Swedish Cuisine Still on Its Way Up

Many people outside Sweden have heard of the country's famous meatballs. But they're just one aspect of a rich home cooking tradition - a tradition now finding a place in Sweden's finest restaurants.

Today the label "Scandinavian" carries some heft as an influence for world famous chefs like Marcus Samuelsson who until May was head chef at the renowned Aquavit in Manhattan. And here in Stockholm even the most iconic, and common, Swedish dish - meatballs - is taken seriously by chefs.

Swedish cuisine has its roots in husmanskost, which is essentially Swedish home cooking. Richard Tellström, a food historian and senior lecturer at Örebro University, says Husmanskost comes from a tradition of paying day laborers with food and board. He said some foods eaten today, like pea soup, have their origins in the Middle Ages. Others, like meatballs and herring, are relatively new coming from the late 1800s.

Rickard Måby owns a restaurant called Järnet on Gamla Stan, the Old Town in Stockholm. Located in a tourist hot-spot, Måby said some patrons expect meatballs. But the Swedish crowd, he said, really enjoys the home cooking. Because some of the techniques for preparing husmanskost - salting, smoking, pickling, or slow-roasting - are so time-demanding, people often don't make time to prepare traditional foods unless it's a holiday.

Sara Hernström is the chef at Järnet. She said that even though many young chefs don't study husmanskost at culinary school, they learn how important it is in the Swedish restaurant market.

Jacob Brännberg is a chef at Den Gyldene Freden which has been serving food since 1721. Brännberg studied traditional Swedish foods at school, and he thinks that Scandinavian food will continue to build influence in and outside Sweden.