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Rural Swedish chef wins first two Michelin stars

A Swedish chef running a restaurant in the middle of nowhere celebrated on Wednesday as his eatery became the first in Sweden outside the capital to claim two Michelin stars.

Published: 24 February 2016 12:35 CET
Rural Swedish chef wins first two Michelin stars
Magnus Nilsson, head chef at Fäviken Magasinet. Photo: Robert Henriksson/TT

Rising star Magnus Nilsson nabbed the double gong for his restaurant Fäviken Magasinet, located in northern Sweden near the Åre ski resort in Jämtland, more than 600 kilometres north of Stockholm.

But despite often being billed as the world's most isolated restaurant, tables at Fäviken are ususally booked up a month or more in advance – even before winning its two stars.

“We have peformed at international top level for a while now. More agile guides have noticed it before, and we belong to the most famous restaurants in the world,” the Swedish chef told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper after being told the news on Wednesday.

Nilsson trained in Paris as a sommelier and only became a chef when he moved home to open a restaurant in his native north. His cuisine focuses on what you may call a series of hyper-Swedish dishes, including raw cow's heart with marrow and wild trout roe in dried pig's blood.

The lavish menu has to be ordered and paid for in advance and costs 2,200 kronor ($260) per head. Drinks not included.

Most of the food is locally sourced or grown or caught by Nilsson's team themselves. And it's a job he clearly takes seriously. When asked by Swedish media how he planned to celebrate his win, he replied: “We're going to go to Norway to fish for cod next week.”

 

And here it is again mid-cooking, ready to be shown of in the dining room. #pigsfatmakesyouhappy #wellknownfact

Ett foto publicerat av Magnus Nilsson (@faviken) Feb 19, 2016 kl. 11:28 PST

Elsewhere in Sweden, Hotel Borgholm on the picturesque Öland east coast island, PM & Vänner in Växjö and Daniel Berlin in Tranås received one star each in the Michelin Nordic Guide 2016 as the culinary guide for the first time extended its accolades to areas outside of Scandinavia's big-city regions.

“International food tourists' focus will now also be on restaurants outside the big cities. That means new jobs, growth and development of the Swedish countryside when Swedish gastronomy receives this recognition,” said Eva Östling, CEO of tourist organization Visita.

Sushi Sho in Stockholm and Upper House in Gothenburg were also two of the new star restaurants shooting on to the prestigious list for the first time.

Over in Denmark and Norway, two restaurants were celebrating receiving their first three stars, the top level in Guide Michelin: Maaemo in Oslo and Geranium in Copenhagen.

The Swedish restaurants included in the Michelin Nordic Guide 2016

Two stars:

Frantzén, Stockholm

Mathias Dahlgren-Matsalen, Stockholm

Oaxen Krog, Stockholm

Fäviken, Järpen

One star:

Ekstedt, Stockholm

Esperanto, Stockholm

Gastrologik, Stockholm

Mathias Dahlgren-Matbaren, Stockholm

Operakällaren, Stockholm

Sushi Sho, Stockholm

Volt, Stockholm

Bhoga, Göteborg

Koka, Göteborg

Sjömagasinet, Göteborg

SK Mat & Människor, Göteborg

Thörnströms Kök, Göteborg

28+, Göteborg

Upper House, Göteborg

Ambiance à Vindåkra, Malmö

Bloom in the Park, Malmö

Vollmers, Malmö

Borgholm, Öland

Daniel Berlin, Tranås

PM & Vänner, Växjö

FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
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. 

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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