Christopher Haatuft

congrats, Eyvind Hellstrøm with regaining that second star!

lambs liver, tutto frutti chewing gum, salted peanuts

Thank you for checking my blog. I set it up because I have some unpublished articles, as well as a big photolibrary of food related pictures. I will be discussing food in Norway and my thoughts on the topic. I write a bi-weekly food article with recipes over a two page spread in one of Norways biggest newspaper, but sometimes I have thoughts that doesnt fit that format. The flat oysters are ostrea edulis, the same as Belon. They are native to Norway and are just recently started to get grown commercially. The swedish are also producing the same type, some which I had for the first time yesterday. I Oslo, I know that the food store "Smart Club" has them, and also the restaurant Bagatelle have used them at times. I have sent an email to the producer and asked where they are available. The madeira was amazing. I have never had anything like it and the smell right when it was opened was pretty intense. I smelled of aceton and paint thinner, but in a good way. The fishpicture is from the fishmarked in either Bilbao or San Sebastian. To bad you cant make it to Bergen, I would have arranged for a nice meal at the restaurant were I work

Sorry guys, but its all in Norwegian. I have put out links to examples of my food writing, pictures and bits and pieces of this and that. For those of you that read any scandinavian language, please check it out and tell me what you think. Im new to this blogging, so please be patient. www.christopherhaatuft.wordpress.com

I wanted to go when Annette and I was there, but we rented bikes which kept us within the city. I would recommend everyone to rent bikes to get around town. Its cheap and easy. Theres a bike rental place up at Place Gambetta.

Ill be staying in Crawley, anything there?

Rhodes Mezzanine, also I guess

You're pretty much accurate. The chefs in charge tend to come from the original restaurant or have worked directly with the celebrity chefs and then the line cooks tend to be Asian. I've heard mixed reviews about Reflets, I can't afford to go myself. However, these guys Fat Expat pretty much eat their way through Dubai and are passionate foodies so they will probably give you a fair idea of the experience. ← yeah, Reflets seems costly. Ill check out the fattys

in all honesty it is unlikely, by the time you got out of passport control it would be 9:15pm would be too late to get into London and back, Croydon the nearest town has one good restaurant but is is a warzone in the evening and Brighton would be 10pm before you arrived so just that bit too far to get there and back. ← whats the one good one in Croydon?

thank you chefsimon!

Oh, and has anyone been to Reflets par Gagniere?

And Savoy as well. Thats quite an impressive list. I would think it would be a problem staffing these restaurants. In Europe, there is bussloads of good cooks dying to get in there to work for free, how does this work in Dubai? Are the sous chefs and head chefs sourced from the mother restaurants and the line cooks asian? I guess that would take care of labour cost. what about cooks jumping from restaurant to restaurant?

Im landing at Gatwick at 8.30pm on a Wednesday. Is there any chance of a decent meal in the surrounding area?

out of famous chefs opening restaurants in Dubai, I have the following: Nobu Ramsay Santimaria Locatelli Gagniere Rostang Have I forgotten anyone?

going back next week. anyone had a good meal in Dubai, lately?

i think also you will find that not all european countries have the same support either, speaking for the uk funding, this was very tight for simon and little help or backing was given, and he too had to scrape funds together to meet the costs of entering ← I heard Geir Skeie from Norway had about £200000 in his budget. I dont know what specifically it was for or who it was from. But even though that was the money he had, it doesnt take away his victory.

Christopher: I think we have a lot to learn from you. Maybe instead of just cooking for the Ambassador, you should cook for us, we the "little people" in Paris. There are a couple of empty restos right now. ← I dont know, John. We seem to win a lot of competitions, but when it comes to restaurants, Norway is not really "worth a detour". I think we do well in competitions because there is a very strong core of good cooks who organize the national team and help new, young talent. But you're right, screw the ambassador, make room in your kitchen and I'll be there

and Norway won again! hehe...

It looks like Im going to http://www.gourmetabudhabi.ae/ as I will be in Dubai for that period. Anyone else going?

Please do crash! Theres room for everybody, bring your friends. Also, we are talking about Senderens. If you were to pick three places of the ones I mentioned, which would it be?

It seems like a lot of the inexpensive bistros are not available to contact through email or have webpages. Im arriving Paris for lunch the 28th and need two hot meals a day for the 28th, 29th and lunch 30th. So far Im leaning towards Jadis, Itinéraires, mayby La Table de Robouchon for lunch, Clocher Pereire, Ami Jean, Jean, but I have a feeling I should fit a traditional brasserie in there somewhere. We are staying at a crappy hotel near the eastern part of the Eiffel tower park. New Years eve I will be cooking at the Norwegian embassy, so I looking foreward to that. What do you guys think of my selection? Im travveling with a chef friend, but the other people in the group (6 in total) are not as big of a food snob as me. Somewhere relaxed, but with stellar food is perfect.

Does Jadis have a website?

Nice question. Im leaving for Paris in a couple of days, and my head is spinning from all the options. Looking foreward to the replies.

I had a great thai meal at Plah earlier this fall and underwhelming sushi at Alex Sushi.

Here in Norway we have a tradition of cooking pork belly for Christmas. The traditional way is to rub it with salt a day or two before cooking it, placing it in the sheet pan in the oven, skin side up. Then we pour about a cup of water in the dish, place a little saucer under the belly (so that the fat runs of) and cover with foil. The skin is kept on, but scored. The belly is then cooked for about 45 minutes under the foil at about 250 degrees C. Then the foil is taken of and it is finihed at 200 degress for about an hour and a half. I would like to try it by brining it first, instead of rubbing it with salt and adding chicken stock instead of water. I have not yet seen any non-Norwegian recipe for pork belly with the cripsy skin still on. Do any of you have similar recipies? What would you do if you were to make a similar dish? any ways to improve this norwegian classic?