its gigantic shell atop a bed of moss - the ocean meeting the forest. Food as an exercise in high aesthetics has been part of popular culture since the Spanish chef Ferran Adria brought his restaurant, El Bulli, and its pioneering molecular gastronomy ‘lab’ to international fame in the late 1990s. But Faviken is a restaurant whose food is also talked about as an expression of moral values.
During the long winter months, when the sun only breaks the horizon line for an hour or two each day and the land is sheathed in snow, such activity is not possible. Then the kitchen serves mostly foods they harvested in the warm months and then preserved. But the food isn’t just appealingly local; it’s a seemingly ‘authentic’ expression ofa place.
2 |
Nilsson’s day job, however, is running Fdviken. Set 375 miles north of Stockholm, deep in the forested province
of Jamtland, the restaurant is an hour's flight from
Stockholm to Ostersund, then a 75-minute drive north- west. Its setting is otherworldly. Mountain vistas unfold with little human interruption. At the height of summer, the sun shines for 24 hours a day. In the winter, the temperature drops to -40 C.
Me
Intended to bring diners into an encounter with the origin of the food they eat, the movement has spread across this part of Europe. Like Danish chef René Redzepi in Copenhagen, Nilsson spends hours searching woods and riverbanks for ingredients. One dish is a single scallop poached in its own juices, which arrives at your table in
162
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Perhaps this is why a season’s worth of reservations in Faviken’s 24-seat dining room sell out in minutes to
international diners. One recent guest told me that he
was not there just for the food. I think of Nilsson more as a philosopher or poet than a chef’ he said. If our dinner plates reveal who we are, what does Nilsson‘s rise to fame say about our fantasies and obsessions?
It was mycelium growing on straw, the caption explained,
‘waiting to be turned into broth’ That nearly no one knows what mycelium is (it’s a fungus) doesn't bother his admirers
= the thrill seems to be that somewhere a hunter-chef is cooking it perfectly. This is our contemporary fairytale: a Swede making magic out of mould.
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A This is made all the clearer when you hear the story behind each ingredient comprising a meal. What you are eating is an edible heirloom - something passed down through generations. So while Nilsson’s food is not ‘popular’, exactly, it has been deemed important cultural material.
B This idea is not original, but Nilsson's book is the most exhaustive recent attempt to catalogue a segment of the world through its food. To compile it, he amassed 11,000 articles and 8,000 photographs, and travelled to the farthest reaches of the region to conduct interviews, all in his spare time.
¢ This comes, in part, from Nilsson’s commitment to local sourcing: he cooks almost exclusively with ingredients that can be bought within a few hundred miles. His chefs search for moss, herbs, grasses, mushrooms, flowers and seeds from the restaurant grounds, and about half their produce is grown in the garden.
D This, too, was the guiding principle behind his recent book, an encyclopedic record of the past several hundred years of Nordic home cooking. It comprises 730 recipes, including about 30 Nilsson expects no-one ever to cook.
E The belief that food is a form of art, and therefore deserving of worship, goes some way to explain Faviken’s popularity. But there is more to it than this.
F The vast majority of people intrigued by Nilsson will never visit Faviken, so they watch him on TV or check his Instagram, which recently featured a picture of what appeared to be two mouldy squares of breakfast cereal.
G Asahome for a fine-dining restaurant, it is an odd choice, yet Nilsson’s embrace of this landscape has set him apart as one of the most innovative chefs working today.
In the eight years since its opening, Faviken has become a pillar of the ‘new Nordic’
trend in food culture.
3 Work in pairs. Discuss these questions.
Would you be interested in trying some of the dishes Faviken serves? Why/why not?
What dishes from another country would you like to try? What dishes would you be reluctant to try?
CULTURAL VALUES
Language focus Inversion
1 Comment on the word order in the underlined extracts in 1-4, which are taken from reviews of Faviken. What effect are the writers hoping to achieve by placing the words which are written in bold at the beginning of the sentence or clause?
1 Our visit to Faviken exceeded our expectations! N ner had we arrived when we friendly and professional member of staff. She...
2 The food at Faviken is nothing less than incredible! I'm not usually a seafood fan, and nor do | particularly like game meat. However, on this occasion, ...
3 Onno account should you eat even the smallest snack before you arrive at Faviken!
| lost count at 20 courses - each of which was done and presented to perfection.
4 | truly respect Magnus. Rareh find a chef that h: h ication and love for food and culture. My words can never do his food justice.
2 Rewrite the sentences in Exercise 1 so that the words in bold do not appear at the beginning of the sentence/clause.
1 As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by a very friendly and professional member of staff.
2 3 4
3 Complete the sentences with a suitable phrase. There is an example at the beginning (0).
0 Not for one moment did we suspect _ that David had stolen it — it took us all completely by surprise.
1 No sooner home than my mother phoned.
2 Only when the news on television did she realise the full scale of the tragedy.
3 Never before in all my working life such an incompetent boss.
4 Not until you've tidied your room you to go out and play with your friends!
5 Hardly his new job when the company ran into problems and made him redundant.
6 Atno pointin the marathon of giving up: | had promised myself | would finish it.
7 Never again her advice - I'm in more trouble now than | was before.
8 Little that someone was recording their conversation.
4 Goto Ready for Grammar on page 236 to check your answers to Exercises 2 and 3, and for further rules, explanations and practice.
5 Complete the following sentences so that they are true for you.
1 Only very rarely do!
Under no circumstances would | Never again will |
Not once in my life have | Not since
have | 6 Not until
did!
op on
6 SPEAK Work in pairs. Compare your sentences from Exercise 5. Ask follow-up questions to get more details.
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Part 1 Multiple choice
EAK Work in pairs. Discuss the following questions about photographs a-c.
1 Inwhich English-speaking countries do you think they were taken?
2 What significance might the tattoos have for the young man in photograph a?
3 What hardships do you think the Chinese migrants in photograph b had to face in a new country?
4 Howdo you think the children are feeling in photograph c?
You will hear three different extracts. For questions 1-6, choose the answer (A, B or C) which fits best
according to what you hear. There are two questions for each extract.
Extract One
You hear part of a radio discussion in which two people are talking about working for Summer Camps USA.
1 When talking about her experience, the woman says she appreciated
A the opportunity to explore the local area.
B_ the supportive behaviour of colleagues.
¢ the feeling of being useful to others.
2 The man compares summer camp toa military camp to suggest that
A there are strict rules.
B the facilities are basic.
¢ the working hours are long.
Extract Two
You hear part of a radio interview with two Chinese Australians who took part in a documentary about Chinese migration.
3 The documentary helped the man to realise
A that he was essentially more Chinese than Australian.
B_ how fortunate he was compared to other Chinese Australians.
c what earlier generations of his family had endured.
4 According to the woman, Chinese Australians are now A working in a greater range of professions.
B regarded as genuine Australian citizens.
c better educated than other ethnic groups.
Extract Three
You hear two friends discussing an exhibition they have seen on the art of tattooing.
5 The aspect of the exhibition the man thinks is most successful is the way it
A challenges some widely held prejudices.
B_ showcases a range of international designs.
¢ gives equal space to old and modern images.
6 The woman was particularly impressed by the way that Samoan tattoos
A will often be created with a set of traditional tools.
B can reveal the identity of the person who made them.
¢ are being gradually adapted by the young generation.
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CULTURAL VALUES
Vocabulary Sight
1 Choose the correct alternative in the following extracts from the Listening.
... we really looked / showed out for each other when things got tough.
Our communities used to be hidden from show / view...
... there are Chinese Australians making a name for themselves in the arts — a rare
on
vision / sight not so long ago.
4 The advertising for the exhibition said, ‘providing a unique view / look at the past, present and future of tattooing’ ...
5 There were some items on view / sight that show how many artists still use ...
2 Complete the sentences with a noun from the box. In each pair, the noun required for both sentences, a and b, is the same.
eye look sight view vision
1 a Looking out across the bay, she suddenly caught ofa dolphin.
b Stay here, don't say a word and keep out of !
2 a Amovement in the bushes caught my and | moved closer to investigate.
b You'll need a good telescope, as the star is not normally visible to the naked 3 a He sprayed slogans on the ministry building in full of the security
guards.
b As we turned the corner, the house came into
4 a You've probably sprained it or something. Let me have a at it.
b Nowit's time for In Depth, in which we take a closer at an issue in the news.
5 a Themole,a creature which spends most of its life underground, has very poor . Nor can it hear or smell very well.
b Many of his short stories offer a dark and terrifying of the future.
3 Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between three and six words, including the word given.
1 We saw a bear almost as soon as we began our journey.