Happy and good food

Visiting Norwegian chef discloses her philosophy of cooking


It's simple really. You need to be a happy person and in a happy frame of mind to cook good food. That's the very basis of a visiting top Norwegian woman chef Tove Haga's philosophy of cooking.

In the capital to create Norwegian delights at a food festival in the Brauhaus, Beach Rotana hotel, she converses with Tabloid on happy cooking, Norwegian cuisine, her restaurant and her achievements in the world of food.

Steeped in this happy cooking theory of creating tasty dishes, Tove Haga, a travelling chef of 25 years, and her husband founded an association called the European Society of Happy Cooking.

Comprising an "exclusive" group of people, who love to experience quality food and fine hotel service, they travel around different hotels in the world sampling fine cuisine, service, ambience and everything that goes with it.

A gourmet group akin to Chaines des rotisserie, this association in Norway numbers 250 and boasts of branches in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Netherlands and England. You become a member of this group in an unique fashion – by travelling once with Tove Haga and her finance consultant husband to a hotel destination.

Eight time champion of game food in national competitions in Norway, Haga hesitates to reveal the secret of cooking up tasty game meat dishes.

Reluctantly she adds, "The key lies in a very special mix I use to marinate the meat. But, there's another vital factor to make tasty game meat dishes, I remove the meat out in the morning from the refrigerator and leave it outside the entire day in a temperature controlled room.

"When I am ready to cook much later in the day, the process of cooking has already begun, you don't even need a knife to cut it.''

Her style of cooking is not traditional Norwegian but "international'', she admits. A combination of English club countryside, French and Norwegian. But, people believe good cuisine can only be had in France and Italy in Europe. "They think Norway is dark and cold. But, we have a number of international Michelin Star restaurants, very good chefs and tasty food. People have not discovered us as yet,'' she says. Norwegian food is influenced by French cuisine, she adds.

Tove Haga does not just have the distinction of being a woman chef beating the boys at making damm good game meat but also owns Trugstad Gord, a gourmet, ancient restaurant dating back five centuries ago.

Tove's husband inherited this farm in 1978. That year, Tove Haga quit as a travelling chef around Europe and stayed put in this restaurant imbued with the country's history.

Today, her clients and fans come to Norway to get a taste of her cooking. Meanwhile, apart from running a cookery school and being a member of the Les Amis de Bocuse D' Or (a group made up of the friends of Europe's best chef Bocuse D' Or), Haga has also penned cookery books (she has 4,000 recipes in her computer).

She has written Taste of the Farm, Creative Tables (the cover of this book shows her in a chef's cap and behind a car wheel) and a guide to smart living – How to Live smartly. A book on Christmas food cooked in traditional Norwegian style will be published next year.

She seems very excited that people here want to buy her recipe books. And she's keen to meet an Arabic chef, hoping to hold an Arabic evening in her restaurant in the future.

Also, Haga always stresses the importance of service with a smile. She hopes to return to Norway to tell her association of happy cooking, about the hotel and chefs in Abu Dhabi.

Photos and food

A fact file on the origins of the maritime kingdom of Norway to a chronicle on this country's rich fish and oil resources and an opportunity to taste the flavours of Norwegian game cuisine forms part of the photo-exhibition and a gourmet food festival which opened on level one of the Beach Rotana hotel in Abu Dhabi on October 29.

This dual event, inaugurated by the Norwegian Ambassador to the UAE, Ulf S H Christiansen, has been organised to coincide with the high-profile inauguration of the Borouge plant in Ruwais.

"This event is being held because of the Borouge plant opening in Ruwais. The reason being the Norwegian National Oil company (Statoil) is a major shareholder in Borealis, which in turn has a stake in Borouge,'' revealed Ulf Christiansen.

Norway's economy based on their wealthy marine resources is the biggest fish exporter and the third largest oil exporter in the world, he said. In that respect, UAE and Norway share a common dependence on the sea for their oil and gas reserves and fishing.

Facts on Norway's fishing industry thriving all along it's lengthy coastline, their shipping industry and other data are displayed in unique, rectangular plastic display stands. This exhibition moves on to Japan next, added the Ambassador.

The food festival at the Brauhaus, meanwhile, focusses on serving typical dishes from Norway such as game meat like reindeer and grouse, cloud berry and Norwegian salmon in sherry sauce, lamb meat cakes, potatoes and red cabbage. This culinary and historical journey to the land of the midnight sun will continue till tomorrow.


Distinctive features of Norwegian cuisine: Non-spicy, meat, fish, fresh water fish and potato based, use of plenty of cream, butter, cheese and more importantly contains game meat of reindeer, deer, ducks and wild birds.

Typical Norwegian dishes: Meat, fish balls, lamb made just with whole pepper, plenty of salmon, lamb head, goat cheese, strawberry soup with green pepper and the famous Norwegian cream cakes.

Spices Tove Haga commonly uses: Garlic, green pepper, salt and Kvark Krydder (a mix of spices like green pepper, garlic, parsley, thyme, oregano and salt).

Dream dishes: Salmon with sherry sauce, game meat dishes like wild bird and reindeer meat, fish dishes and the cloud berry, a nut obtained from the mountains.