Andreas Viestad

Andreas Viestad

Norwegian TV Chef
https://andreasviestad.com
Biography

Andreas Viestad is a Norwegian food columnist and TV chef. He has hosted nine seasons of New Scandinavian Cooking broadcast in the U.S., China, Germany, Italy, Finland and on BBC Lifestyle in over fifty countries since 2003, and is a food writer for Dagbladet and Morgenbladet newspapers in Norway. He has had a monthly column in The Washington Post titled “The Gastronomer”. Viestad has been called “Norway’s most exciting food writer”, and “Norway’s culinary ambassador”. Andreas trained to be a food writer at the University of Oslo, where he studied History, Political Science and Media Studies, and throughout his cooking career he has kept his keen interest in these studies, using food as a means to investigate culture and history. He has published a number of books in his native Norwegian, as well as two Englisg language books, Kitchen of Light – New Scandinavian Cooking (Artisan Books) and Where Flavor Was Born - Recipes and Culinary Travels Along the Indian Ocean Spice Route (Chronicle Books). He has a small farm in the hamlet of Viestad in the southern Norwegian town of Farsund, as well as an agricultural project in Elgin, near Cape Town, South Africa, named ‘Garden of Elgin’. The project is run in collaboration with Dr. Paul Clüver on the Clüver family estate, and features 50 different citruses, more than 40 varieties of peaches, nectarines and apricots and a wide selection of herbs and vegetables, including more than 100 varieties of tomatoes.[11] He also has a home in his birth town: Oslo. In 2010, Viestad started working on a new food and agriculture project, a center for food culture for children at Geitmyra Gård, a protected farm in the middle of Oslo, inspired by Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard. He established a non-commercial foundation, and in September 2011 Geitmyra matkultursenter for barn opened. The center teaches children about cooking and growing food. In 2011 he opened his first restaurant, St Lars in Oslo. He lives on Geitmyra with his wife and three children.

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Andreas's recommendations
Appetite

Appetite

Nigel Slater

I have always been a fan of Slater, the cook that took cookbooks out of the restaurant. No-fail delicious home cooking.

Chez Panisse Café Cookbook

Chez Panisse Café Cookbook

Alice Waters

Beaten and worn, my old copy of this book shows that some books just work.

How To Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food

How To Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food

Nigella Lawson

The first time I fell in love with Nigella, was reading her debut book. It is still a great, seductive read and everything I want from a woman. I mean cookbook.

The Pyromaniac's Cookbook

The Pyromaniac's Cookbook

John J. Poister

I have never understood why some many cookbooks are so bloody boring. John Poister’s book is not, so I forgive that it is not terribly useful unless I want to get drunk or set thing on fire.

Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way

Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way

Francis Mallmann

Our first way of cooking is still one of the most intriguing. And Mallman is the God of Fire. I worship him for months every summer. I know the book by heart, so now I keep it near mostly as a religious act.

Foods of the World: Cooking of Scandinavia

Foods of the World: Cooking of Scandinavia

Dale Brown

This 1968 book was the first to take the idea of Scandinavian cooking seriously. Truly inspirational, great colors and recipes, and Max von Sydow showing you how to drink.

The Nordic Cookbook

The Nordic Cookbook

Magnus Nilsson

The best book written about the food of the North. Magnus is a brilliant chef brilliant, and a very generous writer.

Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

Nathan Myhrvold , Chris Young and Maxime Bilet

I don’t particularly like the recipes, but I love the science, and that it makes you understand. And the magnitude of the work is breathtaking.

Plenty

Plenty

Yotam Ottolenghi

Ottolenghi made me look at greens anew. Truly inspirational.

River Cottage Cook Book

River Cottage Cook Book

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

I got the book just as I inherited my family´s smallholding, so the book has been a recipe for life, not just for its dinners.

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What's playing in Andreas's kitchen?

I have the music taste of an elderly Cadillac-driving man in the 1960’s, and when I cook (or drive my 1972 Cadillac seville Sedan) I listen to jazz.