“Fusion” as a culinary term is hated by chefs and customers alike. It’s so late-1980s it conjures up images of over-tanned men in pastel jackets with sleeves rolled up, leaping over the bonnets of cars as they chase a villain. It stinks of shoulder pads and David Hasselhoff’s oily cleavage in Baywatch. It’s just wrong.
But it’s not just the term ‘fusion’ that’s wrong (it also makes me think of the Hadron Collider and the end of the world). The food was rubbish, too. I remember wasabi mashed potato and rhubarb tuna. Trust me, I wish I didn’t. Fusion, as a concept, was one thing – in reality it was rarely anything other than a taste-clashing disaster.
That’s why Diamanto “Mando” Burström Billia’s new restaurant Nordanå Gården in, er, Nordanå is such a spectacular surprise. Mando, who was born and raised in Athens, has promised diners a Greek and Mediterranean take on Scandinavian cuisine and a Scandinavian twist to Greek food. That sort of pledge would not normally be a very kind one to make.
As with the promise, “I will eat your liver with fava beans,” it would elicit in me a mild thrill of curiosity (‘would the texture of fava beans really go with liver?’) but a thrill that would soon be overwhelmed by terror and the urge to run very fast in the opposite direction.
Yet Mando’s promise is not a threat. It’s a celebration. A wild, vivid jubilee of what food can be. A vegetarian moussaka with the textural satisfaction and complex flavour of a much more complicated dish. A crispy hake dish, served with beetroot puree, green pesto and smoked anchovy aioli, shouldn’t work. Such a battery of strong flavours should be fighting a noisy and bloody battle to the death in your mouth. But Mando has them working together, helping each other glide deliciously over your tongue – it’s a proper work of art.
The best is last, though. A miraculous rejuvenation of that hoary old Swedish dagens staple, Beef Lindström, pictured below.
Beef Lindström.Mando says she always wants to feature a couple of old-fashioned Swedish favourites for the regulars who used to patronise the restaurant before she took it over. The old regulars are in for a treat – Mando’s take on this dagens regular is magnificent. The patty is not brittle like the meat-tinged pumice stones you often get thrown on your plate. It is succulent. The taste and texture are like the finest beef tartare marbled with beetroot and capers and flavoured so tenderly it leaves a sigh on your palate. This Beef Lindstörm (left) gives fusion a good name. Nordanå Gården is only open for lunch at the moment. And it’s not a buffet. It’s a proper restaurant and the food is very reasonably priced. Book it now. Seriously, BOOK. IT. NOW.
