Magnus Nilsson’s scallops

This is a dish I am very proud of. It is a perfect product cooked

THERE is a restaurant way up in the tip of Sweden, 600 miles north of Stockholm that I have been longing to go to for quite some time — it’s called F‰viken. I managed to get a booking a couple of weeks before Christmas. It’s quite a mission to get there — you have to fly from Trondheim via Oslo, hire a car and drive two and half hours north through the snow.

We were greeted by Robert a friendly young man who sounds as though he is from New York. The rooms are cosy and chic, beautiful linen, lots of timber, spruce I think and Swedish grey paint. The sauna and shower is just across from our bedroom. After a delicious sauna and lots of cold beer, we go down to the comfy drawing room at 6.30pm. There are several clusters of seats and a big log fire. Magnus greets us warmly — I’d forgotten that I’d sent him a copy of Forgotten Skills last year and he’s planning to come to the Ballymaloe’s LitFest in 2015.