Totally Stockholm 1
BITESIZE Words: Pelle Tamleht A little over a yea
r ago, the muchlauded restaurant Esperanto threw in the towel, along with neighbouring ventures Shibumi and Imuoto. Their founding father, chef Sayan Isaksson, shortly thereafter began collaborating with Stureplansgruppen on various projects. Now the famous chef is opening a new Thai restaurant, in the same premises that previously housed Berns Asiatiska. I meet up with Sayan on site, just before opening. We wander through the prep kitchen, then enshrouded in a piquant smell from the chef’s self-made shrimp paste, and soon find ourselves in the large dining room, which stretches to 160 seats. I ask him how he goes about putting together the logistics of a restaurant of this size, without compromising on quality. “It’s partly for that reason we have divided the kitchens into a warm kitchen and a cold kitchen, which makes it more practical. For the same reason, but also to keep our credibility, we have also narrowed ourselves down geographically [when it comes to the food],” Sayan says. The name of the new restaurant – Isaan – refers to the region of Thailand where Sayan himself has roots. And naturally, the food they serve will derive from Isaan too. “Firstly, it’s a very nice name, and then it’s obviously very fortunate that their food culture is so good. It’s situated very near the Laos border, so it resembles their cuisine. We will for example have their national dish laap (a salad with minced meat) on the menu, which will have about 30 dishes in total.” That’s a pretty extensive menu, perhaps including images of the dishes would be an idea? Haha, it could actually be an advantage in some cases. Maybe if you’re not in the know about what everything means and want to avoid eating frog, for example. Though frog does taste very good. Isaan is historically a poor region, which means their dishes traditionally have a limited amount of ingredients. Plus they haven’t had the same access to dry spices as other regions of Thailand. “It means you have to work a bit more on different techniques. Among the best things I ate when I was on an inspirational trip to Isaan was a chicken cooked over an open fire. The various chicken parts are put together with ground herbs and chilli in a pot and cooked in the steam from ice water. When the ice water becomes lukewarm you change it, and after the third change the chicken is ready. Simple and incredibly tasty. The funniest thing was when I, by coincidence, found out that several chefs who were already here at Berns just happened to hail from Isaan too”. The food at Isaan will partly be cooked over open fire, without any tricks more elaborate than that. So-called ‘analogue cooking’, something Sayan raves about. Along with him on this journey is chef Rodrigo Perez, formerly of Ekstedt, another place with love for open-flame cooking. Though Sayan wanted to have 20 Sayan’s comeback Closing down the Michelin-starred restaurant Esperanto after 13 years is not quite what dreams are made of. But renowned chef Sayan Isaksson is back with new Thai restaurant Isaan at Berns. the fire out in the dining room, it’s been placed in the kitchen for structural reasons. However, the cold kitchen is situated among the dining tables. “It’s the interaction with the guests that I live for, you need it for your ego. I have never been much for being on television or for participating in competitions, the most important thing for me is to receive the direct feedback from the guests. That’s invaluable,” he says. Esperanto was for a long time ranked as one of the best restaurants in Sweden, and it stood out for more than just the food. Among other things they recruited the Swedish Ballet Academy to train the staff in how to move. No small details were to be left to chance. “That sounds a bit like a rumour that got out of hand, but no, we did look at all of those things. Unfortunately, I personally missed that particular course with the ballet academy. One thing we will bring with us from Esperanto is the care for the raw produce. We only work with Swedish produce and actually right after this interview I’m heading in to a meeting about meat. We have also plans to grow both lemongrass and coriander ourselves, but that won’t be until the summer. The only thing we won’t be able to source from Sweden is actually the rice”. How did it feel to put an end to your chapter with Esperanto? It must have been a tough time? It was, absolutely, at the same time we had reached an intersection where we would have had to invest, both economically and with time and effort, and renew ourselves in order to continue. I think it was Mathias Dahlgren who said a star restaurant had to renew itself every ten years, and we were into our 13th. Apart from running Esperanto, Sayan has also found the time to cook for the Nobel Prize banquet, not just once, but twice. Plus he has competed with the Swedish National Chef Team. I suspect that you had a lot of offers, what was it that made you choose to work with Stureplansgruppen and Berns? Because there was a very concrete proposal. I was asked if I wanted to reinvent the restaurant at Berns, and I already knew that I wanted to do something with Thai cuisine. We were already exploring it somewhat at Esperanto. I actually had a meeting with Björn Frantzén [of Frantzén] too, but felt that it would be a bit hard for two big egos to agree on things, haha. The expectations on you are pretty high, due to your CV. How do you cope with that? Through being very focused. There’s really no time or space to be nervous, but you always have to stay focused to deliver quality. But perhaps you don’t need to come by for a review until we’ve had a month to settle in, haha. Photo: NIklas Nyman