Reykjavík Grapevine - des. 2021, Blaðsíða 29

29The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12— 2021
With a foreword by Carlo Petrini,
founder of the Slow Food move-
ment, of which Gísli has been a long
time member and believer, the book
immediately draws you in with ex-
pansive shots of Vestmannaeyjar,
stunningly plated food and even
a hand painted cocktail booklet,
tucked discreetly into the book (if
you’ve dined at the restaurant, you’ll
recognise it is the same style and
size as the menu). Writer Nicholas
Gill really captures Gísli’s voice in
his words. If you have met Gísli,
you’ll find yourself reading it in his
voice, a true compliment to their
combined efforts.
The restaurant and the
book
“We’re not trying to be the best res-
taurant in the world. We’re trying
to be the best restaurant we can
be on a tiny island off the south
coast of Iceland,” read the opening
lines of the book. If you have dined
at Slippurinn you know then that
this modesty makes light of the
enormous impact the restaurant
exercises and continues to have on
not only the restaurant industry at
large, but more importantly, on Ice-
landic cuisine.
In a generosity not always hith-
erto associated with chef-centered
cookbooks until recently, Slippu-
rinn the book gracefully continues
in the same vein, showcasing reci-
pes, techniques and basic have-to’s
and know-how's that are employed
at the restaurant kitchen. Gísli even
admits candidly that he doesn’t ex-
pect a lot of people to dig in and cook
a lot of the recipes. (Although Ins-
tagram has been lit up with people
doing precisely that).
So who is the book for? “For other
cooks, people running restaurants,
people just starting to dip their toes
into the techniques and such,” Gísli
offers. “This is also, selfishly, a nice
handbook for us at the restaurant
for future staff and ourselves,” he
grins.
Icelandic food vs
Slippurinn food
Is the food at Slippurinn Icelandic?
“No,” insists Gísli. “When at Ma-
tur og Drykkur, we were working
towards elevating Icelandic food,
digging it out of our heritage. But
at Slippurinn, we are exploring the
realms of possibilities with Icelan-
dic ingredients as the focus,” he
clarifies.
Gísli’s strength has indeed been
recognising Icelandic ingredients
and making them mainstream in
an approachable yet exciting and
familiar fashion. But don’t be fooled
by the seemingly innocuous sim-
plicity, it is complex, time consum-
ing food. By breaking down all fish
that comes into the restaurant, he
has been able to extend the nose to
tail philosophy to its zenith. Cod
collars are typically thrown away,
but by looking at food cultures
far and wide, and
adapting them to
local contexts, Gísli
turns things like
fish collars into a
perfect bite that you
wake up dreaming
of. Like the famed
cod wings that are
double fried. “I did
wonder if we have
any business mak-
ing hot sauce, but
you know what, it
works.” Gísli’s recipe uses young
spruce and I can vouch for its addic-
tive deliciousness. The fermented
garlic butter takes three months to
prepare. This is slow food, literally
and philosophically.
Unlocking possibilities
Slippurinn the book is really for
anyone trying to make a difference
within existing systems. As ex-
plained in the book, the restaurant
forages a lot more than the average
fine dining restaurant based on
similar principles. “We do an aver-
age of 180-200 covers a day, Gísli
shares. And we don’t offer the same
three kinds of fish fillets like other
restaurants in the country. Work-
ing closely with purveyors means
we can offer a larger variety than
buying from the same one or two
producers.” The wolffish roe with
fresh cheese on toast illustrates
this point perfectly and now all I
can think about is how to source
the damned eggs!
The book is divided into chap-
ters that shine a light on the res-
taurant’s philosophy. The fish
and shellfish chapter has a whole
section dedicated to oily fish. The
recipes are easy to read, although I
recommend starting your way from
the back with the basic section—
build on the building blocks that
take time and patience to reward
you with that signature Slippurinn
soul in the dishes. “There aren’t
many dishes you can simply whip
up in an hour,” Gísli admits.
But therein lies the strength of
the book precisely. It is an invita-
tion to look around, slow down, and
pick things. Crumble them in your
palms and smell them. Try them.
Like the spicy beach mustard pods
that grow along the sandy beach-
es of Vestmannaeyjar that pack a
horseradish level wallop of sting-
ing heat quickly dissipating into a
crunchy sweetness. To sit down and
snack on blue-green oyster leaves
that are abundant all around Ice-
land. To steal rhubarb from your
neighbours and pickle them. To for-
age in the seas and
not accept ocean
f a r me d s e a fo o d
destroying ecosys-
tems. To question
why we must accept
food and food waste
in the same breath
even as we choose
the same tired fil-
leted cod and badly
butchered lamb at
the supermarket.
To learn that by
making different choices, we can
influence change, demand variety
and in the long run, a more holistic
food system. The beauty of it all is
that these are moments to revel in,
celebrate and question no matter
where you are.
Redefining realms
Many reviews have been written
about Slippurinn the restaurant.
What isn’t always obvious, how-
ever, is its significance in the shift
in the psyche of the native Iceland-
er encountering their own cuisine
through the lens of local produce.
North of life, as writer Nanna Rögn-
valdardóttir poetically describes
the bleak landscape, Iceland’s boun-
ty of land and sea have curiously
been under utilized or completely
remiss. Gísli’s own search for his
culinary voice might have sprung
from brushes with New Nordic
cuisine and the Slow Food move-
ment, but it is on his volcanic home
island that it reaches a crescendo.
It is here that the shift for people
to go out to eat Icelandic food was
ignited. Slippurinn has been mak-
ing inroads in the Icelandic psyche
about what Icelandic food can look
like and be like beyond survival and
all the possibilities that come with
such a realisation.
The book captures this opti-
mism, and pride that are easily rep-
licable in our own kitchens and the
kitchens beyond. “If people can use
the recipes with the nature around
them, I’d be honoured. All food in
the world, when put in the right con-
text, makes sense,” Gísli signs off.
Slippurinn book is available on
shop.grapevine.is
Food
“If people
can use the
recipes with
the nature
around
them, I’d be
honoured.”
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