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Revealed: Sweden’s best chef named in prestigious competition

The finest chef in Sweden has been named after a gruelling five-hour cooking competition in Malmö.

Published: 3 February 2017 08:48 CET

Revealed: Sweden's best chef named in prestigious competition

Sweden's Chef of the Year celebrates in style. Photo: Emil Langvad/TT

Johan Backéus, a chef at Aveqia in the Swedish capital, beat seven other finalists at the Malmö Arena to be named Sweden's Chef of the Year (Årets kock).

He won the jury over with what they judged to be the five best vegetarian side dishes prepared, as well as a main course of pheasant.

“My idea was to start with soft but still high tastes in the five vegetarian dishes, and then move on to something stronger. I also had a couple of technical moments that look nice, but above all it tastes good,” Backéus said, explaining his strategy.

This is the fourth time the chef has reached the final of the competition, winning a silver medal in 2016 and 2013, but the first time he grabs first place.

“It's really nice, indescribable. I’ve gone completely weak at the knees,” he told news agency TT.

Second and third prize went to two other Stockholm-based chefs: Sebastian Thuresson from Lilla Ego, and Magnus Persson from Hillenberg.

The competition to name Sweden's Chef of the Year has been running since 1983. It was conceived by the Swedish Academy of Gastronomy, and is Sweden’s most prestigious competition for professional chefs.

Previous guest judges include Gordon Ramsay, and René Redzepi from Copenhagen’s Noma.

Edit: A previous version of the article said Johan Backéus had won the competition three times. He had in fact previously been in the final three times, with two silver medals. We apologize for the error.

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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