Magic between Mauritius and Sweden

The recent ninth edition of the Festival culinaire Bernard Loiseau, at the BelleMarePlage resort in Mauritius, ended on Saturday April 5th with the announcement of the winner, Dammika Sarath, chef at the Constance Halaveli Maldives. This was preceded, on Friday, by a dinner prepared by the six European chefs who, during the entire week, supported their six colleagues participating in the competition, all six born in countries that face the Indian Ocean and working for the Constance group in the Maldives, Seychelles and Mauritius.

The six starred chefs were English Tim Allen of Launceston Place in London, Jacob Holmström (Gastrologik Restaurant in Stockholm), Mirto Marchesi from Canton Ticino (Les Chalets d’Adrien in Verbier), Japanese Masachi Ijichi (La Cachette in Valence), then German Jens Rittmeyer (Budersand Restaurant in Hornum) and finally French Nicolas Masse (Les Sources de Caudalie in Bordeaux).

Out of all the dishes served, the one that charmed me the most that night was the first one: Oyster, no other word. One could discuss at length, whether it is better to give an essential title on the menu, with about just the main ingredient, or one those names that sometime require more time to read than to eat the dish itself. We’ll never get to the point where everyone agrees.

Whatever one’s opinion may be, when I find a minimalist title, such as in this case with Holmström, I wonder what may the journey that the chef has taken with that ingredient be. I do not expect something I already know, something traditional. Indeed, Jacob’s oyster was everything but the sole oyster. And it was so good.

You need to be very brave to use a Belon (but also the oysters from the waters in the region of Goteborg and in the south-west of Sweden) because it is so perfect by itself that it would be easy to spoil it. This was not the case in Mauritius and I can’t wait for the European finals of Bocuse d’Or to take place (on May 7-8th, in Stockholm) to be able to dine at Gastrologik, a place where not only there are two chefs, since there’s also Anton Bjuhr, but where, most of all, there’s no menu from which to choose from, only a tasting menu that depends on the daily market offer.

The gastrologik oyster is enclosed between a crème fraîche, a creamy sour cream underneath, a snow of grated apples on top, and a hint of spruce oil. I would have enjoyed much more than one. I asked Holmström the recipe, so here it goes.

Oyster

For 4 persons
4 oysters,
1 red apple, at the restaurant we use normally a Swedish one called Ingrid-Marie.
About 100g of spruce needles
50g of nice fresh creme-fraiche
10g of oil infused with spruce shoots
Some fresh spruce shoots if in season.
A quarter of a cucumber
Salt if needed

Peel the apples and save the peel. Freeze the apples completely then grate them on a very fine grater, keep frozen. Open the oysters, save the oyster juice. Wash the oysters in iced water, meanwhile heat up the oyster juice pull it aside and let the spruce needles infuse in the oyster juice, ad salt if the oysters are not very salt. When cold again you pour it back over the oysters and let marinate for about 4 hours. Cut the apple peels very fine and put in ice water, they curl up and look almost like an alque. Cut the cucumber in fine brunoise, season with the spruce oil. Clean the oystershell and put the creme fraiche in the bottom, then the seasoned cucumber brunoise followed by the oyster. Finnish with the frozen, grated apple, the apple peels and the spruces shoots.