Fagn - a chef with the mind of a genius

The word 'Fagn', we were told by the head chef of the restaurant, refers to the welcome, food and lodgings given to travellers at rural farmhouses in days gone by. In our visit here we really did feel welcomed and treated like old friends, but special old friends because the food we ate was inventive, innovative and exceptional. 

 

Back last Easter, while sitting in the Plaza Canteraro (Orange Square) in Nerja, Drew and I looked at the options for Michelin starred restaurants in Trondheim. It turned out that there are two one star restaurants and both of them are close to our hotel. 

One of them, Speilsalen, says of itself, that it produces "intricate and technically accomplished dishes which have a classical base and make great use of the best Norwegian ingredients" - When I read that I hear 'posh joint, with fancified, French style food using Norwegian products.' 

The other restaurant Fagn says: "the team here want their guests to experience the same warmth (of  welcome, food and lodgings given to travellers at rural farmhouses) at this intimate restaurant. Each of the beautiful surprise dishes comes with a story, which is enthusiastically explained." This time I hear: 'somewhere where the food and its provenance comes first and where it matters a great deal how it is received.' Both Drew and I were convinced this was the place for us and how glad we were that we did.

So, on the 22nd of May I booked the restaurant and got the reply email saying: "Takk for at du valgte å bestille bord hos Fagn" - Thank you for choosing to book a table at Fagn, the feeling of being welcomed started even then.

The walk from the hotel to the restaurant was 170 meters in an almost straight line.

The front celebrates the one star for the Fine Dining Restaurant and the Bib Gourmand for the Bistro. Yes the door acts as a mirror, so there I am ready for my treat meal.

You let the staff know of your arrival at the bar

and are asked to sit in the area between the Bistro and its kitchen to wait for someone to come up from the Fine Dining restaurant below. It was interesting to note that the language of the chefs and wait staff was all English. Probably a common language for each of them.

There was an interesting painting on the wall of a owl and a wolf. 

Drew was so impressed by this he went to look at the details - the sign however doesn't give them but rather says: "for further information contact and gives an email address."

When we were taken downstairs - 24 minutes after we arrived - something that might have put us off, though was soon forgotten with the delights began. (OK it was only 16 minutes after we were due, but we are always early.)

We were sat with a great view of the kitchen.

We were presented with warm towels and we were so eager we had used out towels before photo'ing them! 

Our first taster arrived it was Reindeer with Redbeet, An amazing tart with Jerusalem artichoke, beetroot cooked over salt, reindeer meet and  beetroot juice. Tangy, exciting, beautiful, it has a lot of complex flavours but all flavours that we love to taste.

The second plate was Scallop Tart with Gold Label Caviar -Scallops with two types of preparation, toasted and raw, garlic related flowers on top. Scallops from Hitra, just off the coast from here and chives and other green herbs across the top - a burst of amazing flavours, making us both excited about what was to come.

The third little plate was called Herring with Potato. This is a pretend susi, with herring over a potato puff, looking like a susi dish. The traditional potato salad in the puff and the horseradish below made for an exceptional tingle on the palette - oh what a delight.

This place is so amazing, even the cutlery stand is worth a mention. It is a very smart ceramic stand that is wafer thin. It was used throughout the evening and made life much easier than looking for places to put the cutlery.

After the three little treats were complete the first of the non-alcoholic pairing drinks arrived, until this we had been drinking sparkling water, a lovely water called Eira from Eresfjord National Park. 

The non-alcoholic drink was called Plum and came from Drammen, Norway - The plum with citrus juice was a perfect drink to begin with, the waiter explained it to us and outlined how it was going to aid the next dish and he was so right.

This was Hamachi with Fermented Plum, Hamashi (also known as yellowtail amberjack), turnips on top, tartare of fish with yogurt base, sea buckthorn and dill. In a list of favourite flavours of mine sea buckthorn and dill would always be in the top five, so this was a real treat. 

The next dish is a wonderful performance at the table - Ådne, the head chef, comes to our table with what looks like an old style American coffee percolator. Above the water in the percolator is pork which Ådne explains is aged for 40 days, smoked then aged again for another 20 days cooked with mixed mushrooms, there is also orange, blackcurrant leaf, toasted white pepper, lemon grass and lime juice in the mix.

The chef lights the heat under the water and heads off to the kitchen and lets us watch the apparatus steam then boil the meat and veg as the hot water rises from below. 

Look at these ingredients, cooking in front of us, you may also note that there is a timer on the tray to make sure the pork is cooked through. Cooking is a science as well as an art, and we are experiencing both science and art tonight. 

The drink to go with this dish is Green Tea and Elderflower, the former sourced from China the latter again from Drammen. 

The drink is served to go both with the Pork Dashi and the Chawamushi (savoury custard) which is served with it. It has fresh notes of green things growing in the midst of summer - a perfect link to the deep richness of the Chawamushi which it cuts through and a balance for the saltiness associated with a dashi.

The process complete the chef turns the tap and the Dashi flows into the cups. He puts them down with the warning that they are hot. They are, but when they cool down we have the richest, tastiest dashi I've ever experienced. 

The Chawunmishy, with its own rich flavour is paired with langoustines, langoustines shell butter, 12 year old caviar and saffron from Skane. Oh, I almost forgot, also with shimeji mushrooms - Wow, wow, wow - what tastes. I love chawamushi, which is served regularly in our favourite restaurant in Cardiff - Gorse this was as good as Tom Waters' chawamushi, but with the addition of the flavours of delicious langoustines, that I always associate with a treat. Probably because I most often eat them while holidaying in Spain, overall a real delight and a treat.

The dashi alongside it freshened the palette before the treat of going back for more, a superb combination.

The next drink is Klakken Apple from Rissa, this juice is made by producers further north than here, where only a few rare apples are able to thrive. The drink has a steamed Apple flavour which is designed to cut through the richness of the scallop sauce which we are about to taste.

The next dish, as I mentioned above is Scallop, this is served with an XO Sauce. The scallops are roasted in butter, giving them a luscious flavour. It is highlighted by them being served in a Scallop XO sauce made from scallop roe and langostines shells with lemon grass and herbs. The XO is intense, but not so intense as to over power the scallop - brilliant cooking, delightful eating.

Can you guess what is in the next course? We played the game as requested by one of the chefs - and we were right. The lichen was a big help, but the shape and size of the heart helped. This is Reindeer Heart.

The next drinks is an interesting variation on the theme. It is No Buzz No Fuzz, non-alcoholic beer from Røros it has a distinct Indian pale ale flavour. I was surprised by this. In the 15 years since I've drunk alcohol I've occasionally tasted non-alcoholic beers and they were all to sweet and pretty tasteless. Not so this one - a real bitter taste. (I mean Bitter the drink, not bitter the flavour, though they are related, of course. 

On the menu this dish is called Sour cream with Porridge Rye, but this is the menu hiding a little. The reindeer was shaved over breadcrumbs and served with bread ice-cream using left over bread from the bistro here. The shavings of dried reindeer heart, dried in the basement with Loganberries was wonderfully tasty and the sour cream enhanced the rich flavour with its sourness. Wonderful - I'm beginning to think I want to take this chef back to Wales, so that I can taste such delicacies more often!

The next drink was Blue Honeysuckle Berry, also from Drammen. This honeysuckle berry had a blackberry type of flavour - sharp and fresh. 

It was served with a dish called 'Potato Acting Like Pasta' with sheep meat, fermented leeks with salted butter (lots of it) as the sauce and additional crisped leek on the top. Ådne again served us and explained that he linked it to tastes familiar from his childhood - where sheep and potatoes was a common meal. This, to him is a modernised version of that - to me it is another work of a culinary genius. 

This is the same dish with the potato looking exactly like pasta after I'd eaten the topping.

We were next presented by a small ramekin of Peppermint Tea representing the smell of the next drink.

This drink was peppermint tea fermented into a juice with the sharp flavour of lemon grass - delightful smell and delicious flavour, light, yet full of depth.

It was served with Halibut with Mushroom, a full bodied well cooked halibut with crisped halibut bits made into a gel and an astounding mushroom sauce from four different types of mushroom. The strong fish easily carrying the rich, delightful sauce, a winning combination, with the peppermint drink freshening it all up. 

Following the amazing halibut dish it was back to Drammen for Cherry and Apple, there was a sourness from the cherry and a heartiness from the apple that made this drink bring the better red wines to mind, as was, I'm sure, intended.

The cherry and apple was served alongside Duck with Ramsons. A well aged duck cooked on a Japanese grill with crisped skin is combined with oil soaked mushrooms and fresh peas in an amazingly rich herby sauce with to many flavours for me to mention. The ramsons are sharp and sour (as they often are) but worked really well with the sourness of the cherry in the matching drink. More sign of absolute brilliance.

Accompanying the duck was a Brioche with Browned Butter. We were invited to mop up our dinner in the very familiar bread rolls. I say familiar because we know this bread as a Parker house roll, rich and buttery, which is one of the great delights we have at Tom's place, I mentioned earlier - Gorse. I really wonder if Tom and Ådne have worked in a kitchen together somewhere as both the taste, the influences and the style of the food hold a lot of similarities. I'll ask Tom when I'm back in Gorse in September.

The next drink was a Gardsbrenneriet Frisider apple from Nordfjord, where we started the day today. It offers juicy notes of tart ripe apples and a firmness, with hints of spice, apple pie and herbs all with a soft cider style fizz. It is clearly designed to match with and cut through the sweetness of the next course.

Meanwhile we get to see the hardworking chefs getting to clean up after themselves in the kitchen.

The pre-dessert is a choux bun with a Norwegian brown cheese cream filling, blackberry and fermented blueberries. Though people talked of sweet cheese when they introduced the idea of the local brown cheese, I'm not sure it is sweetness, rather it is a hint of caramel, which I know is sweet, but is very different from raw sugar. Here the sharpness of the berries easily cut through any sweetness - a perfect pre-dessert for a post-diabetic.  

The final drink of the evening was Maple Apple from Rissa, this drink is clearly for something sweet, it is apple and blackberry with a sugar syrup, so carries plenty of sweetness. 

The sweet thing was the final dessert called meadowsweet with oats and caramel, I suspect I must have had to much sugar by this time, as I forgot to take a photo of it. My memory of it is being light and crunchy. It was meadowsweet ice-cream with a red ant tuile and salted caramel and Drew really loved it. 

We were then served a selection of Petit Fours - A pair of canelés with aquavit, two cinnamon madeleines, Fudge and Pâte de Fruit with Porcini mushrooms, Liquorice and Pine Shoot and crystallised sea buckthorn. Each was a little treat of loveliness.

As it turned out none of them were overly sweet, thankfully we have a chef who has a strong savoury preference himself, just as I do.

We end as we begin with warm towels to freshen ourselves up for the walk back to the hotel.

We are also provided with a treat bag, no we aren't in America, this isn't a doggy bag - but a loaf of rugbrød and butter in a pot which we can have later or for breakfast tomorrow. 

What can I say, how amazing to be treated so well and find a chef whose cooking matches with my tastebuds, it is a joy to experience. I just wish I lived closer so I could enjoy this treat more often. 

We left Fagn at 10.30pm and were back to the hotel a minute later. We were in bed by 11pm.