My sister-in-law Berit Reiss Andersen lives in Oslo and a few weekends ago I went to visit for her big 60th birthday bash. She has long been divorced from my oldest brother but we have always remained close and since I moved to Paris we see each other much more frequently than when I lived in New York.
The festivities were held in Berit's weekend house in the seaside town of Larvik, on the Oslo/Larvik fjord, two hours from Oslo. The town is also noted as the birthplace of adventurer Thor Heyerdahl, who made Kon-Tiki Expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands.
I arrived Saturday afternoon and the party was called for 6PM. Berit’s white clapboard house from 1884 sits on an incline with a far view of the sea. Her pride and joy is her lovely garden, which she diligently maintains and it was almost in full bloom. Funnily enough, Larvik had just come out of a heat wave the day before with temperatures soaring into the 90s, while it was cold in rainy in Paris with a high of 55 degrees at the same time. Luckily the heat wave subsided and we were blessed with sunny skies and 72 degrees.
Festively dressed guests in summer linen and silk arrived around 6PM and many showered Berit with gardening gifts and plants for her beloved garden. Everybody sipped Champagne while mingling and in the background a handsome blonde man crooning American songs was accompanied by a keyboard player. It was a fun and lively crowd and I was introduced to people with the most unusual Nordic names, which I had a hard time pronouncing let alone repeating, with nothing as easy as Sven or Lars. Luckily almost everyone spoke English.
A white tent was setup in the garden to serve dinner and we sat at the beautifully set long tables with fine china, crystal, delicate white floral arrangements, and pretty royal blue paisley napkins. Berit is a die-hard foodie and wine connoisseur and is an excellent and sophisticated cook. She chose her favorite restaurant in Oslo to cater the party and collaborated with them to select a traditional, mostly Norwegian summer menu, sourcing many ingredients locally and matched a white wine for each course.
My nephew Joachim and his wife Camilla (the dream couple)
The first course was goat cheese salad served with crisp haricot verts and cherry tomatoes with Jean Pabiot Pouilly Fume 2013. Poached salmon, Norwegian new potatoes (the potatoes were so flavorful they didn’t need butter or even salt. I was told the potatoes are so fresh they only last four days and can’t be stored), spring cabbage and lemon hollandaise followed along with Girardine Bourgogne 2012.
As delicious as the dinner was, it kept on getting interrupted by guest speeches running the gamut from heartfelt to funny to downright vulgar. Every time I went to put a forkful of food in my mouth, I had to stop so I wouldn’t be caught with food in my mouth while someone was toasting Berit. One man started to strum a small guitar and cleverly rewrote the lyrics of popular Norwegian folksongs to include Berit’s life events and guests were asked to sing along. The big surprise was Berit’s son Joachim had a local opera singer stop by to sing some arias and she totally stole the show, bringing people to tears with her magnificent voice. The speeches were well deserved, as Berit is an amazingly accomplished and brilliant person. She is one of the top attorneys in Norway serving on many high profile cases. She was president of the Norwegian Bar Association and head of the Norwegian delegation of CCBE (The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe). Berit is the co-author along with Anne Holt of two best selling Norwegian crime novels and is currently a member of the Nobel Prize Peace Prize Committee. In case that wasn't enough, she has a very smart, good-looking son Joachim (my nephew who I am very proud of) who has a beautiful wife Camilla and two small children.
A cheese course of French Morbier and Roquefort was served with crackers laced with dried fruit. A simple dessert of mammoth local farm raspberries with fresh cream was memorable because hands down they were the best raspberries I’ve ever tasted and I ate so many I almost got sick.
Just as I thought the party was winding down at about 1:30AM, Berit made boiled sausages, a traditional Norwegian late night party food. I was flabbergasted as I was still recovering from my food from dinner and my raspberry binge and couldn’t believe people would still want to eat more, but they did. Maybe it was to absorb the free flowing alcohol.
It all ended about 2AM and we spent the next two days recovering and eating the delicious leftovers. All had a great time and I was so happy that I could join Berit on this very special occasion.
I found time to photograph Larvik one afternoon and will post those photos soon.
A strange moon
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte's professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.
Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday,Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 2 students, maximum 6 students.
Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
Tours cost 210 euros for up to 3 people, and 70 euros for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour
