Scandinavian Kitchen

Dark days

This is what Great Titchfield Street looks like at 5:58 am in the morning, just before some of us start the day preparing open scandwiches.  Nice and quiet and very cold and dark.

Just to let you know we now serve warm porridge in the mornings - with homemade apple and clove compote, cinnamon and sugar or lingonberry jam. 

We open at 8:00 am so do pop by and get fuelled up.

Christmas time at Scandi Kitchen

      

Jo's 'Mo' gets a seeing to

As promised, seeing as the "grow" camp beat the "mow" camp last week, Jonas has been to visit the amazing Mo Emporium on Charlotte Street to have his moustache seen to.  Our good friend Mikael went along with his camera.  More pictures in the photo album if you haven't seen enough after this.

 

 

 

Mow or grow?

 

Awwww... so fresh faced...

Our Jonas decided, about 7 months ago, that it was time to Grow a Mo.  It then became a competition with Henrik Rock Star and Sebastian – but since then, his Mo seems to have stayed around.  And gotten bigger.  And bigger.  At one point he said the aim was to become a member of the Handlebar club, but have not seen any application forms so far.  His girlfriend thinks it’s time to go back to being a fresh faced Swede, but what does everyone else think?

We’ve now decided to make it up to you.  Over the next few weeks, there’ll be two pots in Scandi Kitchen – one for MOW and one for GROW.  At the end of this time, the pot with most dosh in it wins.  If it’s GROW, Jonas will keep his tash and if it’s MOW, well, then we’ll get the shears out and maybe knit a scarf from all the wool.

You can also donate to the cause here - we’ve chosen the charity CHICKS (Country Holidays for Inner City Kids) as this is the charity Scandi Kitchen supports.

Last date for having your say is 6^th November.  We’ll keep you posted on news on the blog.

The End of the Road Festival

NOTE - more photos will be added WEDNESDAY - be warned, there are photos of Henrik dancing around lovingly with his guitar too.

We feel very privileged, you know - we've been asked to have a stall at the most amazing festival called End of the Road Festival in North Dorset.  The festival is a part-Swedish event and some of us are going to be there this coming weekend 12th-14th September at our aptly named Scandinavian Lounge, serving anything from meatballs to herring to Scandinavian hot dogs.

The event is totally sold out now - if you were lucky enough to get a ticket, see you there (don't forget to pop over and say hello), if not, you can follow our escapades from the comfort of your own sofa as we'll be updating this link throughout the weekend with pictures from Jonas' phone.

Timmo contemplating what it will be like to share a tent with the Moustache Men Jonas and Henrik for 4 days. Sebastian wishes it was him, secretly.

L to R: Seb and Timmo.

 

Off we go!  Jonas and Timmo ready to leave SK on Thursday morning with a van full of herring - Dorset Bound for the End of Road festival. 

 

The Swedish Lounge / Scandi Kitchen at the festival

 

Henrik is so good at making potato salad now

 

Lovely menu.  Good job Bronte is not there as she's allergic to exclamation marks.

 

One of the lovely stages - the view from under a tree with a glass of cold cider in hand

 

Our Sara from Sweden

Long awaited since our Louise's departure last month, Sara has arrived and has settled in nicely to SK. 

Sara is from Stockholm and she once studied sign language and is pretty good at it.  She is totally addicted to dark chocolate - the more bitter the better - and the used to work on a boat as a "jungman".  We've not been able to work out what a "jungman" is in English (nope, it had nothing to do with YMCA), so if you know - do let us know.

Be nice to her if you see her around.

Sara and Sebastian (wearing a crayfish hat as usual).

Postcards from your holidays #2

A few more cards for us... We still want more - do send us a greeting and be in with a chance to win a fab lunch for 4 at SK.

This blog entry refers to this one and this one too

Are you really nice?

Our Louise, our wonderful Lou-Lou, PolsePrinsessa of the Front of House and Angel in the Kitchen...  Much loved and will be sadly missed when she heads back to Sweden in a few weeks.  University, PAH!  Who needs it?  Well, we tried to convince her but we have to admit that it's a pretty important thing and that it is a wonderful thing for her to do. 

Her departure will leave a spot open at Scandi Kitchen - and seeing as our Louise was both master of the upstairs and downstairs, we have two part time jobs open as of now.  These jobs do not have to be filled by the same person, by the way, but could be two people.  On the other hand, if you love both making coffee and open sandwiches, this could be for you.

Kitchen Angel (Part time, approx 25 hours)

The role reports into Tobias, who's our man in charge of all things food.  It's 4 days a week, around 25 hours a week in total, sometimes more or less depending on demands of the catering side of things.

Duties of the Kitchen Angel includes prepping open sandwiches to a high standard, making all our our home made salads and dressings, keeping the kitchen in good order and generally assist with the daily running of the kitchen.  Specifically, we need you to have great attention to detail as we want to train you up on the catering side of the business, making super-duper lunches for our ever increasing bunch of corporate customers.

We're looking for someone who has experience of working and preparing food in a professional kitchen/busy sandwich shop/cafe.  We’re really busy so you need to be able to work well under pressure and keep a clear head when things hot up.  Fluency in English, both spoken and written, is absolutely essential and good knowledge of Scandinavian food is essential.  If you speak a Scandinavian language it's a huge advantage.  The person we're looking for should be presentable with great interpersonal skills, tidy, clean and organised, full of initiative, team player and must possess that wonderful common-sense gene and be willing to learn. 

Super Barisata (Part time, approx 15 hours)

The role reports into Henrik, who's our man in charge of the Front of House.  This job is to help out in the cafe, serving food and making excellent coffee - approximately 2 shifts a week (we can be flexible as to what day, but usually it means one weekend day and on week day).

We're looking for someone who has experience of working in a busy sandwich shop/cafe/restaurant - or at the very least who has experience of working in a retail setting. It is most definitely an advantage if you are already trained in the art of making excellent coffee - however, if you tick all the other boxes we can teach you the coffee bit.

Fluency in English and a Scandinavian language, both spoken and written, is absolutely essential.

The person we're looking for should be presentable with great interpersonal skills (able to talk to anyone, a likeable person), tidy, clean and organised, full of initiative, team player and must possess that wonderful common-sense gene and be willing to learn. 

Plase note we're looking for a minimum of 6 months commitment.  In return we promise a lovely place to work with some super top people and as many meatball sandwiches as you can shake a stick at.

We'll be doing interviewsover the next few weeks so do get your skates on if this sounds like something for you.  Send your up to date CV and a bit about yourself to bronte@scandikitchen.co.uk

Celebrated in style

Henrik Rock Star

Our first birthday was celebrated in style at Scandi Kitchen.  We served nice herring and even nicer lagkage (layer cake) all day to ayone who fancied it and we even had a little soiree in the evening for some close friends from the hood and around.

The best bits from our birthday were:

• All the nice flowers and cards we got - thank you to everyone who brightened up our day, we love them
• Knowing we have lots of friends
• A few of you feeling the warmth afte a few aquavits in the evening - we liked the dancing.  And hugging.
• Jonas sticking his whole face in one of the lagkager

Photos are courtesy of Anu, Camilla and a few that we took - but mainly Anu and Camilla.  Thanks for remembering your cameras, girls.

More photos here

About 700 canapes were eaten at our little party - these are the crayfish and coriander tunnbrod rolls - very popular indeed.

Seb was doorman, Josh popped by and Phil the Photographer didn't take many photos but did spend time trying to get away from Jonas wo was on a mission with a lagkage...

It's our birthday - we are ONE on 10th July

We can hardly believe it ourselves:  it's been a year already.  A year of lots of excellent Monmouth coffee, a serious amount of herring and quite a few open sandwiches.   

Stuff we've achieved since opening on 10th July 2007:

• Had a baby (well, the owners Jonas and Bronte have anyway...Astrid will be a year old on the 11th July... she arrived 21 hours after the shop did)
• Grown three moustaches (Henrik, Jonas and Seb) and removed one (Seb)
• Tried to be funny in 52 newsletters (phew...)
• Served enough coffee that if you stacked all the mugs on top of each other they'd reach the top of the London Eye over 7 times
• Realised that curry herring really is the new black
• Henrik's worn out 3 pairs of shoes running around the store
• Sebastian's learnt 119 words in Danish (at least)

Much more has happened, we're sure - it's been a very eventful year.  Thanks to all of you guys for your support, we've had such a blast and we can't wait to get stuck into year two.

If you are in the area today (61 Gt Titchfield Street, London W1W 7PP) - Thursday 10th July - pop by the store for a chit-chat, maybe some herring or some cake and a nice hug.  We do so like hugging.

Our Henrik Rockstar and our Jess.

Seb, we miss you

Everyone should take holiday once in a while.  It's nice to go and put your feet up and drink pina colada.  We wonder if our Seb is sitting in Sweden right now, drinking fancy cocktails and wearing a straw hat?  He's on holiday back home, you know, and we're missing him quite a lot.  Seb is our main man, a sort-of hybrid Dane*/Swede with a fondness for full shelves and excellent coffee.

Seb, we know you'll be checking this blog (Ha!  gotcha!) - so stop thinking about work and go back to your hammock and we'll see you back here in a week or so.

Jonas and Louise pointing to an empty space on a shelf today - this would never, ever have happened if Seb had been around....

*at least his alter ego is Danish

Kitchen Angel wanted

Hello.

Our plans have changed slightly as we approach the summer months and autumn: We're now no longer looking for a part time Kitchen Angel, but a full-time person.  Well, what can we do if we're busy, eh?

The working hours of the Kitchen Angel job are now Wednesday-Sunday from 7-15:30ish (of course we can talk about days, but this is the general schedule).  Tobias, our Kitchen Viking and the Lord of our Cucina, will be on hand to help during busy times and he'll teach you all you need to know in this role.  Tobias is a professionally trained chef from Denmark and he's the man in charge of not only the day to day running of the Kitchen at our cafe, but also developing our menu and catering offerings further.  He's a great person to learn from for the right person who wants to get stuck in and make a difference in our business as it grows.

Duties of the Kitchen Angel includes prepping open sandwiches to a high standard, making all our our home made salads and dressings, keeping the kitchen in good order and generally ensure that things run smoothly.  You will also be keeping on top of the stock in the kitchen, doing the day to day ordering as well as ensuring costings are adhered to.

We're looking for someone who has experience of working and preparing food in a professional kitchen/busy sandwich shop/cafe.  We’re really busy so you need to be able to work well under pressure and keep a clear head when things hot up.  Fluency in English, both spoken and written, is absolutely essential and good knowledge of Scandinavian food is essential.  We'd really love it if you speak a Scandinavian language too - this is a huge plus as you'll need to understand labelling of imported goods. 

The person we're looking for should be presentable with great interpersonal skills, tidy, clean and organised, full of initiative, team player and must possess that wonderful common-sense gene and be willing to learn. 

This job starts end of July/beginning of August.  We'll be doing interviews as soon as possible and will be asking the finalists to pop in for a trail day, so do get your skates on if this sounds like it up your street.  Send your up to date CV and a bit about yourself to bronte@scandikitchen.co.uk.  Note that this job is ongoing and is offered on a minimum 6 months contract.

Our shelves are back to normal...

After the midsummer stampede over the weekend, we're happy to annouce that our shelves are getting back to normal after our massive delivery today.  Stryhns leverpostej, Swedish/Danish cheeses - and, most importantly, Cheese doodles, are back in stock. 

Midsummer in London 2008

Phew, lots of stuff happening.  Whether you're looking for a Danish Skt Hans event or a Svensk Midsommar / Swedish Midsummer, you're in luck.

Here's the lowdown:

• Swedish Midsummer Party - the main one is in Hyde Park, organised by Swedish Chamber of Commerce.  Bring your own food and drink and dance around the Midsummer pole, pretending to be a little frog. Entry Free
• Dansk Skt Hans, KFUK are organising it and will be lighting a bonfire and selling hotdogs.  Entry £6
• The Finnish Church in London is having a Midsummer BBQ in the Church Garden
• Scandinavian Party is having a Scandi Midsummer event - entry only by ticket in advance (£5-10) - click on their site for details on how to buy.

Other links to our pages about midsummer here, here and here

If you don't fancy any of those events, make your own party at home - we stock everything from farskpotatis - new Swedish potatoes - to gradfill and prinskorv and salmon - and of course, Kims and Estrella chips and dipmix.

Whatever you decide to do - we all hope you have a great time this midsummer.  We'll certainly be celebrating the long evenings Scandinavian style.

Our plants sell for top dollar at flea market

Our new friends Anna Sophia and Maria had a mini-fleamarket at SK over the weekend.  They were raising money for a trip to Hong Kong where they plan to teach people about how to be greener.  They were raising money together with the local All Soul's Church in Fitzrovia.

When they finished their selling spree, they realised that someone has bought all our plants from the shop by mistake, so they popped by yesterday with new ones for us.  We're just glad the plants were popular.

The lovely Anna Sofia with our new plants

Jeg er også dansker...

The Danish newspaper Politiken are doing a campaign for integration into Danish society.  This basically involves Danish people from different backgrounds wearing t-shirts printed with the sentence "Jeg er ogsaa dansker", meaning "I'm also Danish".  The sentiment of the campaign is good, although we're not yet convinced the way of doing it is quite the right way - but that is a different story all together.  Never the less, we like to support such initiatives - and the Danes here at SK would just like to add for the record that "we're also Danish, even though we live abroad.   

You can read more here http://politiken.dk/indland/article504074.ece (Danish only)

Bronte (32) - Born in Denmark, lived there for 16 years

Henrik (from Southern Sweden): he's not Danish (but he wishes he was)

Eating your way around the world

We had some really lovely visitors on Saturday - a group of foodies are eating their way around the whole of the alphabet. We were lucky to be the D (for Denmark).  So far, they've eaten Argentina, Bangladesh and Czech.  Next up is Ethiopian.  We're wondering what they'll do on Q?  Any suggestions, let us know.  What a great idea, though.

Where's Jonas?

We're still unsure of his reasons for his moustache growing, but we salute his top-lip efforts.  He's been mistaken for famous people all week - now can you tell which one is our Jonas and which is part of the American A-list society?

Go Sweden

We're all going a bit football mad at Scandi Kitchen.  Even the Danes are wearing blue and yellow - mind you, only because we failed to qualify for the championship ourselves.  Go Sweden, we say.  First game is on 10th June.

Danish Mai and Danish Bronte wearing the dashing Swedish wigs at SK

Swedish Radio visits...

A lovely jornalist called Maria visited us on Monday.  Maria is the UK correspondent for Swedish Radio and she wanted to have a little chat to us about what it is like to have a Scandinavian shop in London.  Jonas was upset it was not television; he would have liked to broadcast his moustache achivements to the world a bit more.