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Marmiton.org
For 11 years, the Gourmand World Media Awards have been the international Oscars for food and wine books.
You will meet there well known chefs coming from all countries, authors, journalists, publishers…..gathered all together for their passion: cooking.
Meeting with Lillemor Edlund, young Swedish woman chef who works at the restaurant of the Grythyttan Inn, three hours west of Stockholm by road. With the Swedish team, she won the Silver Medal at the Cooking Olympics of 2004.
Christophe Duhamel – CD :
Lillemor, how did your taste for cooking come to you?
Lillemor Edlund – LE :
I was 11 years old when in school we had to spend two days in a professional setting, either a factory, or a public administration, or a restaurant…. I spent two days in a restaurant making sandwiches, and I loved it! I told myself I wanted to make sandwiches all my life. Then I went to a cooking school, before working in a restaurant, then another, then another, then another… In Sweden, but also in Spain, in Alicante. Finally I came back to Sweden where I have been working for over four years.
CD.-
In other countries, we do not know well Swedish cookery… what are the specialities?
LE.-
Meat balls, marinated herring, much fish on the coast, but also wild game in the north, such as reindeer, deer, moose… We grill the game, or in the oven, in slow cooking. I love deer, with fresh chanterelle mushrooms. We are lucky to have much wild mushrooms and berries of all kinds.
CD.-
What are the trends today fr food?
LE.-
People are more and more conscious of what they eat. They ask where their meat comes from, if it is produced locally, or imported. They are careful with their health, nobody wants chemicals in their food. And they are very conscious of ecological aspects. In fact while talking with people here in Asia, I am very surprised to see that people in Asia do not give the same importance to those aspects.
On the contrary, in Sweden, and I imagine in all of Europe, this interest for quality and the origin of what is in the plate seems to me to be increasing with time.
CD.-
Is there something, a technique, a type of cuisine, that you would like to learn?
LE.-
Everything! It is one of the pleasures of the trade = you learn all the time. And I want to learn everything, specially everything about the desserts: the chocolate, the sugar manipulation that ask for much technique. I admire people who can do fabulous things with sugar, who blow it like glass.
CD.-
Is there something you specially like in Malaysia?
LE.-
Yes, I love very much the way many things are wrapped: in banana leaves, in bamboo…. I believe there are many interesting things to do with this concept.
CD.-
Your team got the Silver Medal at the Cooking Olympics Games of 2004 in Germany. What is this competition?
LE.-
We have a 16m2 table which we must use to present one meal. We have five days to work on the food and the appearance. We can store things in the cold, even bring some things with us before the start of the competition. We are judged on the result.
I was in charge of the entries. The theme was to show Swedish culture and products. So we could not use products not present in Sweden. We had two designers with us, and we recreated a scenery with very small pine trees, we played with the seasons.
We were the only team to be made up of only women, and we won the Silver Medal for regional teams.
CD.-
Do you have other projects?
LE.-
I have been a few times on television in Sweden. Also once in Germany, for a German television show on GLOC (Grog-Warm-Wine). I did not believe I would like television, but once I started, I loved it. It is much fun. At the moment I focus on competition, very specially on the 2008 Olympic Games.
One day I would like to open my own restaurant, but not now. I still have much to learn, and I want to travel. When you manage a restaurant, you do not have the time to do something else.
CD.-
What advice would you give those who cook at home and want to have diversity in their daily life?
LE.-
You have to try, let your inspiration take over. Look, watch, take your time. This is how you learn, digest and progress
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