Korea part 2

I did not have any expectations of Korea before we left for the congress, the only thing I did know is that the Korean chefs association will try the best to fulfil our needs for those days, and the did for sure, more than 60 people was food poisoned including me and Christina and that did take away many of the nice days that we expected to enjoy here in this beautiful country and friendly people.

What surprises me is how low the level of foreign languages are here not even in the hotels do they speak anything except Korean at the front desk, strange due to that the hosted the summer Olympics 88 world cup in soccer 04 and will host the winter games in 18 this is for me very strange.

The Korean people are as I mentioned very friendly and very stylish when it comes to fashion especially the female side where you can se how the high economic standard is worn in all the handbags and shoes of the most famous designers, I love it

Seoul is a true mega city with 10 million people in the city centre and 22 million with the outskirts, talk about buzzing city and if you think about that Korea have less than 2% unemployment you quickly realize how big the spending power is here, how the hell do they all keep the weight?

South Korea 1

The WACS (world association of chefs societies) congress are over in South Korea for this time with great achievements regarding cooking and also great to make new friends and to meet up with all the people from the culinary world.

67 member countries was at place with some 500 chefs and with some help of culinary students we could set a new Guinness record of 2111 chefs in one place, great fun.

The next congress will be held in Stavanger Norway in 2013 and we are all looking forward to this and dearly support Norway for great success.

Athens in Greece will hold the congress in 2016 so they have 4 years to sort they economics out and make it work, I am sure they will.

Sebastian Gibrand was representing the Swedish chefs association in the Hans Buschkens junior competition where 7 of the top junior chefs drawn from the globe are competing, he made 2:d place and made us all very proud.

Going to the toilet here in Korea is a remarkable experience due to all the fuzzy buttons on the seat all for different reasons, and of course I have to try them all, I still can’t figure out what the blowtorch is for J

The big negative setback have been that about 60 people got sick as dogs of food poisoning witch gives the organizing people a lot to think about, this is including me and Christina as well J

Tomorrow is a couple of days in Seoul and rest of Korea to do some sightseeing before heeding for home.

More to come.

Best Restaurant in Stockholm?

Frantzen / Lindeberg is a ** star restaurant in the old town of Stockholm and the place to visit as a foodie, many thing has been wrote and said about this small 20 seat restaurant and of course I have to try is as well, so how was the dinner?

You can just say it in one word GREAT with fantastic 18 course menu and great wines and a amazing staff at the tables that is unusual to meet in Sweden.

The menu are inspired by the season with own farmed veggies and close by meat from selected producers, I love the bread dough rising at the table before it was baked and the way of making the butter at the table is wonderful.

For me to try to explain the whole menu is impossible due to that the courses are complicated and will not do justice if I try so look at the pictures (I missed some) and please visit if you can for a exceptional food experience.

Me and Christina are doing more than 70 wine tastings every year for wine drinkers who love wine but do not know so much about it, I love doing that and let people explore wine in a good and sensible way without fuzz..

This is a great little film about wine where John Cleese guide you thru the most basic stuff in a very good way http://youtu.be/BF6twaKn8xM   for all of you out there who drink your wine for the taste without caring about the label.

Enjoy and give all the posh and snobby sommeliers a hell next time you go out for dinner J