New Scandinavian Cooking
PBS
Various Times
Norway has its own kind of sexy, and it cooks. Andreas Viestad, host of "New Scandinavian Cooking" on PBS, is hotter than a Norweigan summer. Much hotter. No one could better introduce the freshly scrubbed appeal of Norway's Board of Tourism to America than a host with his own traveling kitchen.
Viestad's show combines all the elements of a successful cooking show: a charming host, an interesting locale and the socialist backing of the entire Norwegian tourism ministry. Instead of Rachael Ray's smooth "gosh-how-are-these-strawberry-jams" prattle, we have Andreas' perfect, yet halting English. With his hard consonants, "clotted cream" is "claw-otted cream" and you'll love the man more for it, especially as he's smearing it onto fresh slabs of salmon.
For unaccustomed American viewers, acceptance is key to understanding the Norwegian way, i.e., raw fish and fruit. Whatever reservations the American audience may have about this cuisine is immediately alleviated by the fun-to-watch presence of Viestad's weekly guest "tasters". As Viestad smoothly butters a piece of lefse, Scandinavian flat bread, during a visit to a traditional bakery, a group of women in the bakery grow more excited by each sweep of the butter knife until they are sated with samples of Viestad's treats. (As the dough-play reached a fever pitch, I immediately pulled
out a slice of day-old pita from my fridge; it's a good sign, when cooking shows make you eat indiscriminately.)
However, beyond the delicious flat-bread foreplay, Viestad does not
offer the satisfying punch of "Iron Chef" or Martha Stewart. While his
preparations are skillful and inventive, he often uses fjord-fresh ingredients that are completely confusing and quite incongruous. Viestad is a master at making a seemingly tasty dish 90 percent of the way, and then afflicting the other 10 percent with such ingrediants as fermented shark. In other words, Viestad is a food tease.
But he teaches an important lesson about "New Scandinavian Cooking:" a Norwegian foodie is one who relishes both ice cream and salmon roe in the same fragile sugar cone. A Norwegian foodie will dig out trout that's been fermented underground for three weeks to enjoy the "aromatic and peculiar taste." But wannabe Norwegian foodies will have to face eating the ugliest food in the world. If the creme brulée Viestad is making looks brilliant — wait for him to flip it into some sort of fish casserole. Though half of the fun of watching Viestad is waiting for that final, devastatingly unappetizing ingredient, "Scandinavian Cooking" sometimes bears a closer resemblance to "Fear Factor" than to "Barefoot Contessa." Yet, when the cuisine gets strange, the show does get interesting.
In addition, watching Viestad prepare his mysterious concoctions is fascinating because he doesn't just make the food in some Sur La Table labratory. Instead, Viestad cooks in the world, where ever he may be. In demonstrating monkfish grilling, Viestad brings an element of outdoorsmanship previously unseen in the food show format. Sure, there's "Barbeque University" and "Boy Meets Grill," but these hard-boiled men of open flame are pansies compared to Viestad, who, quite literally, makes his own kitchen. Viestad assembles every outdoor location cooking unit himself — and the entire process is shown at quadruple speed and set to haunting soundtrack. Time-lapse
photography has never been so efficient or charming.
In the end, "Scandinavian Cooking" is more enjoyable as a glimpse into life in Norway, rather than as a guide to cooking in the US, but quite a glimpse it is. Here's a people who care about food, not only for the gnarly flavors, but for the fact that without eating the mutated monkfish, nobody would survive through the freakishly frigid winter. In the end, the show may deter you from eating anything new, but it'll leave you longing to hop on a plane up north — if for no other reason than to have the opportunity to turn down fresh fish with fruit.
— Ceda Xiong (ceda dot xiong at gmail dot com)
