Stockholm's New School

A fresh class of restaurants is bringing global flavors, great value, and a more casual approach to the Swedish capital.

-  Simon Bajada

CONTRARY TO CERTAIN culinary stereotypes, hungry visi-tors to Stockholm aren't limited to pickled weeds served with moose trotter over a bed of smoked forest moss. This dogmatic approach to local produce was the hallmark of the New Nordic philosophy that dominated the food scene in the Swedish capital in the mid-aughts. No longer. Today, a new cohort of chefs is looking outward, reaching beyond the Nordic pantry and bringing global inspiration—and a more casual approach—back to the city from travels and stints abroad.

Love brought me to Stockholm 12 years ago (from another great food city: Melbourne, Australia), and I've been lucky to have had a front-row seat to the evolution of its food scene since. Despite writing a cookbook in 2015 celebrating Scandinavian cuisine, many of my favorite dishes on offer in Stockholm today are decidedly non-Nordic.

Consider the pizza at restaurant 800 Grader, where chef Oskar Montano has tapped into his Italian heritage to perfect the ultimate Roman-style pizza dough with an astonishing level of hydration. His pie topped with colatura (fermented anchovy) butter, lemon, and zucchini is one of my favorites on the planet. You'll find similar dedication to technique and quality over at Krümel, where German Polish expat Kaja Hengstenberg crafts American-style cookies with her own clever twists. Her crème brûlée cookie has become a signature, but anything she bakes is a perfect alchemy of butter, sugar, and flour.