Mattias Kroon writes about restaurants, fine dining, wine and travel in numerous magazines and is a juror in the panel that selects the "Worlds 50 Best Restaurants”. In 2008 he published his first book - about world renowned restaurant Oaxen and its classic Christmas recipes. We talked to him about dining in Skane.

How has Skane´s restaurant life grown during the last years?

- Malmoe has developed from a big small town to a small metropolis. But in Helsingborg it is the other way around, and Lund is simply disastrous. Meanwhile the countryside has lots of great manors and forgotten guest house restaurants where you can dine on exquisite traditional Swedish food. Many gourmet restaurants with high standard have popped up recently, as well as many simple but damn good Asian restaurants has opened the eyes of many conservative Swedes.

Where does Skane stand if you compare it to the rest of Sweden?

- We´ll never be able to have Stockholm´s diversity, or as good sea produce as Gothenburg, but we have some gourmet restaurants with reasonable prizes and quite many local pubs and guest houses with ambition. When it comes to game we have amazing assets in the fall that our restaurants take good advantage of. Skane has great possibilities for farming, and local produce, something we haven’t really been exploring and fully appreciate until recently. Unfortunately Skane´s farmers are terrible at ecology; we have the lowest organic produce percentage of the entire country! Everything is owned by large cooperation and LRF and Skånemejerier dairy do very little for the qualitative thinking that is necessary for a healthy culinary identity. I hope for an development, we have everything to gain.

Where is Skane on an international culinary level?

- Malmoe has so few inhabitants, if the city had been in Germany or Holland, it would have been a suburb. But I´ve never visited a city that per residents, have such a large selection of exciting and good restaurants, ok, San Sebastian in the Basque Province is an exception… Otherwise I really enjoy the higher gastronomy restaurants in Skane a lot. Young guys that aren’t stuck in the old luxury thinking with foie gras, turbot and other boring classics. They look for simpler food, and take on a more appealing visual approach than what the old generation did. Lund, on the other hand, is a big mystery. I have never experienced a town with such great potential for good dining – university, multinational companies, good average income and high education – are, with one or two exceptions, a downright awful city to dine in. On every level, price range and demand. The gastronomic and culinary illiteracy doesn’t seem to cure in that hole. Sad and mysterious.

What is Skanes culinary specialty?

- Root vegetables are probably most important. To allow the food to taste what it is suppose to taste. To use our game to its fullest capacity. And all the old traditions like eel feast, goose at Mårtens Eve, pyramid cake and the apples and the rapeseed. If I must generalize I´d say our food is more inspired by Germany and Denmark, but everything changes with time, now there´s a lot of chefs that are inspired by techniques from the finest restaurants abroad – but they still make the food with local produce! Chef Thomas Dreijing who ran Petri Pumpa has meant a great deal for the simple and uncomplicated cooking, with feeling for excellent ingredients and simple techniques. He has inspired and trained every talented young chef in Skane. A big applause for him.

What is your favorite dish in Southern Sweden?

- Pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup that is miraculously delicious. Malmoe has a pocketful of really good Vietnamese restaurants, which is more than both Stockholm and Copenhagen. It is a true South-Swedish modern classic!

Best restaurant in Skane?

- Tempo in Malmoe.

Published 2009-08-27 14:03