Food Studio

"With these kinds of projects one must be surrounded by passionate souls, by people that love what they do and what they stand for." Jon-Frede Engdahl reaches out his hand and offers a good cup of coffee. It’s easy to talk with him about raw materials, market shares, possibilities, ecology and idealism. One story leads to another and, before you know it, it’s lunchtime and the restaurant is suddenly filled with hungry women and young mothers on maternity leave.

This year has been all about finding new ways to share our knowledge. One of the projects we have been working on is the e-bok Gathering together with Nordic Roots. Nordic Roots is a deeper, slower «time pocket» for the sharing knowledge, wisdom, and creativity from people who easily see the many opportunities to live a life more aligned with themselves and nature, both in their business and in their private life.

Siri Kalla is the first certified Fertility Awareness educator in Norway and founder of Our Fertility, a platform for sharing knowledge about holistic reproductive health and the female body. In this interview she tells us why the method of Fertility Awareness can help you gain profound knowledge about your body and self, and how creating an inner sustainable health directly  relates to sustainability on a macro level. 

Can silence be a superpower? What is the potential of slowing it all down and diving into the practice of listening? Poet and researcher Olga Lehmann has studied what silence can do to us, our multi-layered health and everyday wellbeing.

Late June, Food Studio tested a new concept, yoga & breakfast. Due to our love of both we figured there could not be a more perfect combination and a better way to start the day. The location was Schous library, in the centre of the capitol, making a point to create a space to completely relax in the midst of the city.

ØKOSLO week recently took place from 14th to the 20th of October. Food studio participated in this inspiring experience and project that showed that Oslo has a lot more to offer concerning organic food culture.

If you are a teenager in Nannestad you are actually pretty lucky. For the past seventeen years Sidsel S. Sandberg (73) has invited the pupils of Nannestad Secondary School home to her organic farm. They work, build muscles, get fresh air and connect with animals, plants and the soil. It is a perfect way of learning by doing, and to be honest, it is something that all children should be allowed to experience.

Well-seated in a 120 years old, large, wooden building at Bygdøy - originally a museum for agricultural tools - are over a hundred hungry guests. They are here to experience a dinner prepared by cooks from three of Oslo's best restaurants; Smalhans, Fru K and Kolonihagen.

2nd of February we gather a group of collaborators, friends and new acquaintances in Kødbyen, Copenhagen, for a night of exploring, conversation and dining. Gitte Holmboe of Bøgedal Bryghus and chef Thomas Randsøe, along with Anne Lunell and Charles Nystrand from Koppi, made sure we ate and drank well. The guest of honor this night was Stéphane Meyer and Lise Kvan, from the Jura region of France and Paris respectively.

When creative worlds collide, magic happens. Pudder Agency collaborated with Food Studio on the launch of a new branch representing four photographers, creating three different spaces referencing to the world of photography - the Lightroom, Darkroom and Outback.

It all began up at the old cabin Sæterhytten on Dronningberget, where everyone met to a introductory speech by Idun Leinaas, followed by a warming, bright orange pumpkin soup heated over a bonfire and served in the chill autumnal air. As people finished their cup of soup, it was time to continue on in one of the four knowledge groups.

The recent launch of the Oslo Kooperativ heralds a new dawn in bringing organic produce from small scale producers directly to the consumer.

Summer had dowsed the Grown & Gathered patch with light, delivering lush and abundant life. Plentiful pumpkins and zucchinis cascade sideways, while giant sunflowers and corn stand tall, stretching for the sun. Now into autumn, the garden is still blooming, with late-starters finally deciding to show their true potential, and the summer crops continuing to relish the warm days.

"Norway violates the human rights of indigenous people. I feel it deep down in my spine. In November I went to Fosen and photographed and filmed the facts. I stood close and witnessed what the landscape looked like. I was there for two days before I was unable to stay there any longer. It was too painful. The wind turbines on Fosen must be demolished, and the land returned to the Fosen Sami" - Jannik Abel.

On October 11th, Food Studio joined forces with Growlab Oslo to host a dinner on behalf of Kinfolk. The theme of the evening was A Messy Meal: Embracing Wabi-sabi in the Everyday. It was not hard to find the right place for the Kinfolk dinner. Food Studio’s recent location is one of the quirkiest places in central Oslo. A derelict factory building where the city’s deranged and destitute used to work. The spacious halls and narrow corridors still tell their tale.

At Food Studio, we believe that learning goes hand in hand with hands-on experience. That is why we are very happy to be able to facilitate a wonderful series of cooking classes with self taught fermenter and bone broth enthusiast Bård Watn!

In early April, I was invited to come to Awaji Island by one of my friends, Masayo Funakoshi, and set off the journey in a spur of the moment. Masayo is a chef, who makes people all over the world happy with her exquisite cuisine. She participated as food director in the Get Away project organized by Food Studio, held on this island. Setting off in a highway bus late at night from Tokyo, I crossed the Seto Inland Sea early the next morning.

Bøgedal Bryghus, a small craft brewery located in Jylland in Denmark, delivers beer for a number of acclaimed restaurants, including Noma and Aamanns in Copenhagen, as well as Maaemo in Oslo. Their beers are especially celebrated for the full-bodied malt flavor, the result of an old traditional brewing method making the so-called “Godtøl”, directly translated good beer. And good beer it certainly is.

Scandinavia used to have a rich tradition of brewing beer stretching back hundreds of years. However, over the last few decades this skill seemed to have fallen out of favour. Recently, however, this forgotten art of craft beer-making has been resurrected by small-scale breweries across Scandinavia to great success. Here, Food Studio takes a look at what makes the Nordic approach to brewing beer so special.

The nature and our surroundings are filled with edible and nutritious plants and weeds. Foraging for food ourselves can give a sense of nearness to the nature, and offer surprising gastronomic experiences. Food Studio has been out gathering some of what the nature has to offer right now. This is a guide to some of the plants you can find, and our top tips to what to do with it.

As a member of the Koperativet you get a bag of the best seasonal and locally produced vegetables from biodynamic or organic farmers. Food from farmers who run their farms with great dedication, knowledge and love. We have used these bags as the starting point for our courses and when you have the ingredients in your kitchen. Your job is to use, prepare and enjoy this food so that all the love and nourishment contained in the raw materials becomes available to you.

Food Studio got up at 5 a.m. to spread and pack 2000 sandwiches, serving up a tasty, organic and free breakfast to Oslos' early birds, together with Trøbbelskyter and Mathallen Vulkan! Food Studios goal was to challenge the government's requirement of 15% of all food turnover in 2020 being organic. Food Studio went for 50%.
Photos: Christoffer Johannesen

What happens when Food Studio teams up with the Nobel Peace Centre to create a feast amongst the 25 pictured families in the “What the World Eats” exhibition? We invited our guests to explore an extraordinary space and get to know how food travels across the world, landing on our plate.

Photographer and farmer Finn Dale Iversen and Evelyn Romer Iversen are the two friendly faces behind the entire operation at the biodynamic farm at Bergsmyrene. We brought our guest to their farm along with Elizabeth Brockfield and Growlab for an inspirational evening on sustainable cooking and urban farming.

The association between music festivals and food is not, typically, a happy one. While the bands may be world-class the food, sadly, is often not. No, festivals are for listening to live music at ear-shredding volumes, and if you want gourmet grub then go to a restaurant. But what if the restaurant, a Michelin-starred one at that, came to the festival?

At the moment I am sitting overlooking the fjord of and the mountains of Saltdal having a winter break in the north of Norway. There is a peaceful quietness after a storm yesterday. The sun is slowly waking up in the winterlandscape, breaking through in dots on the mountains around. One of the most valuable teachings of last year has the importance of this rest, this silence after a storm. How this is where we regenerate, where we charge, and get ready for the next round.

It is the first weekend since the official beginning of spring in Japan, and for the local Tokyo habitant it means one thing: the season of the cherry blossom has finally arrived. Gone are the cold winter days and the short afternoons. Everybody is eager to stretch their legs and look for the best spots in town to witness the marvelous sakura trees come to life again. Along the Meguro River, the sakuras cover the river in white and pink, and a multitude of locals and surprised tourists walk through tunnels of sakura flowers.

On Norway’s 200th National Day, May 17th, 2014, we hosted a dinner on behalf of Kinfolk. The theme of the evening was l'ésprit de la mer – the spirit of the sea– so we headed out to an island in the Oslo Fjord, while other sea inspired Kinfolk dinners were going on in many different corners of the world.

« Where you tend a rose my lad, a thistle cannot grow. » Francis Hodgson Burnett. To awaken your imagination, I’ll begin this piece with a brief recount of the story of ‘Mary Mary Quite Contrary’ in Burnett’s 1911 children’s classic The Secret Garden. The protagonist, Mary Lennox, is a sickly, ill-tempered young orphan who is sent to the Yorkshire countryside to live with her estranged uncle, Master Craven, a reclusive hunchback who is paralyzed by grief after the loss of his wife.

What happens when two former Michelin-starred chefs create a dining experience that values creativity, playfulness, and interaction just as much as the quality of the food? Food Studio went along to Copenhagen to find out.

The past year Maaemo has been given a lot of attention, also here in Norway, but maybe most of all from abroad. With their non-compromising approach to organic and local ingredients, the art of cooking, design and the whole food experience, they have mesmerized many, driven bloggers bananas and made food critics wish their dice had more than six eyes. But if you ask them, they are just getting started.