What could be more tasty than Norwegian culinary offerings on a Norwegian coastal voyage?
Hurtigruten has partnered with Chef Andreas Viestad (one of Norway’s most celebrated food experts) to develop restaurant and café concepts on all 11 of the company’s vessels that sail between Bergen in the south of Norway and Kirkenes in the north. The focus will be on local ingredients, as well as on telling the stories of the people and places that supply these special foods.
An example? Guests will be able to enjoy fresh Arctic char that was delivered to the ship just a few hours before dinner service, but they’ll also be told the stories of the suppliers who provided the fish and the waters from which it came.
Viestad is the host of the television series New Scandinavian Cooking, which is broadcast in more than 100 countries (including on PBS affiliates throughout the United States).
Last year, Hurtigruten issued a call for local food suppliers, and some 200 responded, offering 500 different products from all 19 of Norway’s counties. The ingredients used in the new menus that will launch next Tuesday (April 1) as part of Hurtigruten’s “Arctic Awakening” season are sourced almost exclusively from the regions the ships visit and are supplied by small, local producers.
After a stop in the Norwegian city of Trondheim, for example, passengers can enjoy an evening dessert of sea-buckthorn (a type of berry) and aquavit (a spiced spirit) ice cream produced by Gangstad Gårdsysteri dairy.
(Photo courtesy of Hurtigruten)