A household name in Sweden, Thai-born chef Sayan Isaksson is known for bringing together global culinary influences, namely Japanese and French, with contemporary Scandinavian flavours and styling.
"I like nature. I like to mimic nature and I like to resemble organic shapes in my food, like my dessert has apple leaves. Mimicking nature and all its seasons is my food philosophy, so to speak. I am interested in local food and have a lot of respect for the flora and fauna," says chef Isaksson.
At his Michelin-starred establishment, the now-defunct Esperanto in Stockholm, chef Isaksson was known for his singular style of cooking or as he puts it: "Gastronomically, our tongue is universal." (Which explains the name Esperanto.)
"Since the closing of Esperanto, my travels around Asia have influenced the way I cook. It's hard to analyse that when on the road, but I have learned a lot of techniques from when I was in India. It also gives you a perspective of how hotels work, since I come from a fine-dining scene. I think you have much to learn by just watching how the different kitchens work and how the chefs go about their work. Whenever I travel, I am studying.
"Nordic cuisine has influenced my cooking the most, though now I am into ethnic food. I am really into Japanese and I even earned a star for a sushi restaurant [Råkultur in Stockholm]. I once took part and came second in the Seven Sushi Samurai competition [the sushi World Cup]. Now, I am really into Thai. I have a new project when I go home, which may be in August next year, and I may do a Thai restaurant. Thai is a sophisticated kitchen. When I was into Japanese cooking and the culture, it was a great ocean to dive into and learn from. Now that I am done with Japanese, I need a new challenge and it's Thai," adds chef Isaksson, who has played a huge role in modernising the Swedish restaurant scene.
The rather soft-spoken, shy chef regards himself as a "multicultural chef" -- "I have done pizza, I have done Swedish, I have done Mexican". Though he has no plans to move to Asia to open a restaurant, he has been offered a coffee shop concept in Seoul in South Korea, "which doesn't demand my full attention".
What demands full attention these days is his four-year-old daughter. "My first visit to Thailand was a couple of years ago when I cooked for an event at the Conrad Hotel, with the Swedish king and queen in attendance. Some day I will come back on holiday and show my daughter around, as well. It is in my interest and hers to learn about the country I come from, since she is half-Thai."
What does chef Isaksson think of the title "king of broths"? He laughs and says it was an invention by Asian media, because in the Nordics "we do a lot of broths because it's a lighter way of cooking. Making a broth that is fragrant, yet carries a punch but is still clear adds value to any kitchen. Rather that than a very well-reduced sauce that's very powerful; the way they used to cook in the 90s. Now we call almost every clear broth a 'dashi' even though a dashi is Japanese and refers to a very light broth with an umami finish. That to me is more interesting".
When home in Stockholm, chef Isaksson is not a meat eater, preferring to eat seafood. "I love meat and knowing good meat from bad meat is imperative. Lately with the Nordic trend going around and with Noma being so much in focus, more and more vegetables are being highlighted, especially with foraging in the spotlight.
"The concept of luxury is shifting. Now a perfectly grown carrot can be luxurious, the same as lobster or foie gras or truffles. The way we look at food has changed over the years. Even the way we cook has changed; the way we make a broth. Normally the bad-looking mushrooms are thrown away; these days they are turned into a powder and onion skins are put into a broth. There is a sort of symbiosis with moving towards lesser waste and sort of exploring things in the gastronomic world. Sometimes, not always, we end up with a reward. With that said, you also need to learn from your mistakes.
"There was one dish I put on the menu, when it shouldn't have been there. But, if I didn't put it there, I would never have known. When your cooking is so visual, when you use all your senses to cook and when you go on the ride, you fail and then you do it again. In the long run, it's an evolution as a chef. If you're not pushing the boundaries, you will stand still. And that's not for me.
"In Sweden, if you are about sustainability you're forced to work with the seasons, products are at their peak in season. Nothing grows in the winter in Sweden -- that's why we are into preserving: apples in the fall and wild garlic onions in the spring, the season of which is only a month. You can dry-freeze and ferment and seize the moment. Mushrooms in the fall to dry and pickle for the winter. That's what Nordic cuisine is about."
Having cooked for the Nobel Banquet in 2015 and 2016, chef Isaksson is one of those rare chefs with no signature dish. "I am not about signature dishes, I am more about signature techniques. I think one signature technique is that I really love the shape of nature and am into trees.
"I will mimic them for my dishes, especially the branches. The flavours and the spices, and I am now obsessed with charcoal. I wouldn't say I have a signature dish -- I am too curious to be stuck with just one dish.
"I know a lot of people require chefs to have a signature dish, a dish we are known for. That's not for me."
