Andreas Viestad is a famous Norwegian culinary delight.  He is a food columnist,  TV chef, and cookbook author who for years has aired on TV channels in 50 countries throughout the world, will finally air on Norwegian television.  Viestad, born in 1973 in Oslo, has been referred to as “Norway’s culinary ambassador”  and “Norway’s most exciting food writer.”

While he is not a trained chef, Viestad is deeply involved in food science, as well as creating delicious cuisine.  He has been a part of the “molecular gastronomy” movement since 1999, a discipline that seeks to explain the scientific processes that occur during the transformation of ingredients during cooking.  Since 2008, he has written a monthly food science column titled “The Gastronomer” for the Washington Post.  Another well-known food scientist that may inspire you, to give a comparison, is Alton Brown (who hosts a show called “Good Eats,” which is fabulous).

Back in 2003, Viestad premiered as host of the series “New Scandinavian Cooking” on public television.  Americans tuned in by the millions.  The show was immediately a hit for several reasons: the ingredients chosen and the fact that all episodes were shot on location.  Viestad aims to get as close to nature and the ingredients as possible, so his shows are sometimes next to a beautiful lake or a jagged mountain.  Norwegian culture had not received that much attention since a decade earlier with the olympics in Lillehammer.  He really put new Scandinavian cooking on the world’s plate.

Most people outside of Norway, I would argue, didn’t have a clue what kind of things could be done with Scandinavian cooking-isn’t it just plain meat, fish, and potatoes? No.  Sure, it can be, but it can also be so much more.  To quote Viestad from his own webpage books.html, Viestad writes “In a land where torsk (cod) and poteter (potatoes) are no joke, I try to show that a contemporary touch can be both relevant and exciting. Yellow and Red Cod with Pomegranate-Mango Salad, anyone?”  Many oppskrifter (recipes) may contain seemingly “boring” or “tame” ingredients, but with the right krydder (spices), a meal that would otherwise be relatively smakløs (tasteless) can be almost eksotisk (exotic).

Viestad has written 2 books, The Kitchen of Light-New Scandinavia Cooking (2003) and Where Flavor Was Born (2007, which traces the Spice Route around the Indian Ocean).  His recipes and writing have appeared in Food & Wine, Gourmet, The Sunday Times, Vogue, and Vanity Fair.

Several years ago Viestad started another series called “Perfect Day”, which involves more traveling around the country, but is still very similar to “New Scandinavian Cooking”.  In addition to his writing, Viestad spends a lot of his time focused on farming.  He has a small farm in Farsund, a city in southern Norway, as well as an agricultural project in Elgin, South Africa that is home to 50 different citruses.

What a guy!