Ekstedt on Tour
Many Chefs are picking up on how amazing cooking outdoors with fire and smoke is, and those that have been leading from the front have been making big waves in the culinary world. Turning their backs on sous-vide and modernist styles of cooking for more natural and humble cooking utilising the magic of smoke and wood fire. Niklas Ekstedt cooks without gas or electricity in his Stockholm restaurant Ekstedt. I've had it on my bucket list to visit for a long time...
But...then something magic happened....
A message popped up in my CountryWoodSmoke Facebook group by a friend, saying he had just bought tickets for an event where Niklas was cooking, and it was an hour away from me...
I tell you...my fingers couldn't have tapped any quicker to make sure I had a ticket for this not to miss event...
Ticket secured, I then shared the message so others could get to enjoy this evening.
A long...long...long wait passed until the big evening. To say I was excited was an understatement. I met my friends for a pre-drink, and ended up chatting with some other cool outdoor chefs in a small village pub.
We then headed over to Roth Bar & Grill on the edge of the quaint Somerset Village of Bruton, and there was Niklas flaming some salmon with hay, to smoke and cook the salmon. I love the sweet smell of smoking meadow hay, and if you haven't tried it then you perhaps should. I knew we were going to be in for a good evening.
The only thing that worried my slightly was seeing 2 lambs cooking over the firepit, they looked to my eye like they had seen too much of the direct heat...but we will get back to this later.
Roth Bar & Grill is an epic place, there's firepits and cooking devices of medieval proportions all over the place, and guests were wide eyed with what was going on. I could see famous faces in the crowd, chefs and cooks alike had all made the journey here.
There was a prestarter going around of carrot and rapeseed oil that I sadly missed out on as I was busy catting and taking pictures.
I found my way to the bar for a beer and got chatting to a few countrywoodsmokers which was lovely, before finding my way to the table.
The setting was beautiful, communal long table dining in a beautiful hall, the tables were set out beautifully, it really is a great location. Across the hall was a huge Himalayan salt block dry aging chamber filled with some epic cuts of meat.
Ok ok....so I think I've set the scene well enough now...so let's get onto the food, I sure was hungry.. I was hoping for a big feed..and as you know I am am man of appetite...
The first plate of food to come to the table was the hay smoked salmon, it was truly exquisite,
Carrot, cold pressed rapeseed oil, buckwheat
Hay flamed salmon, salsify, beets, chervil, bread crumbs
Flavours from meadows and forest UK lamb, caramelized onion crème, turnip
Almond cake, rhubarb, yogurt, birch infused fudge
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