A true foodie would know that kitchen is a fast-paced and high stress work environment, so Dishtag invites chefs to share a 4-minute breaktime together while asking them 4 questions regarding their views on the visual-flavour relationship nowadays. First up in the series is Chef Jim from The Flying Elk, the celebrated Nordic eatery helmed by Björn Frantzén. Let’s see what is up on the Easter menu and how social media benefits the restaurant.
For people who are not familiar with your restaurant, what cuisine and experience is your restaurant known for?
The flying Elk’s setting is best described as a modern Nordic cabin and we serve genuine food with influences from all over Europe. It’s an elevated and elegant pub dining and the food is definitely the focus of The Flying Elk’s experience, we put so much attention in the flavours, taste and the look of the dishes.
With Easter weekend coming up, have you planned any special Easter Menus?
Yes we did, we will be serving our smörgåsbord of brunch dishes (such a Scrambled eggs with veal bacon, brown butter, truffle and crispy potato and Gravlax with potato in dill sauce, mustard sauce) with free-flow wines, beers and spirits with the addition of a fun face-painting station outside on the terrace and craft kits for kids sponsored by Little Steps Asia. We have also created a special Kids Menu, featuring dishes such as Meatballs with potato, lingonberry and cucumber and Fish & Chips “TFE”.
The dishes look so good! Speaking of photogenic creations of yours, what do you think of professional food photography and styling?
I think in general all publicity is great publicity, negative or positive, of course positive it’s ideal! I think that food pictures, videos and all of it is fantastic, I mean you eat with your eyes as well. So I think it’s very important to document the work of chefs especially nowadays more than back in the days with the popularity of social media. I often use IG myself to check on food photos and get inspiration. I can’t say I am an avid instagrammer as that takes time and most of my time I spend it in the kitchen!
That said, how do you see social media’s food photography trend and how does it affect your work?
For me, customers taking photos of my food and sharing it is a fantastic way of spreading the word about the restaurant or something that they like. I don’t understand why certain restaurants may not allow customers to take pictures. I personally love it as it captures memories that can last longer.
It affects my work as being a chef is a creative process. So sometimes dishes look beautiful while you’re cooking them and you can see the ingredients in front of you and you work very hard to get it done. But once it’s up there (social media) you always hesitate once or twice, or ten times. It may be about the plating or the actual plate ware. So I can actually take inspiration from pictures of my dishes that I find online, also from a styling perspective.
The Flying Elk is now closed.
