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Calling all food lovers… Want to join us for an unforgettable meal in Norway? Introducing: the Norwegian Supper Club, a new series of dinners hosted in partnership with Visit Norway with the goal of showcasing the best of the country’s culinary offerings. Three of Norway’s top chefs are hosting exclusive dinners in breathtaking settings this autumn. The best part? You’re invited! If you’ve been wanting to taste high-end Nordic cuisine, now is your chance. Keep reading to see how to win a seat at the table and join us at one of these once-in-a-lifetime dining experiences.
Note: The competition has ended. Scroll to the bottom to read about and see a video from the pop-up we attended!
It’s no secret that Norway is home to some of the best ingredients in the world. From the fresh seafood to the wild game meat to the ripe forest berries, this country is a culinary playground for chefs. Combine that with raw talent, and you have an easy explanation for why Norway is one of the top destinations for gastronomy and food tourism. With over 50 Norwegian restaurants featured in the Michelin Guide, it’s no question that this is a location worth putting on your bucket list.
Now, for the first time, Visit Norway is giving you the chance to win a free meal hosted by one of Norway’s best chefs. Three extraordinary dinners will be held during September and October, one with chef Jimmy Øien of Rest, one with chef Sven Erik Renaa of Re-naa, and one with chef Heidi Bjerkan of Credo. Each chef has picked a spectacular location in nature where they will host their dinner. (Note: all dining expenses are covered, but transportation and accommodation costs are excluded.) Read more about the three dinners below.
“The pop-up dinner was an amazing experience, and the best pop-up we’ve ever been to.”
September 6th: Jimmy Øien
The first dinner will take place in Larvik, Norway (about an hour and half drive outside of Oslo) on Tuesday, September 6th. Chef Jimmy Øien of restaurant Rest in Oslo is hosting his dinner at Laagen, an oasis in the middle of the Norwegian forest. The floor-to-ceiling windows of the glass cabins will make you feel connected to nature even when you’re inside, and the river runs right alongside the dining room. At this dinner, you can expect to try new ingredients you haven’t experienced before, and be inspired by the creativity of Øien’s cooking, which primarily features imperfect produce and parts of animals that are typically not used in fine dining restaurants.
October 4th: Sven Erik Renaa
The second dinner in the series will take place at Utstein Kloster, a historic monastery located just a half hour drive from the center of Stavanger. The dinner will be held on Tuesday, October 4th, and your host will be the one-and-only chef Sven Erik Renaa, of the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Re-naa in Stavanger. At this meal, you’ll get a taste of the exceptional produce of the region of Rogaland, from lamb to potatoes to Jerusalem artichokes, prepared masterfully by one of Norway’s most talented chefs. You don’t want to miss this!
October 17th: Heidi Bjerkan
The third and final installment of the Norwegian Supper Club will be hosted by chef Heidi Bjerkan of the Michelin-starred restaurant Credo in Trondheim on Monday, October 17th. Bjerkan was also the recipient of the world’s first green Michelin star, which acknowledged her deep commitment to sustainability in the kitchen. Her dinner will take place at Strandbaren (The Beach Bar) on Stokkøya, a tiny island a couple of hours from Trondheim. On the menu will be the best of local Trøndelag produce, from the sea to the mountains to the farms. We’ll be attending this dinner, so enter the competition and come enjoy the meal with us! (Good luck – our fingers are crossed for you!)
Click here to enter to win a seat at the Norwegian Supper Club. You must be 21+ to enter. You can register for all three dinners, but you can only win once. You have the option of bringing a plus one to the meal. Only twelve seats are available for each dinner. Winners will be selected in a random drawing, which will take place a few weeks before the scheduled event. The prize includes food and drink (at an estimated value of 15,000 NOK), but does not include transportation to Norway or accommodation. See the website for a full list of terms and conditions.
We Were Lucky to Attend the Credo Pop-up at Stokkøya!
A few weeks ago, we traveled to Trondheim to attend one of the Norwegian Supper Club dinners. We attended the last dinner in the three-part series, located on the island of Stokkøya (a few hours drive outside of Trondheim). This dinner was hosted by chef Heidi Bjerkan of Michelin-starred restaurant Credo, which opened back in 1998. (That makes it one of the oldest and longest-standing restaurants of its kind in the Nordics!) Bjerkan has been a revolutionary of sorts in Scandinavia, one of the first to showcase the pure, raw flavors of Norway. She has been a long-time advocate and champion of local produce, lifting it up and bringing it into the spotlight. Sourcing local, organic ingredients directly from good farms has long been her “credo” (her belief) – way back before it was trendy to do so. But her boldness paid off – she’s still open 25 years later, she earned the restaurant a Michelin star back in 2019, and, even more importantly, she’s become a symbol in the industry for what it really means to be sustainable, and teaching others how to put that into practice.
The pop-up dinner was an amazing experience, and the best pop-up we’ve ever been to. The menu was quite different from what Bjerkan and her team normally serve at Credo, as she mainly used local ingredients from the island of Stokkøya. We watched the sunset on the beach while enjoying fresh, local Norwegian seafood and dined with food lovers from around the world. Highlights of the meal included a raw shellfish platter with sea urchin, carpet clams, and razor clams, topped with Nordic ingredients like sea buckthorn, plum, and juniper. There were also a few Credo signature dishes, some made with ingredients grown in the greenhouse-like restaurant space in Trondheim, like the fig leaf oil that was used in a dish of crab, egg white garum emulsion, elderflower, chamomile jelly, and toasted buckwheat. The food was fantastic, but it was especially amazing to share such an intimate dinner experience with such a renowned chef, and watch her come to life while talking about the incredible culinary offerings of Norway.
We certainly hope that this one-of-a-kind dinner series will continue next year!
Disclaimer
This is paid promotion by Visit Norway.