Nov 9, '12

Frantzén/Lindeberg

Live langoustines
Live langoustines

Frantzén/ Lindeberg is about what many new wave gastronomy restaurants are not. Delicious, great-tasting food. The 2 Michelin stars place is run by two brilliant Swedish chefs Björn Frantzén and Daniel Lindeberg who are obsessed with perfect ingredients ( 95 % of which come from Sweden and neighbouring countries).

Because of some last-minute cancellation, we had an opportunity to sit at the chefs’ table. What an evening it was! Live langoustines showed off on your table before being transformed into a (raw)  tartare with celery, lard and apples; freshly baked bread with butter churned in front of you or beautiful, firm scallops from  Trondheim cooked over an open fire and shaved over with black truffles from Bourgogne. Yes, Frantzén and Lindeberg do own their own garden where they grow their vegetables and herbs ( “The Satio Tempestas” dish was impressive ), but what really makes them stand out is their focus on how their dishes taste.  Why use black truffles from Gotland which taste like nothing if it’s the season of truffles from Bourgogne at the moment?  Once we ate the scallops, scallops dashi was poured into the scallops shells. I did feel a little bit like at some exclusive restaurant in Tokyo with a chef cooking in front of you, chatting and guiding you through the gastronomic voyage.

I particularly liked bone marrow with smoked parsley, “smetana” and Oscietra caviar ( the caviar was German by the way) and, another very memorable dish,  Swedish marbled beef with truffle shavings. Despite an old age ( the animal was 11 or 12 years I think, the meat was dry-aged for several months), the simply prepared “Chubai” beef was melting in your mouth.

The handwritten evening’s menu was divided into 4 different sections. Once the time of “Chapter 4 and Epilogue” came, Daniel Lindeberg, the pastry chef, showed up. Oxidized pear granita with hazelnut emulsion, sea salt & flat “Braggot Mead”; sea buckthorn sorbet with whipped Oolong mousse, meringues with matcha tea & crystalized sea lettuce, or dried pig’s blood petit four with pig blood’s cream, blackberries and bitter chocolate. Like the savoury part, the desserts were an elegant homage to local and seasonal Scandinavian ingredients without being too much radical about that. Frantzén/ Lindeberg is definitely among the world’s greatest!

The evening’s menu…

Prologue (amuse bouches)
Prologue (amuse bouches)

Blood pancake, liver with lingonberries and beetroot; spelt brioche with chicken skin and dried butter; beef from “Chubai” (46 months old) on lichens’s head in shellfish emulsion, vendace roe on pork rinds; “vichyssoise” with truffle and ash; carrot macaron with bird’s liver and tarragon…

Bread dough
Bread dough

Chapter 1

Oyster "62C" with Jersey cream, dried seaweed, sea buckthorn
Oyster “62C” with Jersey cream, dried seaweed, sea buckthorn
Chef Björn Frantzén preparing "langoustine with celery and essence of pressed apples"
Chef Björn Frantzén preparing “langoustine with celery and essence of pressed apples”
Langoustine with celery and essence of pressed apples
Langoustine with celery and essence of pressed apples
Pike served with king crab,cooked in beer and dill
Pike served with king crab, cooked in beer and dill
Bone marrow with smoked parsley, smetana and Oscietra caviar
Bone marrow with smoked parsley, smetana and Oscietra caviar

Chapter 2

Bread & butter
Bread & butter
The Satio Tempestas dish was made from 47 ingredients, which included various vegetables, herbs and nuts, Swedish sea salt, homemade butter, egg and fried fish scales
The Satio Tempestas dish was made from 47 ingredients, which included various vegetables, herbs and nuts, Swedish sea salt, homemade butter, egg and fried fish scales
Scallop cooked over an open fire, truffle and first eggs hens ever lay
Scallop cooked over an open fire, truffle and first eggs hens ever lay
Scallops dashi , scallops tartare
Scallops dashi, scallops tartare

Chapter 3

Grilled monkfish with goat's cream perfumed with liquorice
Grilled monkfish with goat’s cream perfumed with liquorice
Frozen carrot and grapefruit with pink pepper and olive oil
Frozen carrot and grapefruit with pink pepper and olive oil
Swedish marbled beef with black truffles shavings
Swedish marbled beef with black truffles shavings
Coal flamed lamb tartare with cumin, eggplant and goat cheese
Coal flamed lamb tartare with cumin, eggplant and goat cheese
Another lamb dish- almost as fatty as Wagyu
Another lamb dish- almost as fatty as Wagyu

Chapter 4 & Epilogue

Chef Daniel Lindeberg
Oxidized pear granita with hazelnut emulsion, sea salt and flat “Braggot Mead”
Pancakes made from cloudberry and stone-grounded flour with oven-baked ice cream, flavoured with cloudberries and Tahiti vanilla. Roasted white chocolate ganache with warm cloudberry compotte, wild thyme and maple syrup
Pancakes made from cloudberry and stone-grounded flour with oven-baked ice cream, flavoured with cloudberries and Tahiti vanilla. Roasted white chocolate ganache with warm cloudberry compotte, wild thyme and maple syrup
Sea buckthorn sorbet with whipped Oolong mousse, meringues with matcha tea & crystalized sea lettuce
Sea buckthorn sorbet with whipped Oolong mousse, meringues with matcha tea & crystalized sea lettuce

Petit fours

Petit fours

Dried pig’s blood with pig’s blood cream, blackberries and bitter chocolate; fermented garlic; glazed blueberry biscuit with toasted pine kernels, bark and pickled spruce shoots; “fruit du jour”; fresh walnuts from Bordeaux, salted walnut and chocolate turron; salted caramel macaron flavoured with tar&hay ash; macaron with arctic raspberry ganache…

Sommelier Niklas Lofgren
Sommelier Niklas Lofgren
Björn Frantzén and Daniel Lindeberg
Björn Frantzén and Daniel Lindeberg
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