The Benefits of Swedish Cooking and Diet Event
The Benefits of Swedish Cooking and Diet
On June 9, when the weather in Philadelphia
had decreased from the sweltering 90’s to the
comfortable 60’s, SACC hosted its summery
cuisine event The Benefits of Swedish Cooking
and Diet at the American Swedish Historical
Museum’s beautiful outdoor space in South
Philly. The wind persisted through the night and
blew away decorations as well as hairstyles but
the mood inside the tent was high.
IKEA provided traditional Swedish hors d’oeuvres
such as meatballs, salmon and herring which
brought to mind Swedish midsummer and
Whistlepig had their twelve and ten year old
award-winning straight rye whiskey available
for tasting. St Benjamin’s Brewing Company was
also present at the event and served their tasty
Inca, an Indian cream ale, and Wit or Witout, a
classic wheat beer, that were enjoyed by the
guests.
After some eating and mingling the 50 guests
assembled to listen to the panel discussion.
The four panelists were the Swedish Embassy
chef Frida Johansson, who had come up from
Washington DC; Amy von Sydow Green, MD
and nutritionist at Penn Metabolic Medicine
and cookbook writer; Henrik Ringbom, chef
at Philadelphia restaurant Brauhaus-Schmitz,
and Doreen Sundelin, owner and founder of
Scandaffären.
The panel discussion was lighthearted and
informative and everyone got to learn more
about what it’s like preparing a dinner for 500
guests, the differences between Swedish and
American diet, how to find Swedish ingredients in
obscure Asian markets in Philadelphia and what
the difference between the popular American
candy Swedish Fish and the actually Swedish
Swedish Fish is (it’s corn syrup vs. sugar!).
The night was concluded with a raffle filled with
goodies such as several packed IKEA bags,
beautiful bath towels from Gudrun Sjödén, a huge
giftbasket from Scandaffären, a membership
at the Sporting Club at the Bellevue, glass
decorations from Orrefors and Seaglass and
other great prizes. All in all it was a lovely night
where we celebrated the traditionally Swedish
values of spending time together over good and
healthy food.
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