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Hidden treasure turns up in Swede’s seafood pizza

A Swedish family managed to bite off a little more than they could chew when a normal midweek dinner revealed an unexpected surprise.

Published: 29 April 2011 11:39 CEST

Hidden treasure turns up in Swede's seafood pizza

Per Fredriksson had planned to offer his family something of a mid-week delicacy, deciding to make homemade seafood pizza, the Swedish daily Aftonbladet reported.

When Fredriksson’s daughter exclaimed that there was a stone on her pizza, he had no idea that the small round object stuck in her retainer would turn out to be a precious jewel.

“It was a pearl! It is not that big, only about one to two millimetres in diameter but if you look closely you can’t mistake the mother-of-pearl sheen,” Fredriksson told the paper.

The family were very surprised at the unorthodox find.

“I have found hair in my pizza before but nothing like this,” Fredriksson told Aftonbladet.

Fredriksson theorised the pearl came from the can of smoked mussels he’d used to adorn his homemade pie.

Swedes are known for their somewhat unorthodox attitude to pizza toppings, with the ‘kebab pizza’ still reigning supreme as the favourite in Swedish households, according to the Swedish Pizza report (Svenska Pizzarapporten) from 2010.

The only time Swedes choose to forego this delicacy is when they get a chance to compose their own pizza from a variety of different – and sometimes quite outlandish- toppings, which can include anything from bananas to béarnaise sauce.

76 percent of Swedes choose an extra sauce to go with their pizza, with kebab sauce, garlic sauce and béarnaise sauce at the top of the list.

Swedes are also most likely to eat pizza during the winter, with the climax on New Year’s Day, when pizza consumption is doubled compared to a usual Sunday.

The next to largest pizza consuming day in Sweden is May 1st, the day after the Walpurgis eve celebration (Valborgsmässoafton).

Per Fredriksson doesn’t know what the family will do with the pearl but told Aftonbladet that they had no intention of selling the find.

“I think we’ll eat pizza every day from now on, “ Fredriksson told Aftonbladet.

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OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits.

SEE ALSO: What’s the tipping etiquette in Sweden?

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user).

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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