Once, they made smorgasbords all over Chicago. Then they were Muppets. But the fact is, “Swedish chef” wasn’t a job description that got you into the front ranks of chefdom for a good long time, as everyone ate Mediterranean food and liquid-nitrogen-frozen tapas. Now, though, Scandinavia is hot, and no better proof of that than the fact that two prominent Swedish chefs will be popping through the city in the next month or so. The first is Magnus Nilsson, who has Fäviken, a seriously local restaurant on a remote island where the daughter disappeared many years ago and a girl with a dragon tattoo is and also has a new cookbook called Fäviken from Phaidon, for everyone who’s already cooked their way through Noma. He’ll be doing a dinner with The Publican on October 6; you can reserve your spot for the a la carte menu at 312-733-9555.
The second is Chef Håkan Thörnström of Michelin-starred Thörnströms Kök in Gothenburg, who’s coming here as part of the sister cities program (here’s our coverage of a previous event with Mexican sister cities). Thörnströms Kök, in Sweden’s second largest city, won Restaurant of the Year last year from the leading restaurant publication in the country. He will be at Kendall College on Monday, September 10, cooking a sit-down dinner with Kendall students. It begins with a wine reception at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7, and is $100; go here for tickets.
