Daniel Berlin Krog

Daniel Berlin’s gastronomic idiom is balanced on a knife’s edge. On the one hand classical, familiar, secure flavours with deep roots in Skåne’s soil – and on the other modern, technically driven experimentalism. And he is in full command of this landscape of his own defining. The biggest change since we were last here is that sommelier Rebecka Lithander has swept in and raised the drinks menu to same stratospheric level as the kitchen. She picks out one fabulous pairing after another in a bracing mix of classics and vin nature, young and mature. We’re off to soft start, with pheasant stock that’s spiced with crown dill oil – two small, warm sips recalling crayfish water that play well with Pierre Paillard’s blanc de blancs from 2013. Old favourites like the cinnamon-dusted fowl liver and the leavened pancake with pork belly and frozen horseradish are still (thank goodness) on the menu, as is the house slow-roasted celeriac – but other than that, it’s mostly new and experimental. Prettiest is the wide champagne coupe in which pure, pale pink juice of Discovery apples surrounds an ice globe. It is an almost preternaturally refreshing palate cleanser, served with a small sorbet of Belle de Boskoop apples. The first course consists of fine slices of seaweed-cured greylag goose, interspersed with equally fine slices of cucumber and rhubarb, and flavoured with sorrel – this subdued flavour register is matches marvellously with the acidity and sweetness of a young Kabinett from Julian Haart in the Mosel. But even better, almost, is the juice pairing: a pea-green ‘kålsup’ of pointed cabbage, lemon verbena and apple. We are also bowled over by a briefly grilled lobster tail, still raw at the core, strewn with thin slices of parsley root and topped with a carefully peeled, creamily fresh walnut ‘from Tom and Bertil down in the village’. A waldorf salad to dream of. Pheasant is served in the form of breast and heart, accompanied by yellowfoot, sweet kombu, a compote of Clara Friis pears, and fennel flowers. The sommelier once again shows her acumen: a butterscotchy, peppery and blood orange-scented Swiss gamay matches the wild forest flavours perfectly. Desserts really shine in Daniel Berlin’s hands: both the sorrel and goat’s milk ice cream under a crispy layer of honey and the butternut squash creation in pumpkin oil, with sea buckthorn sorbet and a praline of pumpkin seeds, are quire simply sensational. And anyone who misses the old signature dessert won’t be disappointed – coffee arrives with a miniature version of the ice cream with rosemary toffee and salty meringue. The country’s possibly most imitated dessert remains a winner. And Daniel Berlin is better than ever.

Published december 2019