Your Culinary World

How to Plan a Dinner Worthy of a Nobel Prize

Each year after the Nobel Prize is awarded, the invited attendees progress to one of the world's most exclusive banquets. Among the guests are some of the world's greatest minds and most influential leaders. Former guests have included Barack Obama, Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein and Marie Curie among others.

So how does one prepare a celebration for diners such as these? With care and insight as explained by Chef Fredrik Eriksson:

Culinary expert, Fredrik Eriksson, works behind the scenes to uphold Nobel's high standards and add Nordic flare to the exacting standards of the banquet help for this years' prize winners. The stakes are high in creating Sweden's biggest night.

And what are the results of all those months on planning? Here is the feast as served this past year on December 10th:

Guinea hen mosaic, carrot variation with Gotland truffle,
and chanterelle duxelle with truffle mayonnaise

Turbot cupola stuffed with Norwegian lobster,
tartelette with lobster on a bed of cream cheese and spinach,
pointed cabbage terrine, lobster sauce and almond potato purée

Chocolate silhouette with nougat and sea buckthorn explosion

Coffee & Grönstedts VO

Facile Punsch & Stenkulla Brunn Mineral Water

(Crafted by the Restaurant Stadshuskallaren staff in collaboration with Chefs Andreas Hedlund and Fredrik Björlin as well as Pastry Chefs Ted Johansson and Conrad Tyrsén)

Yet as everyone knows, no feast is complete without fine wines. One in particular, the Château l’Hospitalet La Reserve Rouge 2011, is remarkable. Its provenance can be traced back to the Templars, that ancient Order that brought many of the Eastern sciences to the West over a thousand years ago.. What wine could be more appropriate for celebrating the achievements of scientists and peacemakers past and present than this fine wine?

Truly this is a wine worth collecting for the Ages!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2014

Thank You Nelson Mandela for the Truth You Shared

Yesterday a great man died. He inspired us; he reminded us to be all that we can be, never less.

Whether it was his courage to withstand hunger without hate in the hell that was the prison on Robben Island or the joy with which he viewed the rounded gourd-shaped World Cup soccer stadium, he demonstrated daily the depth and width of the human heart when filled with understanding love.

He led South Africa to freedom, without the horror of massacre. He showed the world that problems can be solve without burning restaurants and shattered hotel windows.

The lessons he taught have flowed like a mighty river beyond the borders of his single country. As a result, country after country, of which he was not even a citizen, have lowered their flags today in respect and gratitude.

This global gesture is done to honor a man, who showed through a courage that defines the very heart of love, that compassion - not explosions, is the path to peace and fellowship.