ARCTIC MEAL

Course 2 // Graved ptarmigan with blueberry reduction, pickled chantarelle, Swedish capers and red beetroot crisps



Vegetarian or non-vegetarian?

One of the major challenges in the "Arctic Meal" project for me as a vegetarian was deciding, whether the dinner should be vegetarian or non-vegetarian. I usually always strongly advocate for food that is entirely vegan or vegetarian at events in Germany, but this time the aim was to understand the identity of a region. After many conversations in advance, including with the chef Jonathan, who by the way is himself a vegetarian, I then decided that the dinner would only work if it represented all facets of a culture shaped by fish and meat.



#PTARMIGAN is affected by shorter winters and an unstable snow cover which cause a mismatch between its white winter plumage and a dark, snow-free landscape, making the birds more vulnerable to predators. Warming temperatures also lead to shrub expansion across tundra and moorland, reducing suitable habitat and altering food availability.



#BERRIES in northern and Arctic regions (such as cloudberry, lingonberry, bilberry/blueberry, and crowberry) are also strongly threatened by climate change: The main threat is not warming alone, but disrupted seasons, disrupted flowering and pollination. Disrupted snow conditions, insects, and ecosystem shifts.



TRUMPET CHANTARELLES is not disappearing outright, but climate-driven instability is turning a once reliable late-autumn mushroom into an increasingly uncertain presence, a marker of a northern forest losing climatic consistency. We served BLUEBERRY wine with and without alcohol with this dish.



[I was an artist in residence at #Ricklundgården in #Saxnäs, #Sweden for the last weeks and created a conceptual meal ("Arctic Meal") in cooperation with the local chef Jonathan Johansson illustrating the impacts of the climate crisis on northern Sweden and the #Arctic].



#art #conceptualart #jonathanjohansson #climatecrisis #arcticmeal