Iceland’s design community is considered to be in its infancy compared to its sophisticated Scandinavian neighbours.  It only established a design academy ten years ago, but an unlikely event has helped propel it.  In a classic case of unintended consequences, Iceland’s financial crisis created an appetite for locally produced and designed goods.  Reykjavik’s annual event, Design March, showcases Iceland’s home-grown designers.

I recently took a tour of the city’s design scene with Greipur Gustafsson, festival director of Design March.

Erró and Seven Teapots... a gift to the Reykjavik Art Museum

We pass a fish warehouse and Greiupur explains it’s no longer for seafood.

“During our festival, Design March, designers have been moving into empty slots, empty warehouses, and shops even, to exhibit because they maybe have their workshops at home, so they want to exhibit somewhere people can see it.  For example, during the first Design March during 2009, that was just a few months after the financial crash in Iceland.  The Christmas shopping was over, lots of shops in the main street had closed down, so designers filled up every space in the main shopping street with all kinds of design and that had been kind of the spirit since.  People have been trying to find huge houses to put up exhibitions, which is really nice.”

Just opposite the harbour, we come upon a former fishing net factory, now home to a design collective, including some of the most prominent designers in Iceland.   We talk about the difficulty of living in the shadow of Scandinavia’s well-established design community.

“I think almost everyone would say, ten years ago, the design department of the Academia of the Arts responded.   That was a huge page-turner for the design community of Iceland.  Until then, people had to move outside of Iceland to do design.  So until then, there wasn’t really a community because when people moved back, no one knew each other.  That has changed.  Then, four years ago, designers in Iceland funded the Iceland Design Centre, and that brought together designers from all the different fields, all the way from fashion to architects.  That made a community that wasn’t before.  So there has been a design boom over the last ten years in Iceland.”

Icelandic design became fashionable during one of the most unlikely times in the nation’s history, Greipur explains.

“Now, the brand of Icelandic design is noticed as being something good in Iceland where maybe it wasn’t before.  During our crisis, in late 2008, everything that was Icelandic became a little bit more sought after because the nation became aware of how necessary it was to try to keep aspects of the work in the country and not move the currency.  So Icelandic design, Icelandic craft, Icelandic food, sort of became hip.  It became “in” to buy Icelandic.   Lots of stores closed down in downtown Reykjavik, which helped us doing the Design March since we could fill up the stores with design, like as pop-up galleries.  People lost their jobs, and had more time to design.  There were architects and others who lost their jobs and now could work on their things being a little more creative.”

Arny Porarinsdottir is an architect and designer at the collective who is hoping to benefit from Greiupur’s work and this year’s Design March.   We talk about what it’s like being a designer in such a young design community.

“There are very good things to be a designer in Reykjavik.  You have this small network and you have easy ways to connect to people because the country is really small.  But there are also not so good sides of it.  We have not so many opportunities.  We have small manufacturers, that’s the downside of it.”

Arny learned design in Denmark and returned home just before the crash.

Tria Family...a table for guests by furniture designer Erla Sólveig Óskarsdóttir

“It was really hard, but at the same time, the community and people were really open for Icelandic design, manufactured here.  Right after the crisis everybody was like, ‘now we have to stand together, buy Icelandic.’  Even if they didn’t have the money, they had the interest.”

Arny says it’s hard to compare Iceland with its Scandinavian sisters. 

“We have a really short history compared to Denmark.  Young people are really into buying old Danish furniture and we don’t have that here, but we have these new fresh things and designers are really ready to do almost anything to promote themselves.  We are not even teenagers compared to grown up design communities but of course we have to be optimistic.  We see lots of opportunities.”

Greipur Gustafsson also sees opportunities. 

“The Icelandic Design Centre opened its travelling exhibition in Helsinki this December and the Managing Director there said to us, ‘Iceland’s designers have been really taking a place on the Scandinavian design scene,’ and I think that’s what we are aiming for, that we want to be talked about in the same sentence, or at the same time as Scandinavian design.  We don’t have any huge names in Iceland, but we are working on that.”

With a little luck, and the spirit of the financial crisis, Arny Porarinsdottir could be one of them.

Iceland Design March

http://www.icelanddesign.is/DesignMarch/

http://www.icelanddesign.is/ICELANDDESIGNCENTRE/

Seventeen chefs from around the world recently took over restaurants in Reykjavik for Iceland's annual Food and Fun Festival. 

They spent the better part of a week serving their own interpretations of an Icelandic menu. Judges selected three final contestants for a cook-off using local cod, char and lamb. I went behind the scenes, into the kitchen, and out to the judge’s table.

David Varley is executive chef for the Michael Mina restaurant group. He’s flown more than 4000 miles to Reykjavik, and beat out 13 other chefs to make it to the finals of Iceland’s international food competition.  

Dessert champion ... San Francisco chef David Varley

“It’s about looking at the ingredients, looking at the weather, seeing the menus and using that as a lens, or a filter as it were, for my vision for the cuisine, to have an understanding of their sensibility and then applying my opinion about food to that sensibility,'' he tells Lunch Magazine.

"We’re going to start with a cod dish and serve it with an Icelandic mussel curry dish.  They’re going to finish with a dish that looks like lava fields, caramel mousse, chocolate devil’s food cake, more caramel and port wine clear gel.”

David may not necessarily serve his San Francisco customers chocolate lava fields, but he is tempted to take back a few other things.

“San Franciscans don’t wanto to eat food from Iceland, and Icelanders don’t want to eat food from San Francisco, but there’s a lot of interesting product that translates well. The Icelandic salt is amazing.”

Icelandic salt and Iceland sous-chefs.

“There’s a dedication and professionalism and eagerness here that you don’t often see.They’re really fired up about food and they’re really into it.”

While David, and his competition, an Italian and a Dane, put the finishing touches on their dishes, Michael Ginor, part of the international panel of judges, sits down at the

Bitter ... the hops ice cream

“I’m looking for proper use of the ingredient, whether it’s Icelandic lamb or Icelandic cod, whether it’s an Asian or Scandinavian dish. None of these chefs are expected to cook an Icelandic version. They’re expected to take the ingredients and incorporate them into their own style.”

One ingredient everyone is talking about is the Icelandic salt. Michael Ginor has got some tucked away.

“When we use these fancy salts, we generally should use them as a garnish. A bit of salt at the end for a bit of crunch. The grain of Icelandic salt is a very nice grain.The lamb, they often grow on marshes very close to the ocean,'' he says. 

"It’s very sexy and romantic to pair Icelandic salt from the water nearby to where the lamb grew up. It’s a nice story. There’s something to be said for using the salt from the same water that nourished the lamb. “

But it’s not time for the lamb dish, yet. First, Michael samples David’s cod.

“Immediately you smell curry and some kaffir, so you get the impression it’s Thai,'' he says.

For me, it’s a little on the acidic side, but the fish is very well cooked. The idea of brining it is very good. Basically, a great dish comprises all of your senses.  Presentation wise, it needs to look appealing, to begin with. 

"The second is a sense of smell. Next important is the flavour, which is the most important, at the end of the day. To me, a perfect dish is when all of those senses get addressed properly. When you’re judging, you’re looking for a dish that looks right, tastes right, smells right – kind of like a concerto."

Next, Michael is served Arctic char by the Italian chef.

“Personally, I don’t like to see anything on a plate that you can’t eat. These pine needles could be mistaken for rosemary, so that’s a problem for me. The flavour of pine is very big in Scandinavia and I think he was trying to utilise that, but I think that’s a bit risky, so personally, I thought it was a little lacking.”

With the floe ... Varley's winning creation

“This sponge is a very Ferran Adria thing. It’s a little too derivative. A Chicago chef came up with this idea to aerate the chocolate and this scene came from Heston Blumenthal.''

"To the average consumer who eats this, he probably walks away saying, ‘Wow, this guy’s a genius,’ but to us, who know the origin of it, it’s a problem where a lot of the food today is being slightly changed, but copy-catted, literally. 

"We all are influenced by what we learn, but sometimes these are just automatic lift-ups of things. Taste-wise, the chocolate ice cream is great consistency but it’s bitter. It’s bitter from hops. 

"It’s okay for me not to love it, but still appreciate it. This has been the most thought-provoking for me on a personal level. When a chef doesn’t cook something properly and makes a mistake, we can fault him for that. He’s tasted this, he knows it’s bitter.  That’s what he wanted. He wanted a reaction. I can live with that.”

But if the Danish dessert was too bitter, David’s dessert faults in the other direction. 

“This is a dessert a kid would love. It’s very sweet; it’s got the brownie, the caramel.  It’s very, very sweet.”

Despite his stereotypically sweet dessert, American David Varley manages to edge out the competition to win the Icelandic award.

Armed with his medal, and boxes of Icelandic salt, David heads home. And who knows, the sweet lava fields may wind up on his San Francisco menu after all.

Food and Fun Festival

www.foodandfun.is

www.icelandair.com