Iceland's culinary revival - it's fresh, wholesome and exciting
A decade ago it was famed for the collapse of its banking system and the crisis that engulfed the global economy. Now Iceland is building a reputation for its cuisine, and it's being embraced with enthusiasm.
Set high in the Arctic Circle, this tiny island nation of just 350,000 people is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Many small nations like Iceland struggle to establish themselves on the global stage but this tiny island outcrop isn't one of them. It's heavily dependent on sales of commodities and seafood - which together account for 60% of its exports - but its mountainous landscape means only a fraction of its land surface is available for growing crops. Despite those challenges, food is an increasing factor in Iceland's economic success, rivalling tourism which was once the single biggest contributor to the economy.
The key elements of the Icelandic diet have barely changed in centuries but today's Icelandic chefs have become ‘imagineers’, fusing ancient with new to create a food landscape that is gaining recognition in Europe and beyond. It’s easy to imagine how tough life would have been in the Iceland of old: surrounded by water without arable crops, importing much of what it needed from neighbouring Norway, fish was the staple in a diet that was limited by nature. And it’s fish that has created the culinary platform that showcases Icelandic cuisine today.
But whatever you think you already know about the Icelandic diet, you need to know this – Icelanders have the highest average lifespan outside of Japan. That’s the fish in the diet again. According to Ragnar Eiriksson, chef patron of Dill, Iceland’s first Michelin star restaurant, the abundant fish, along with lamb, are year round staples. And, while in decades gone by crops were sparse, advances in geothermal technology mean greenhouses can grow vegetables all year, resulting in a seasonal increase in fresh vegetables. At Dill Eriksson is committed to the increasingly available local seasonal produce to compliment the obscure flavours of northern Iceland.
Back in 2007 Siggi Hall was the country’s only celebrity chef. Leading his country through a culinary revolution, his early offers to adventurous diners went down surprisingly well among adventurous diners who had never tasted raw, or even fermented, shark. Today the cuisine includes multi-cultural influences from Asia and Europe, tweaked with a little local Icelandic flavour.Icelandic chef Agnar Sverisson is patron of Texture in London where he uses local Icelandic ingredients to produce contemporary flavours using carp, halibut, langoustines, puffin and lamb. And while puffin may be a new taste sensation for many of his customers, he admits that smoked lamb’s head and rotten shark are definitely off the menu for diners.
The website Guide to Iceland includes a wider range of dishes likely to be considered inedible by outsiders. The list includes fermented shark, sour ram’s testicles, sheep’s head, whale, cod tongues, blubber, as well as fish stomach. While they're unlikely to be found in British restaurants anytime soon, nutritionist Lily Souter offers some encouragement: "The Icelandic diet is typically low in saturated fat, yet high in healthy omega 3 fatty acids" she says. "This combination is perfect for supporting cardiovascular health, most of these healthy fats come from fresh, locally caught fish; in fact the Icelandic cuisine contains four times the amount of seafood found in the cuisine of other countries."
