Food Studio

Thomas Harttung, the man Time magazine calls a hero of the environment, presents a few ideas for how cooks can help improve our food systems at MAD 2015.

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.

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.

« 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.

A wednesday in February. Forty fantastic food enthusiasts gathered in a photo studio at Lilleborg. By the entrance wooly warm socks and Hokkaido soup awaits this evenings guests. Chairs lined up in front of the stage, chit chats by the soup, the chefs busy; preparing, tasting, adding, stirring. Inspiring lectures, listening, learning. Outdoors: Snow. The cold. Indoors: Warmth. Laughter, cooled cider straight from the pile of snow outside.

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?

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.

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.

An evening in April Food Studio arranged a tribute evening to the old-fashioned baking traditions that in the 90's were on their way off breakfast tables across Norway. Now, this traditional craft is on it´s way back, with growing interest amongst hobby bakers, professionals, food bloggers and other baking devotees.

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

The birds and the bees, farmers and business. Why viable agriculture is important for soil, society and you. Never in history have so few produced so much. Successful streamlining you may think? But what effect does this have on our food? And what is in our food, actually? What do we really know about the complex context in which our food grows?

"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.

Picture the scene: you lift your spoon ready to dive into the soft folds of an exquisitely light soufflé. A song comes on over the radio, but which one? What combination of frequencies, rhythms and musical intervals could best enhance, or even transform, the experience of eating this airy treat? Perhaps a thundering baritone bass line would be too cumbersome, but what of a delicate and dreamy aria? Does sound in fact have a taste?

Let me bring you songs from the wood To make you feel much better than you could know Dust you down from tip to toe Show you how the garden grows Hold you steady as you go

In every town, village and country there is an important role played by farmers, chefs and consumers. Every part is as important as the other. They cannot survive by themselves. In Ålesund, a small west coast city in Norway, there’s about 120 small producers scattered around small islands, narrow valleys, and in the countryside.

Max Hansen is a Dane, born in the outskirts of Helsingør/Elsinore where he was raised with his five brothers. He is a chef, a celebrated chef. When Food Studio shared the duties of organising a pop-up dinner in Ålesund, he was in charge of the kitchen together with colleague Kasper Nikolajsen and provided a fantastic dinner cooked exclusively with local ingredients.We couldn't miss the chance to interview him and talk about his views on Norwegian food, managing restaurants and hyper-stuffed lunch boxes.