At the Golf Club in Vallentuna, Linda Lönnqvist, chairwoman of ”Food and flavors of northern Stockholm”, runs a restaurant. There, participants in the project ”We Ecopreneurs” gathered to talk about local food and eat local food - namely the launched ”Stockholm Meal”.
But before we ate, we did a current situation analysis and a wish analysis regarding how we can get more local food on our plates. It emerged that there are opportunities to increase local consumption and production of food and that there are many ideas but that it can be difficult to make a ”workshop” out of the ideas.
We talked a lot about pride in local food and food tourism, which is growing increasingly popular. About the difference you experience when you are away and get to taste a local specialty compared to any other global dish.
There are many connections to local food too:
1. Meal tourism/local flavors as I mentioned just now.
2. Food security - if we have local production and consumption of food, we are less vulnerable.
3. Environment and climate - not only will there be shorter transport times, there will also be a proximity to food production that makes us care more about HOW the food is produced, which paves the way for greater commitment to both environmental and climate issues.
4. Cultural heritage and identity. Flavors you carry with you from older generations are an important part of who you are!
The Stockholm meal then? Linda had prepared local ingredients for the Stockholm meal as a 3-course menu:
The Stockholm meal in detail
- Starter:
Crudo on Mälargös with locally grown vegetables and ginger mayonnaise, which you eat with chopsticks.
- Main course:
Lamb sausage with fennel, roasted Jerusalem artichokes, sky, crispy potatoes, cabbage and porcini mushrooms. The lamb sausage is a tribute to the first hot dog that was served with a white glove at the Industrial Exhibition in Stockholm in 1897.
- Dessert:
Baked cottage cheese, sea buckthorn sorbet, wild berries, oats and cream. This dessert pays tribute to the invention of the milk separator, which was developed in Stockholm.
Purpose and inspiration
- Lifting the county's raw materials:
The meal aims to give a voice to the foods produced in Stockholm County.
- Combine the local with the global:
The vision is to mix the local with international influences that characterize Stockholm as a big city.
- Tell a story:
The meal is also intended to tell the story of Stockholm's history, from past to present and future, by combining old traditions with new innovations.
- Inspiration for kitchen:
One purpose is to create inspiration material for public kitchens, such as in preschools, schools and healthcare facilities, to spread knowledge about the county's food culture.
The workshop was a joint arrangement between Upplandsbygd, the County Administrative Board in Stockholm and Food and flavors in northern Stockholm
For Upplandsbygd, this is part of the project We Ecopreneurs
For County Administrative Board in Stockholm is this part of the project The Stockholm meal
