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Revealed: This is the best chef in Sweden

Have you ever wondered who makes the best meal in Sweden? Wonder no more, as the 2016 winner of the Swedish Chefs' Chef (Kockarnas kock) prize was announced in Stockholm.

Published: 11 October 2016 11:55 CEST

Revealed: This is the best chef in Sweden

Swedish chef Daniel Berlin has been named the best in the country. Photo: Daniel Berlin

Landskrona-born Daniel Berlin took home the honour for the second year in a row, with the brains behind southern Swedish restaurant Daniel Berlin Krog i Skåne Tranås beating world-famous Fäviken Magasinet cook Magnus Nilsson to top spot.

The prize, voted on by 100 of the best chefs in Sweden, was given to Berlin at an awards ceremony at Stockholm’s posh Operakällaren restaurant.

Kockarnas Kock #svenskagastronomipriset2016 pic.twitter.com/setxvmXzWP

— Daniel Berlin Krog (@BerlinOsterlen) 10 oktober 2016

“This is absolutely the nicest award I’ve ever received. The people who voted for this know: they go through what you go through,” Sweden’s newly named top chef told Sveriges Radio.

Anyone keen to try out Berlin’s one-Michelin-starred restaurant should be prepared to pay a premium. Lunch sets diners back 950 kronor ($108), while dinner costs 1650 kronor ($188).

Even the juice menu starts at 350 kronor ($40) at lunchtime, before increasing to 650 ($74) kronor at dinner.

According to Swedish chefs, these are this year’s top ten chefs in Sweden:

1. Daniel Berlin, Daniel Berlin, Skåne Tranås
2. Magnus Nilsson, Fäviken Magasinet, Järpen
3. Sayan Isaksson, Esperanto, Stockholm
4. Mathias Dahlgren, Mathias Dahlgren Matbaren, Stockholm
5. Björn Frantzén, Frantzén, Stockholm
6. Magnus Ek, Oaxen Krog, Stockholm
7. Jacob Holmström, Gastrologik, Stockholm
8. Paul Svensson, Fotogafiska, Stockholm
9. Adam Dahlberg, Adam & Albin, Stockholm
10. Stefan Karlsson, SK Mat & Människor, Gothenburg

READ ALSO: Swedish restaurant named among world's best

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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