Box food is the new restaurant favorite
This article was first published in Finansavisen Premium.
– It can in many ways look like small works of art, do not you agree?
Florent Chronie-De Maria looks at a red box he has taken with him from the warehouse to the relatively new online store Voulez-Vous.
On the box is drawn a knight on a horse, and a kind of mermaid who lifts them over their heads. Voulez-Vous was launched before the New Year – an online store, where you can find food stored in canned food or by the glass.
The name has already made its mark among celebrity chefs, hip restaurants and some weird Norwegians who are just extremely fond of fish and other things – canned.
Chronie-De Maria and Christophe Benjamin Calm open the online store in the first instance
– We miss quality products that can be served as a good and simple aperitif. A kind of place where you could stop by for a meal quickly, he continues.
The bar, or restaurant he talks about, does not exist – yet. But the idea has grown on the guys, and is now a future dream. Chronie-De Maria and Christophe Benjamin Calm open the online store in the first instance, an idea that spreads over several coffee cups on the way to the French school in the morning, where their children are students.
– I understand that it does not sound so fancy to just open a box. We probably have a different view of just that. We thought it would have been fun to get this in the Norwegian food culture, says Chronie-De Maria, who is half Italian and half French.
– I can sign on to be a topic of conversation at home, he says.
He talks about the French food culture and how skilled they are when it comes to aperitifs. Starters, or an aperitif, are not a daily diet at home with Norwegians, but if you look towards France, it is almost unheard of not to know about good cheeses, a box of seafood in the lake and something good in the glass. It can be a party, a regular dinner at home, or a stop by the bar.
![TAKE IN RESTAURANTS: Canned food is easy to prepare and easy to eat, which is why many bars and restaurants have chosen to clear space on the box for the boxed food. Photo: da Bjørvik / Finansavisen](https://imaginary.abcmedia.no/resize?force=false&width=980&height=1084&interlace=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fabcnyheter.drpublish.aptoma.no%2Fout%2Fimages%2Farticle%2F%2F2022%2F03%2F27%2F195835567%2F1%2Foriginal%2F61529274.jpg)
TAKE IN RESTAURANTS: Canned food is easy to prepare and easy to eat, which is why many bars and restaurants have chosen to clear space on the box for the boxed food. Photo: da Bjørvik / Finansavisen
In French
– We quickly found out that we want to work with small suppliers who do not need to have large marketing budgets or a plan to grow quickly, he continues. The Larrouyet family and L’Oustau de Camille are manufactured by manufacturers represented in their store.
– Their reaction when they realized that the canned food is sold a full 2,500 km from the factory, when the ordinary people work with the shop on the corner, is unforgettable.
Chronie-De Maria says he has been an acquaintance of the Larrouyet family since he was a little boy.
![Photo: Ida Bjørvik / Finansavisen](https://imaginary.abcmedia.no/resize?force=false&width=980&height=919&interlace=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fabcnyheter.drpublish.aptoma.no%2Fout%2Fimages%2Farticle%2F%2F2022%2F03%2F27%2F195835568%2F1%2Foriginal%2F61529339.jpg)
Photo: Ida Bjørvik / Finansavisen
– My mother used to take me to their farm, where she bought paté de campagne and paté de foie. I went to class with their youngest daughter, and was in love with the oldest. You can probably call it a kind of French cliché, he says, and being honest about being able to sell their products is like taking a little piece of your childhood to Norway.
L’Oustau de Camille is run by Camille, a former engineer who decided to focus on cooking. Today she works with local producers in the south of France.
– She has a lifestyle I would like to have when I grow old, Chronie-De Maria adds.
![- My first memory with canned food goes back to when I was six years old. In the lunch box was a sandwich with pâté from a can, greased by my mother. Half the class had this typical sandwich. You will find the same pate in our range today, says Florent Chronie-De Maria, co-owner of the online store Voulez Vous. Photo: Ida Bjørvik / Finansavisen](https://imaginary.abcmedia.no/resize?force=false&width=980&height=1472&interlace=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fabcnyheter.drpublish.aptoma.no%2Fout%2Fimages%2Farticle%2F%2F2022%2F03%2F27%2F195835569%2F1%2Foriginal%2F61529249.jpg)
– My first memory with canned food goes back to when I was six years old. In the lunch box was a sandwich with pâté from a can, greased by my mother. Half the class had this typical sandwich. You will find the same pate in our range today, says Florent Chronie-De Maria, co-owner of the online store Voulez Vous. Photo: Ida Bjørvik / Finansavisen
History on the box
When canning came on the market, it offered humanity a new and safe way to store food.
Stavanger was to be called the canning city in Norway. King Oscar, one of the most well-known producers on the shelves, started exporting around 1880.
In 1915, the canning industry in the city exported more than 350 million boxes of sardines to the world market, and as much as 65 percent of the industrial workers’ place in the city was connected to the well-known canned fish.
When mass production of food took over the store in the 60s, the industry changed. Small factories that had previously delivered quality started with mass production, prices became considerably cheaper and the boxes of inferior quality due to the pressure, Calm can tell.
This may be one of the reasons why some people wrinkle their noses when talking about canned food. There are many who have associations to so-so stored food for cheap money.
In recent years, there has been a change. The French say the small producers, who never succumbed to the greatest powers in the past, have begun to support local producers who trade in various raw materials, herbs, spices and fresh vegetables.
– The producers redo their historical recipes to prepare. Imagine a wonderful dish served on a fat. Today, many of these dishes are canned. Boxed food can today be described as a dish prepared by chefs, not just an ingredient.
Nice catch
Bakklandet Delikatesse in Trondheim is a food shop of the rare. Here you will find Swiss cheeses, truffle salami, and smoked mussels from Limfjord in Denmark – canned. Behind the mentioned is Martin Bregnballe, the founder of FANGST.
– I have worked with all my life, but the focus is on raw materials from land. What about the sea, I asked myself. We in the Nordics have world-class fish and shellfish that we export, but we are not that good at eating it ourselves.
Bregnballe found an explanation why many consumers, but also chefs, find it difficult to cook fish. A few years ago, he has the answer served in front of him, literally. He discovered that more and more delicatessens and food bars served first-class Portuguese and French canned food. The chef only needs to open a lid, and then supplement with a good piece of bread – and maybe a slice of lemon.
– Why do we leave this market to Southern Europe was my first thought. That’s why I HAVE TO CATCH.
![STARTED WITH HERMETICS: Martin Bregnballe is behind FANGST, together with co-owner Rasmus Østerlund, and chef Mikkel Karstad. The shells, the lake and the trout are cooked in Denmark, but they have a number of collaborations with other countries and factories, where the craftsmanship behind the canning is still alive. Photo: Private](https://imaginary.abcmedia.no/resize?force=false&width=164&interlace=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fabcnyheter.drpublish.aptoma.no%2Fout%2Fimages%2Farticle%2F%2F2022%2F03%2F27%2F195835570%2F1%2Foriginal%2F61529439.jpg)
STARTED WITH HERMETICS: Martin Bregnballe is behind FANGST, together with co-owner Rasmus Østerlund, and chef Mikkel Karstad. The shells, the lake and the trout are cooked in Denmark, but they have a number of collaborations with other countries and factories, where the craftsmanship behind the canning is still alive. Photo: Private
A canning revolution
Like many others, Bregnballe first thought of sardines. CATCH should make the Nordic countries’ answer to the herring fish.
– I read up, and found out that in the old days there were plenty of small canneries, especially along the Norwegian coast. Among other things, they export sprat as sardines, a production that is no longer running in the Nordic countries. I found a small factory in the Baltics, where the craft has survived, and which today prepares sprat from the Baltic Sea. We send organic ingredients from Denmark and Sweden, and together with the fish, this will be a Nordic twist on the forgotten, but very good fish, he says, and adds that he is also working on a project in collaboration with the Department of Food Science in Trondheim, where they look at the possibility by canning the squid.
– In Norway, our products have been well received. This is extra big for me, considering the traditions around fish canning in the country.
– Who is the typical customer?
– In the beginning there were small informal restaurants, but now I see specialty shops, wine bars and delicacies taking in canned food. I also see a tendency for younger audiences to cultivate the informal meal, and search for products with identity. This helps to increase demand. In the elderly, canned food will probably return, but it has been updated and with quality, says Bregnballe, and notes that this is just the beginning of a canning revolution.
From Pillefyken: Susanne Låstad’s recipe for a good anchovy dish
![POSSIBLE WITH RECIPE: Susanne Låstad at the restaurant and wine bar Pillefyken. Photo: Ida Bjørvik / Finansavisen](https://imaginary.abcmedia.no/resize?force=false&width=164&interlace=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fabcnyheter.drpublish.aptoma.no%2Fout%2Fimages%2Farticle%2F%2F2022%2F03%2F27%2F195835571%2F1%2Foriginal%2F61529480.jpg)
POSSIBLE WITH RECIPE: Susanne Låstad at the restaurant and wine bar Pillefyken. Photo: Ida Bjørvik / Finansavisen
HANDLING LIST
A box of boquerones (anchovies)
Good bread,
Hokkaido pumpkins
Olive oil and pepper
METHOD
Peel a squash, grate it and slice the Hokkaido squash.
Cook it so tender for about five minutes. Use little water – but the most important thing is that it is not said.
Then mix about 200 grams of pumpkin, 0.5 dl boiling water and 0.5 dl of a good olive oil. Run it up in a food processor, or with a hand mixer until it has a smooth texture.
Boquerones (anchovies) are both sour and salty, so there is no need for anything extra in the mixture. If you use it in salad dressing, on the other hand, you can taste it with vinegar and salt.
Dip one side of the bread into the sauce, before placing it in the oven at 180 degrees for about 10 minutes.
Take a tablespoon of extra sauce and place the boquerones on top of the slice. Small pepper on top and the dish is ready.
Tips: When the tomatoes come in season, it’s good to make the same recipe, then with lots of tomatoes and a little sip of olive oil – and preferably a little sherry vinegar. Bake this in the oven, and serve it with anchovies. On top it is good with pepper and grated organic lemon peel.
The dish is very simple, but it depends on good ingredients.
![Photo: Ida Bjørvik / Finansavisen](https://imaginary.abcmedia.no/resize?force=false&width=980&height=719&interlace=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fabcnyheter.drpublish.aptoma.no%2Fout%2Fimages%2Farticle%2F%2F2022%2F03%2F27%2F195835572%2F1%2Foriginal%2F61529526.jpg)
Photo: Ida Bjørvik / Finansavisen
Here you get, among other things, canned food in Oslo
Nectar
Becco
Ansjosen
Cafeteria August
STALL
Pillefyken
Løkka Deli
Right in the Gap