Rooftop cooking – summer in New York

Before I left from New York to Scandinavia for my vacation I threw a small farewell dinner party for my friends on a lovely rooftop in lower Manhattan.
Inspired by memories of Thailand island life and a visit to an amazing thai restaurant two weeks earlier, I created a menu that featured curried brown rice, garlic stir fried bok choi, green papaya salad and green curry-marinated charcoal grilled jumbo shrimp with a summer fresh mint cilantro lime dipping sauce.
In retrospect, I would say tat this meal qualifies as one of the three best meals of the year.
My friends agree, right? 😉

Here are some pictures from the feast(photos by Nabil samadani : http://nabilsamadani.com)

To cook with other people

As a chef, there is nothing more inspiring than to cook with people from all the corners of the world; be it a stubborn old man from a farm in Norway or a family in one of the most desolate parts of Egypt, there is always something new to learn.

Cooking is my biggest passion in life and sharing a meal a day has been always been a groundston​e in my family. I was raised in a home where cooking was an essential part of the family culture and as a kid I grew to love food but as a result I became comfortabl​e in that I did not have to cook it myself.
But eventually​, as I reached an appropriat​e age, I had to contribute​. (see:my story)
What first seemed like something forcefully​ imposed by my parents – me having to cook – grew to the biggest passion of my life.

In August last year I moved to New York to pursue this passion. After working in a few restaurant​s I realized that for me the true magic with food is not to cook FOR other people, it’s to cook WITH other people.

Scandinavian Summer – drawing inspiration from nature

As I have grown older I have become more aware of the importance of using local ingredients in my cooking.
Spending every summer at our family farm in Norway, using local ingredients is something that has always been close to my heart, but I have not realized the importance of it until now.

To me, Scandinavian food never has been really compelling – simply because it is too plain. Now I have realized that it is the purity, the simplicity, that makes scandinavian food what it is. And that purity is beautiful. In Scandinavian food, the ingredients, often local, is the main character and fragrant spices are replaced with garden herbs.
This knowledge has allowed me to create some of the best dishes ever; only using the fantastic resources from the Swedish and Norwegian nature my cooking has improved dramatically this summer.

Nature it is my biggest inspiration nowadays and these pictures depict my deep relationship to it.

 

 

v