The Food is Culture cooking challenge presents Lena Faten
26 Aug 2019
The Food is Culture cooking challenge has begun! More than 40 cooks from Sweden and Italy accepted the challenge!
Who is Lena Flaten? And what is she doing in the middle of the Swedish woods?
Well, to begin with, this is her contribution to the Food is Culture contest, more precisely a “Taco, Jämtland Style, with Beans, Leccinum Mushroom and Grilled Goat Cheese, Served With a Goose Berry Salsa With Mild Chili”!
One look at Lena’s Instagram account is enough to realize that she’s pretty involved with nature. A glance at her restaurant, Flammans Skafferi in Storlien, Jämtland, shows that she’s no pin feather when it comes social collaborations neither! Over the years, she has been welcoming both nature and people to all kinds of interactive activities at her restaurant, from courses in gathering wild mushrooms to convivial and spontaneous dinners, or 20 seats tasting menus. All of this while the birchwood crackles in her stone oven fire.
At Flammans Skafferi you’re offered something that Lena calls “Relationship Food”: there is a personal and relational connection between her and the food she serves you. It’s that alchemist ingredient that ties circles together, unexpectedly, and leaves you with a strong feeling of having experienced not only the taste of the food, but also the hunter’s handshake, the fisher’s sigh after a long morning or the farmers’ witty jokes upon delivery. Don’t ask us how, but there’s no denying – relationships sure has taste!
Lena has her roots in the mountainous region of Jämtland, a region which culinary identity has been strongly reclaimed during the last decades. Among the revitalized goat keepers and training centers for artisanal food, it’s clear that Flammans Skafferi finds itself in the midst of a food movement. If Lena will be one of the three winners in the Food is Culture contest, her recipe will be inserted in the interactive and multimedia artwork that will travel through Europe, and end up in the campus of University of Gastronomic Sciences, Pollenzo, from where her recipe can be printed on paper.
Good luck Lena!
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