OP: Frantzen/Lindeberg

Norstedts, 2012. Hardcover in clamshell box. Near Fine. First printing.

For those who have recently enjoyed the latest book from the Michelin three-star restaurant in Stockholm, here is a glimpse at the early days when it was still called Frantzen/Lindeberg.

In 2008, chef Bjorn Frantzen and pastry chef Daniel Lindeberg joined forces with the goal of opening Sweden’s first three-star restaurant. Within two years, the duo had succeeded in obtaining the first two stars. Like many other high-level partnerships, creative differences and the pressures and sacrifices of succeeding at such a level, drove the chefs apart. And in 2013, the restaurant became simply Frantzen.

This 2012 eponymous book, gorgeously bound in cream cloth with the title stamped in rose gold foil and housed in a clamshell box, is a scarce memento of the restaurant’s first four years. Fredrik Skogkvist’s photography brings color and life to elegant, but not stuffy, dishes like:

• Boiled crayfish with edible flowers and raw vegetables, exuberantly colorful
• Confited morels with thyme, breadcrumbs, and aged vinegar
• Slow-roasted flounder with fried onions, roe, and fresh herbs
• Pig cheek with salted herring, potato aioli, and endive marmalade
• Mille feuille with rhubarb mousse and violet cream

Alas, the book was not published in English, so you’ll have to brush up on your Swedish. Much eye candy, regardless.

Our copy is Near Fine, showing minimal signs of use. The clamshell box shows soiling and scuffing, but it’s done its job in keeping the book itself in tiptop shape. In Swedish.