apple Orchard, Peders Aplagård, emphasises the many sun hours enjoyed by the archipelago community (http://www.aplagarden.net/; accessed 10. 12. 2012).
31 When a Swedish food magazine gave Åland butter the highest score in a comparative test in 2011, the chief executive of the Åland Dairy (ÅCA) commented, saying: ‘The secret is to do the churning in the old-fashioned way […] and to only use Åland products […]; it’s an enlarged version of what people did on the farms in the old days’. See http://www.aca.ax/sv/nyheter/vart_smor_ar_godast/15; accessed 10. 12. 2012.
32 http://www.visitaland.com/se/fakta/artiklar?articleid=2774; accessed 10. 12. 2012.
Terroir narratives about the return to traditional methods of food preparation, and to
‘natural’ local food, are vital for the success of New Nordic servicescapes. Moreover, by drawing upon various qualities and characteristics associated with islands, island food entrepreneurs have been able to create the concept of not only an island terroir, but of a Nordic Island superterroir.
Fig. 3: Susanne Österlund-Pötzsch and Hanne Pico Larsen island-hopping, 2012. Photo: Morten Sørensen.