The small, predominantly residential island of Lilla Essingen, to the west of Stockholm city centre, is not perhaps the most obvious choice of location for a Michelin starred restaurant.  It seemed a much more likely destination for an NCT coffee morning or perhaps a boating club than a temple of Nordic gastronomy.  But then, housed in the former Electrolux canteen (itself now a listed building) it’s hard to see how this place was ever home to one of Sweden’s giants of industry either.  There was something a too serene about the quality of the light to be conducive to the pace of restaurant cooking, much less large-scale manufacturing.  Electrolux must have eventually felt the same as they’ve now shipped out, leaving only Lux Stockholm (translation: Light of Stockholm) – one of a growing handful of Scandinavian restaurants whose reputation is starting to keep the chefs at its Southern European counterparts awake at night. 

Seemingly a graduate from the same school of thought as Rene Redzepi at Noma, Creative Director and Chef Henrik Norström aims to triangulate three things he’s passionate about: seasonal, über-local produce; the flavours he finds most compelling (salty, sour, smoked and spiced - since you ask) and a little Nordic ‘jag vet inte Iroquois’.  Which is Swedish for ‘je ne sais quois’ if Google Translate is to be believed, and I suspect it isn’t.  The ethos is all about produce and presentation, which, at times, comes at the expense of actual cooking as most of us know and understand it.  This is not a criticism; the same could be said about sushi so perhaps Lux is the Scandinavian second-cousin to that particular cuisine. 

Proceedings opened with delicious bread and butters, one of which is best described as tasting like a farmyard Caramac bar.  This was followed by ‘Roe Rock Garden’ - a variety of different fish roes served on a slab of ice set in an old caviar tin – and then ‘Edible Aquarium In A Petri Dish’ – oysters, mussels and crayfish decorated with various fronds of aquatic plant life.  As is becoming fashionable (c.f. Viajante), the pass was actually in the middle of the dining room, with many of the finishing flourishes (a daub of foam here, a splash of jus there) added by the chefs in full view of the diners, which adds to the theatre of the occasion. 

It would have perhaps been helpful to have had an English translation of the menu as it would have saved me from the rather Ronseal description of course number 3 as ‘raw, torn entrecote’.  Or number 4 as the Chinese restaurant worthy ‘indeterminate white fish in amazing sauce’.  But then it would also have taken the joy out of guessing what the brilliantly monikered Primörkyckling* of course 5 was. Fortunately, however, I did have the presence of mind to create a visual menu so for those unconvinced by my descriptions I’m hoping the photo album (second post on this blog) will fill in any gaps.  

The only thing Norström’s philosophy did not bode well for was dessert.  I had my misgivings about where this ‘allotment to plate’ concept would successfully translate into a fantastic dessert and, alas, it didn’t.  The presentation (like every dish that had gone before) was exquisite but the rhubarb was too raw for my taste and, served with just frozen yoghurt and the obligatory shard of biscuit shrapnel, was a little too bland.  But this is nit-picking and dessert was never going to be the course to showcase this philosophy to maximum effect (in the same way I’ve yet to have an outstanding dessert in a Japanese restaurant). 

It may sound a little mean spirited to say that the meal was something I appreciated rather than enjoyed, but I simply mean that this isn’t food to devour in a gluttonous frenzy; it’s food to savour as you marvel at the intricacy of the presentation and ruminate over the balance of flavours.  Everything was so fresh it could have walked onto the plate itself and despite the barrage of at least a dozen courses, nothing sat too heavily.  Someone less charitable might say it was a bit too clever by half but I think that misses the point. In a world where everyone seems to be churning out some variant of ‘Modern European’ or ‘Gastropub’ it’s nice to find somewhere treading a different path and confounding lazy stereotypes about national cuisines.  

And, if nothing else, I think there’s much to admire about an establishment that offers its patrons complimentary, individually wrapped toothbrushes in its bathrooms.  Thoughtful.  

*Spring chicken