At Michelin-starred Gastrologik, chefs Jacob Holmström and Anton Bjuhr's restaurant in Stockholm's Ostermalm district, there is no menu. The menu is so fresh that it is driven by the best local ingredients of the day.
"One of our ever first decisions was to work with whatever is around us. In the beginning, the producers we worked with were small-scale. They couldn't supply us with things for a week or a month, so we had to be able to change the menu depending on what we got. Instead of reprinting a menu every night, we decided not to have a menu. It made life easier for us; we could make changes whenever needed," says Holmström.
The Swedish chefs' philosophy is simple: when you work with farmers and producers, things can look different from one day to the next. When you work with suppliers, you get the same produce every day, which isn't necessarily better.
Wild turbot with flowerbroth and flowers from the garden. Photos © Gastrologik
"Quite the opposite, really. You get a standardised product. You get tomatoes that are the same size or colour all year round. They can be from Brazil one week, from Holland the next or from Sweden. But they look the same, taste more or less the same and you can have the same menu all year. If you want to make something much more natural and logical, we couldn't write a menu and stick to it," says Holmström.
So they decided to scrap the menu, not make any promises in advance and use whatever the producers give them. That is the entire premise of Gastrologik -- so they could change whenever they wanted to, not when the producer wanted them to.
"Sometimes we get ingredients that we do not know we are getting because we have foragers that deliver mushrooms or hunters in the forest. To have someone bring us an ingredient and be able to use it the same day, is what we are all about. We want to have a very versatile restaurant," says Holmström. "When you read a menu, that is the first impression of the food. If you read chanterelles that's the first picture in your mind. You will be disappointed with whatever is served after that as I can't deliver the feeling and impression of what you had in mind."
What Gastrologik does best is surprise diners. The diners' first impression comes with the dish's arrival. And this has worked every night, for the past seven years. In a way, the menu can be described as "omakase", as it changes daily.
"We started off as a Nordic omakase, though we have never used the word omakase. Today, I would call it the Swedish omakase. We do use a few Nordic ingredients, fish from Norway, caviar from Finland, algae from Iceland, but 99% is Swedish," says Holmström.
Goat milk, Elder and spelt. Photos © Gastrologik
Foraging is an essential part of Gastrologik's cuisine. Today they have one forager who works solely for them, along with a few farmers and a few of the kitchen crew, as well.
"But we don't demand it, it is because they have the interest to do it," adds Holmström. "When we started off, we did most of the foraging ourselves. Though I don't have the time to forage anymore, I like to see what's in season and what's being produced. I think it is important to have some contact with nature."
They work with their many producers at different times of the year, if not at specific times, each having a different area of expertise. They have a farmer whose autumn produce is the best so they get their winter ingredients from her.
"In the beginning we searched for such people. These days people come to us. Some of the producers were small when we started off but now, though none of them are big, they are bigger than when we first met them. They also developed the same time as we did. We spent a lot of time communicating with them and that paid off. It is interesting because as soon as you spend time with hunters, farmers or producers you learn so much and get so much in return. You can harvest produce and can eat the flowers, roots and leaves of a vegetable, and this is something you will never learn from a supplier," says Holmström.
Their dishes are formulated when they see the produce growing because they have a better understanding of it before it reaches the kitchen.
"For me, understanding is key, if I don't understand I will lose interest. I have to understand the produce to work with it," says Holmström.
However, climate change has brought a few changes to Gastrologik. With the hottest summer since the 1940s recorded in Sweden this year, they have had to put produce on the menu a few weeks in advance, but haven't had time to store produce for winter.
"We lost a few ingredients due to the heatwave. Asparagus came really early and ended before midsummer. We are using crayfish in July when crayfish season doesn't really start until August," says Holmström.
But how do Holmström and Bjuhr divide and conquer the kitchen?
"It is very divided, I do all the pastry and baking and Jacob does the savoury. I talk to him if I need help and we get a lot of inspiration from each other. It's not hard, it's easy, it's nice. We think alike and that helps the menu be consistent, especially the desserts. You can't tell that this is Anton and this is Jacob, we are one," says Bjuhr.
Gastrologik is one of the few fine dining restaurants that has a communal table, creating a more intimate relationship between the chefs and their patrons. Previously a set of tables were set aside with no view of the kitchen.
"It wasn't as fun as the other part of the restaurant. We joined four small tables to create a big one and then thought of a toast master, and who better than a chef? Now we have eight seats and a counter where me or Jacob, or another chef stands and talks about the food. You can say that it's a chef's table but it is not in the kitchen," says Bjuhr.
"In the seven years we have moved from using Nordic to Swedish ingredients only. Even with our beverage pairing, we are moving towards a Swedish one. Sweden produces a lot of ciders, fruit wines, and we have a mead and beer culture, and we would like to create a beverage package around that. It would then make Gastrologik a very unique Swedish restaurant," adds Holmström.
