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Festivalen Food and Fun Reykjavik

05 March 2019 / 23 Comments

Food and Fun Reykjavik Festival - Iceland's gourmet week

The Food and Fun Reykjavik festival is definitely a reason to visit the capital of Iceland during February/March. For one week, foreign chefs are invited to serve specially composed menus, using local ingredients and in collaboration with local restaurants. We tried some of the menus during the 2019 festival, and it was a real treat!

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Why Food and Fun is organised

The Food and Fun festival was organised for the 18th consecutive year in Reykjavik. The background to the festival was the decline in tourism in Iceland during the off-season, and the aim was to make Reykjavik a hot destination in February and March as well. The idea was hatched to hold a competition between Icelandic and foreign chefs, and the first festival was organised in February 2002.

Festivalen Food and Fun Reykjavik
Lots of good food at the Food and Fun Reykjavik festival

What is Food and Fun Reykjavik?

The festival has now become an annual event, held each year in February or March. Chefs from the US and Europe are invited to Iceland to work with local restaurants to create gourmet menus that are served for a week. The event has become an internationally recognised food festival, and each year more chefs want to participate than can be accommodated.

Food and Fun Reykjavik

Food and Fun Reykjavik 2019

This year, some 20 chefs from the US, Canada, the UK, France, Spain and Finland participated. Almost as many restaurants were involved, and this year also saw the introduction of the 'off menu' concept. This new concept means that during the week, pubs and other simple eateries also serve dishes in collaboration with the international chefs, without guests having to order an entire menu.

Finnish chef Sasu Laukkonen, at the Food and Fun Reykjavik festival.

Restaurant Geiri Smart - in co-operation with Sasu Laukkonen

We ate a whole menu in a restaurant Geiri Smartwhich was served in collaboration with Finnish chef Sasu Laukkonen. Sasu explained that he spent three weeks in Iceland for the event, scouting for ingredients and preparing the dishes.

What we really liked was the fact that he took advantage of all parts of the cod and included them in the meal. For example, we tasted fried cod tongue, which was served with the bread in a bread basket. The dessert was also really interesting, combined with a dark beer. Here is the menu:

  • Icelandic tomato, strawberries and dulse (seaweed)
  • Cod part 1, fillet, head and tongue
  • Cod part 2, bone, cheek, skin and rum
  • Icelandic lamb, potatoes, coffee and lamb's heart
  • Omnom chocolate, herb ice cream and cola malt
Geiri smart drink
A pre-meal lingonberry drink at Geiri Smart, Food and Fun Reykjavik 2019 festival
The first fish dish, named "Cod part 1"
Tender lamb that melted in the mouth
Örtglass
Ice cream combined with dark beer - exciting!

Restaurant Vox - in collaboration with Ryan Rodgers

Restaurant Vox is at the Hilton Reykjavik Nordica hotel, where we also stayed. Here we tried a menu served in collaboration with Canadian chef Ryan Rodgers. An interesting and exciting menu with Icelandic ingredients such as sea bass, cod, lamb and blackcurrant. Here is the menu:

  • Fried chicken, fermented plum and shiso (mint).
  • Smoked sea bass, apple, celeriac and horseradish
  • Cod confit, butternut squash and black garlic
  • Grilled lamb, burnt cream and soba
  • Blackcurrants, chocolate and wild pepper
kyckling
Wrapped chicken to start the meal - a real treat!
vox havsabborre
Beautifully presented sea bass
konfiterad torsk
Traditional cod served in a modern way
Vox efterrätt
Red dessert with currant flavour

Restaurant Meat - in collaboration with Hamilton Johnson

Restaurant Meat are also usually known for serving really good grilled meat, and were now visited by guest chef Hamilton Johnson. We didn't try the whole menu at Meat, but Peter got the chance to try some of the dishes (he slipped in with some contacts while I was hanging out at a bar with our Finnish friends). Peter tried the tuna and steak, and loved it! Here is the full menu:

  • Spicy raw tuna, kohlrabi, radishes, rye bread and butter emulsion with foie gras
  • Norway lobster, braised pork cheek, fennel marmalade and black truffle
  • Tenderloin steak, caramelised white cabbage puree, small potatoes, preserved veal tongue and blueberries
  • Coffee and "cigarettes", malt, chocolate, espresso ice cream, tobacco school, smoked hazelnut praline and chocolate coffee meringue.
Tuna with accessories
Tenderloin that made Peter wax lyrical

Keeping the party going in Reykjavik

After the first evening at the Food and Fun Reykjavik festival, we went on to some bars and nightclubs. What we really like of Reykjavik is that all the nightlife is centred around one street, Laugavegur.

The different places are close together and even though the city is small, the nightlife here is very intense. You can easily go for a bar crawl, and if you want, you can also go in and out of the nightclubs as you please. Nobody charges an entrance fee. Soooo good!

Beer dog
Beer on tap at the Brewdog beer hall in Reykjavik
All our top tips about Iceland. Click on the image!

Facts about Food and Fun

  • Where? The food festival is organised in several different restaurants in Reykjavik. You can travel to Iceland with, for example Icelandair.
  • When? Every year in February or March
  • Prices? Fixed 5-course menus cost 8900 Icelandic crowns (approx. 735 crowns) and ready-made wine packages cost about the same. Individual dishes can also be purchased at off-menu locations (2019).
  • Read more? You can find more information at festival website

This trip was a press trip, organised by the Food and Fun Reykjavik festival and Icelandair. The top picture in the post shows Peter and some of our Swedish and Finnish blog colleagues who were on the trip.

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05 March 2019 6:00
Iceland, Food and drink
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21 Comments

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  1. Ann says:

    But oh so much good you got to try! The lamb looks absolutely fantastic 🙂

    05 March 2019 - 8:12

    Reply

  2. Johnny Friskilä says:

    What a fantastic press trip. Cod tongue is otherwise quite common food where I come from. 🙂

    05 March 2019 - 8:34

    Reply

  3. Britt-Marie Lundgren says:

    What a great idea to attract more people to Iceland in the low season.
    The food pictures almost make me hungry even though we just swallowed breakfast.

    05 March 2019 - 8:57

    Reply

  4. Ama de casa says:

    What a fun event! Smart of the Icelanders 🙂

    The food and menus looked very tasty and exciting, but I would probably have passed on the cod bones. Do not like bones in fish. Maybe that's why monkfish is my favourite type of fish 🙂.

    05 March 2019 - 10:16

    Reply

  5. Ditte says:

    I can imagine that it was a good, exciting, fun and interesting weekend.

    05 March 2019 - 14:40

    Reply

  6. Ruth in Virginia says:

    Do cod really have tongues? Seriously?

    05 March 2019 - 15:26

    Reply

    • Comment by post author

      Helena says:

      So ... haha, yes apparently! The chef described in great detail how there was half a fried tongue in each fried piece. So I guess so 😉 (Can admit that I have not thought so much about it before;))

      05 March 2019 - 21:00

      Reply

      • Ruth in Virginia says:

        FYI / -small tongues weigh about 15 grams, larger ones about 35 g.
        Small better; for starters you need 3-4/person.

        Other interesting parts of the menu:
        burnt cream
        pork cheek
        tobacco school
        smoked hazelnut praline
        black garlic
        The best dish was the red dessert with wine berry flavour,
        and with a pink flak as a roof. 🙂

        05 March 2019 - 21:25

        Reply

        • Comment by post author

          Helena says:

          Ah thanks, good research there! 🙂

          And yes, haha, they were very creative with the menus! Please note that I have translated from English/Icelandic (the menus were in both languages) to the best of my ability 😉.

          06 March 2019 - 7:58

          Reply

  7. Daniela | Discovering The Planet says:

    What a fatastic experience. And what pictures. Even the pictures are dangerous for the waistline :))

    05 March 2019 - 18:58

    Reply

  8. BP says:

    Yummie, yummie! The fish dishes not only looked incredibly beautiful but were really differently composed. It's fun to combine Japanese ingredients with Icelandic ingredients, prepared by chefs from different countries. A really fun idea.

    05 March 2019 - 20:56

    Reply

  9. Resfredasg says:

    One of my absolute best food experiences while travelling just happened in Iceland, ate like 9 courses with my sister at Fishmarket. Loved everything.

    06 March 2019 - 3:17

    Reply

  10. Lena - good for the soul says:

    That really looked like high quality food. How exciting to use everything on the cod! Impressive and brave.

    Hug Lena

    07 March 2019 - 18:53

    Reply

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