Fäviken Cookbook Review

Fäviken: 4015 Days, Beginning to End

In this week's cookbook review, we are back with our Restaurant Cookbook Series, this time with the Fäviken Cookbook Review.

At the end of 2019, critically acclaimed chef, Magnus Nilsson decided to close his highly respected and much-loved restaurant,  Fäviken, at the height of its success. Why?! The world asked. It was not an easy decision for this bright and influential chef but with the release of Fäviken: 4015 Days, Beginning to End you'll have a chance to understand Nilsson’s reasons for doing so and learn more about what it was like to run such a special restaurant for over a decade as well as an insight into what it is to be creative. Fäviken was not like other restaurants. It won hearts the world over. It was a truly magical place, never to be replaced.

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A Cookbook Full of Stories

Fäviken: 4015 Days, Beginning to End, it is an ode to the extraordinary restaurant that provides a fascinating first-hand account of Fäviken’s evolution. Here Nilsson offers a valuable examination of the restaurant industry and highlights the important lessons he learned along the way. The book is a vital commentary on food culture today and includes illuminating essays on subjects like creativity, balancing familial responsibilities while running a restaurant, and the importance of craft over innovation.

Many have come to love Nilsson’s style of writing and this, his fifth book with Phaidon, shows how much of a craftsman he is with the written word. This new book follows in the footsteps of his successful first book on the restaurant, Fäviken (2012). Its release helped cement Nilsson’s position as a leading culinary voice and one to watch. Since then he has become a globally celebrated chef with countless awards and accolades, as well as appearances on PBS’s The Mind of a Chef series and Netflix’s Chef’s Table.

This new edition includes a chronological list of every dish ever served at the restaurant and highlights 100 memorable recipes. Its vivid blue cloth-bound cover references the first Fäviken, while the red wood textured paper is inspired by the shape, color, and material of the iconic red building Fäviken was in. Full of gorgeous photographs taken by Erik Olsson, who has worked closely with Nilsson throughout the years of running the restaurant. The result is a mixture of archival photographs and newly shot images of the food, the restaurant, the staff, and the surrounding landscapes of Northern Sweden.

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Restaurant Cookbooks

Like most of the restaurant cookbooks, we reviewed, Fäviken: 4015 Days, Beginning to End is a book we won't use frequently. ‍Of course, some adventurous home cooks, and chefs can try to recreate some of its recipes, but for us, this is not the main point of this book. Yes, we tried a few recipes, but what we really like in restaurant cookbooks is the story they told us and the knowledge they share with us.

This book will inspire you to look at nature creatively and differently. Here you'll learn to question things that you always take for granted. It's true that you won't find yourself trying to exactly recreate the recipes in this book, but you can be sure that you'll always learn something just by reading them. And if you are an adventurous home cook or a professional chef you´ll definitely be able to use some of the techniques that Nilsson used at Fäviken in your kitchen.

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At the End of Fäviken Cookbook Review

Fäviken: 4015 Days, Beginning to End is a book that leaves us with a bittersweet taste in our mouths. We say this because its existence means that we have lost the opportunity to go to one of the most incredible and unforgettable restaurants in the world. This book looks back on this incredibly special restaurant from a completely different perspective, telling us the story that many of us have been waiting for.