Tuesday 6 February 2024

Lady P decided to go for a walk and get a coffee, while Flashy had a lie in but before she goes, she shows him a photo of Sweden’s only Michelin 3 star restaurant – ‘Frantzen’ and says, “What do you think?” “Looks OK”, he says. “Good, I’ve booked it for lunch for your birthday. Don’t forget to tell them today is your birthday, not Sunday, OK.” What a nice surprise.

While she is out, Flashy Googles the restaurant. Looks flash. Today calls for fresh clothes and a shower and shave, even though it’s not a Saturday. Lady P dons her black dress and caps that off with her fur lined boots. Very Scandi.

We have been to a number of 3 star Michelin restaurants in Europe and they do have a number of things in common, apart from amazing food. They tend to have the staff, service and food interacting perfectly. They are also eye-wateringly expensive. Is that really two zeros on the end? And in in Euros? Don’t look, I reckon.

They also are completely over the top in exquisite design and execution of their interiors, often with sculptures and artwork and toilets that have the same, along with self sensing taps, heated seats, and soft towels. The staff, often fashion models and largely female, are beautifully groomed and attired, speak at least three languages and are attuned to all aspects of the guests’ needs. The lads are pretty spiffy, too.

And, if I recall Alkimia in Barcelona and Guy Savoy in Paris, they also have their own bespoke crockery, glassware and cutlery, often works of art in themselves.

So how did Frantzen stack up? We arrive at the address, only to find a large wooden door and a buzzer. Not unusual in the scheme of things 3-star. A discrete sign indicated that we should press the buzzer. On doing so, we were greeted in a stylish reception by two young, blonde Scandi women who engaged us in polite conversation, before directing us to the lift up to the lounge room.

Beautifully furnished in comfortable lounge chairs and small tables, this is where the maximum of 23 guests are greeted, offered Champagne and the menu discussed. Here, in this room, we noticed six chefs preparing amuse bouche and another six wait staff, sommeliers and maitre d’house there to make sure we were looked after. They were aiming for a family lounge room feel and they nailed it. We opted for a Legras and Haas blancs de blancs Grand cru Champagne from Chouilly, which is just south of Epernay and bottled exclusively for Frantzen – of course.

Wait staff in classic black and whites, sommeliers and management in suits. Lady P asks if Flashy noticed the Frantzen logo embroided on the male waiter’s fly. No, look at their eyes, look at their eyes, they can tell when you are staring at the pointy bits.

We are served the first five of 21 courses, by more chefs and staff than guests, along with top ups of the Champagne, which was excellent, by the way, crisp, clean and dry, 100% Chardonnay and freshly opened.

Frantzen has a philosophy of open kitchens and a recognition that guests have a real interest in how the engine room operates. So, we were taken in twos to the chef’s station to watch them preparing the amuse and to discuss and be shown, all the elements that would be used in our meal. This included a live langoustine on ice, ready for the day, waving away at Lady P. So, onto those amuse:

Choux de vasterbotten: Crisp choux pastry spherical ball filled with cream cheese and topped with fennel syrup and seeds.

Tartlets: The good old langoustine’s claws with horseradish and myoga in a paper thin crinkly edged pastry case.

Savoury Macarons: Whipped foie gras, sudachi and pumpkin slivers layered between the Earl Gray flavoured macarons,

Raraka: Their signature amuse, of a fried potato wafer tube filled with sour cream and lemon zest topped with vendance roe, pickled red onion and chive.

Vol au vent: Sweetbread, kalamansi and kombu.

Pretty good so far. Now, did I mention that the chefs are all male. Young, attractive roosters from across Europe. Short sleeve jackets and gleaming guns. Nice smiles too, girls.

Bjorn, the Swede (chef) takes us to the very modern prep kitchen to show us mise en place in action. Fourteen male chefs lined up working the prep stations and another two in the pastry section. Flashy had a good time supervising.

We were then escorted to the dining room, which is fully open and integrated into the kitchen. Here there were another seven chefs and nine floor staff. Guests sit at a long L-shaped table, apart from those really special guests (about 8 places), that get a table by the window. That was us! After being introduced to each chef and shown the firepit, we are seated and the show continues.

Not to be disappointed, the décor was high end Scandi. Lots of perfect carpentry, timber finishes and clean lines. The crockery was bespoke and hints of the Japanese influence on the courses was sometimes reflected in the porcelain and flatware. Very exquisite but classic glassware adorned our table.

The first wines are served: A 2022 Egon Muller Mosel Riesling and a Nabeshima Junmai Daiginjo Sake. These accompany the salmon crudo with hamachi, plums, shiso, wasabi and a big dollop of caviar. Wine is topped when the tide goes out, too.

The same wines are in play for the langoustine tail, fried on nishiki rice for 12 seconds and served with matsutake, chiron and butter emulsion.

The next two wines were a wonderful Californian Chardonnay-2021 ‘les noisetiers’ Kistler Vineyards from Sebastopol and one of Flashy’s favourites, a Rainwater Reserva Barbeito Madeira from Portugal. These are to accompany the Chawanmushi, an aged pork broth floating on a velouté with raw quail egg and golden enoki and then the Arctic Char fillet with sansho pepper, lemon zest and miso broth dressing.

Topped up with the Chardonnay, the chefs bring out the French Toast. Fried finger of bread topped with Parmesan cream, loads of shaved black truffle and a couple of drops of 20 year old balsamic vinegar. Then a bowl of caramelised onion soup, liquorice cream and almond and capsicum foam.

New glass now for the red wine, a 2007 Barbaresco Riserva ’Quindicianni’ Cascina Baricchi, from Piedmont, Italy. This went fantastically with the flamed reindeer, shitake, cloudberry, fermented pineapple and foie gras.

A palate cleanser of frozen lime marshmallow sorbet with sake, grated coconut and matcha dust, preceded the dessert.

The winter apple, walnut, lemongrass and wasanbon crème dessert was accompanied by a 2015 Chateau Climens Sauterne. Sic est spectaculum. Almost.

We adjourn back to the lounge room, where Flashy is presented with a birthday cake and more Champagne. Coffee anyone? Brandy? Cigar?

We opt for coffee and along comes a four tower stack of petit fours: Macarons of pistachio, miso and apricot and another of coconut and coffee. Next layer has white chocolate with saffron and sea buckthorn and milk chocolate with cep mushroom and walnut. Then sweet fudge with fermented garlic followed by salted caramel and Japanese whisky chocolate bites and lastly pate de fruit with fennel and batak pepper. Now, it’s “Thus the show endeth.”

A couple of observations. As you may have gathered from the descriptions, there is a Japanese influence to what is either a classic French dish or part thereof, or a fusion of Scandinavian, French and Japanese flavours and techniques. A thoroughly skillful and flavoursome experience. 

Also, given the number of courses, we were perfectly sated with food and wines. Their portion control is masterly. Service was exceptional and laid back- friendly in keeping with the philosophy of Bjorn Frantzen, the chef owner. 

The music in the background was the best hits of the 1970’s. We loved “Build me up buttercup” and the Beatles and Creedence best hits. The young staff did too. Just goes to show..

So I’d have to give Frantzen a full 5/5.They deserve their third star, awarded four years ago-the only 3 star in all of Sweden. We head off to the metro for a train back to the old town. Its 5pm and Lady P is pleased that her choice lived up to the reviews and Flashy is still mumbling about the Madeira.  

The discreet entrance

Flashy working out the conversion to Euros

Cheese filled pastry balls

Langoustine tartlets

Savoury macaron

Potato wafer. Opps, Flashy has eaten half his

The elements of the forthcoming meal

The final amuse

Flashy supervising the mise en place

The wine cellar has an extensive Krug collection and a couple of 45,000 euro bottles of Burgundy

That's about a dessert spoon of caviar

Lady P gets her langoustine tail at last

Quail egg, sexy plate and bespoke spoon

Arctic Char

Now that's a decent amount of truffle

Onion soup

Our view of the dining room and kitchen from our special table.

Bread and butter. Good too.

The reindeer fillet. Very French execution (the meal not the killing of the reindeer)

Sorbet

Dessert

We had a few

Our special table by the window

Flashy's birthday cake

Petit fours

Surprise pastries from chef

Doggy bag for some petit fours

Mmmmm

The Planner. Her turn next. What will Flashy do, I wonder?

There don't seem to be as many strange things about Sweden as there were about Finland but here's one that makes your toes curl!

Surströmming – fermented herring. This dish is a particularly startlingly, weird specialty, where the smell has caused more than one person to throw up. Someone, it is said,  called the police because they thought their neighbour laid dead in his house. Turned out he was only eating Surströmming.

The herring is caught just prior to spawning and packed into a tin of brine to ferment. The fermentation starts from an enzyme in the spine of the fish which causes hydrogen sulphide (that is fart gas) to produce in the tin. Yummy right?! The fermenting process causes the can to bulge over time,  a bit like the old cans of mutton kept for future Covid lockdowns, or something you'd find in the old camping box. So, stand well back when opening. Surströmming is often eaten as a sandwich with waxy potatoes, red onion and dill. Delicious, I'm sure. Looks safe and Swedes are not all falling over dead in the street... but