Fäviken was a restaurant located in
Åre Municipality
Åre Municipality (, ) is a municipality in Jämtland County in northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Järpen.
The present municipality was formed in 1974 through the amalgamation of "old" Åre Municipality with the surrounding municipalitie ...
,
Jämtland
Jämtland (; no, Jemtland or , ; Jamtish: ''Jamtlann''; la, Iemptia) is a historical province () in the centre of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders Härjedalen and Medelpad to the south, Ångermanland to the east, Lapland to the north a ...
, Sweden. It was run by chef
Magnus Nilsson between 2008 and 2019. The food served at the restaurant was localised to the estates around the restaurant, with only a handful of exceptions. Fäviken was placed in
The World's 50 Best Restaurants
The World's Best 50 Restaurants is a list produced by UK media company William Reed, which originally appeared in the British magazine ''Restaurant'' in 2002. The list and awards however are no longer directly related to ''Restaurant'' magazine ...
in 2012, and named as one of the top ten restaurants in the world by the ''
Zagat
The ''Zagat Survey'', commonly referred to as Zagat (stylized in all caps; , ) and established by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979, is an organization which collects and correlates the ratings of restaurants by diners. For their first guide, covering ...
'' guide in 2013. The restaurant closed December 14, 2019, because Nilsson wanted to move on to other projects.
Description
left, Chef Magnus Nilsson at Fäviken
The restaurant were located on the 19th century Fäviken Egendom estate, which consists of 20,000 acres of farmland,
[ and is located around north of ]Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
, and by road from the Åre
Åre () is a locality and one of the leading Scandinavian ski resorts situated in Åre Municipality, Jämtland County, Sweden with 3,200 inhabitants in 2018. It is, however, not the seat of the municipality, which is Järpen. 25% of the local eco ...
ski resort.[ The current owners purchased the property in 2003, and hired chef turned sommelier Magnus Nilsson in 2008 to oversee the wine cellars. He moved into the kitchen after being unable to find someone else to do so and became head chef.][ Nilsson described its former operation as a "moose fondue restaurant".][
The restaurant had 16 seats, that included a communal table.][ Breakfast was only served to customers who stay overnight in one of the six rooms.][ There were three chefs at the restaurant, including Nilsson, and a total of seven staff overall including the gardener who were shared with the estate.][
Nilsson released a cookbook named after the restaurant on 1 October 2012. The foreword was supplied by food writer Mattias Kroon.
]
Menu
The cuisine served at Fäviken were influenced by Nordic cuisine
This is a list of European cuisines. A cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. European cuisine (also called "Western cuisine") refers collectively to the cuisines of Eur ...
, and used local ingredients that came from either the estate or very close nearby.[ The exceptions to this localisation of the cuisine are sugar, salt, and alcoholic vinegar.][ Fish were caught by the chef himself in a local pond, with the dishes changing depending on what were caught. Nilsson has explained that he does not believe that New Nordic cuisine exists, but instead the catch-all description allows individual Scandinavian restaurants to create their own styles of food.][ Diners at Fäviken were typically served fourteen courses in addition to appetisers.][
The dishes on the menu included warm marrowbone which is extracted from a cow's ]shinbone
The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...
using a two-man saw in the middle of the dining room itself. That dish in particular is accompanied by diced cubes of raw beef heart, shaved carrot and green sage salt.[ Other theatrical dishes include an ice cream maker which Nilsson purposely does not maintain: "I deliberately don't take care of my ice cream maker so it will make a lot of eeer-awww, eeeeh-errrkk sounds" he explained.][
Vegetables were sometimes stored for up to eight months in a root store before being used.]
Reception
Adam Sachs of ''Bon Appétit
''Bon Appétit'' is a monthly American food and entertaining magazine, that typically contains recipes, entertaining ideas, restaurant recommendations, and wine reviews. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center i ...
'' magazine described Fäviken as "the world's most daring restaurant".
Fäviken was named 34th in The World's 50 Best Restaurants
The World's Best 50 Restaurants is a list produced by UK media company William Reed, which originally appeared in the British magazine ''Restaurant'' in 2002. The list and awards however are no longer directly related to ''Restaurant'' magazine ...
in 2012, the first time it had appeared on the list. Chef René Redzepi
René Redzepi (born 16 December 1977) is a Danish chef and co-owner of the three-Michelin star restaurant Noma in the Christianshavn neighborhood of Copenhagen, Denmark. His restaurant was voted the best restaurant in the world by '' Resta ...
, of the 1st place restaurant Noma
Noma, NoMa, or NOMA may refer to:
Places
* NoMa, the area North of Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., US
** NoMa–Gallaudet U station, on Washington Metro
* Noma, Florida, US
* NOMA, Manchester, a redevelopment in England
* Noma Distr ...
, said "if I had a chance to go anywhere in the world right now, I would go to Fäviken."[ Fäviken was named to the top ten restaurants in the world by the '']Zagat
The ''Zagat Survey'', commonly referred to as Zagat (stylized in all caps; , ) and established by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979, is an organization which collects and correlates the ratings of restaurants by diners. For their first guide, covering ...
'' guide in 2013. In 2016, Fäviken was awarded two stars by Guide Michelin
The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin star (classification), stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The ac ...
.
A reviewer for the British newspaper The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
wrote that "Dinner at Faviken is never anything less than interesting, even if there are elements (potatoes cooked in decomposed autumn leaves) that are more pretentious than flavourful." Another reviewer for the Daily Telegraph
Daily or The Daily may refer to:
Journalism
* Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks
* ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times''
* ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
wrote "Faviken's peerless confluence of improbable setting, unique dishes and the castaway romance of a chef who left the world behind only for it follow him elevated our dinner into "most memorable meal ever" territory."
In 2014, season 3 of PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
's ''The Mind of a Chef
''The Mind of a Chef'' is a non-fiction television series on PBS narrated and executive produced by Anthony Bourdain, and combines travel, cooking, history, and science. Each season follows a different chef, or pair of chefs, and examines their be ...
'' series featured chef Nilsson in episodes 9 through 16. Each episode showed a different aspect of the chef's interest in Nordic cuisine and traditions and his process in creating dishes for Fäviken. Episode 16, titled "Fäviken," gave viewers a behind the scene look during a dinner service at the restaurant.
Fäviken and chef Magnus Nilsson were also featured in episode six of the first season of Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
's '' Chef's Table'' series in 2015.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faviken
Restaurants in Sweden
Buildings and structures in Jämtland County
Michelin Guide starred restaurants in Sweden