Viking Fare: Baltic Cooking - Putting Denmark on the Map.

Sustainable farming practices, creativity and thriftiness were all keywords for a restaurant cooking competition Baltic Cooking held on the island of Falster last Tuesday night.

Seven restaurants from the area and a team from CELF, (a local cookery school) lined up for the challenge.

With only 35 Danish Kroners (just under €5) in their pocket, the chefs from each participating restaurant had to put their thinking caps on and come up with a dish to woo both the panel of judges and the 200 guests who also had a vote. On top of the low budget, the teams found themselves even more restricted by having to use 75% local produce in their dish. There is nothing like a few restrictions to get those creative juices flowing. Regional produce from local farms of course made up a large part of the menu, but Mother Nature also came up with some wild cheap organic food in the form of nettles, deadnettle flowers, wild garlic (ramsons) and wood sorrel.

La Comida restaurant, Nykøbing used nettles, deadnettle flowers and wood sorrel.

No menu in Denmark is complete without fish and of course it was the main focus for some of the contestants in the competition.

Smoked salmon from the Gyldne Svane restaurant in the Middle Age Centre in Nykøbing.

Some chose the more conservative route with salmon and cod,

Fjordens Østersø

while the students at CELF took the more daring route with wild garlic and wood sorrel.

CELF's students used wild garlic and wood sorrel in their dish.

When it comes to pig production, Denmark is the world's largest producer per head of population. For every person here, there are 2.3 pigs, so it is not surprising that a couple of restaurants had pork on their menu.

Hotel Nørrevang's pork with leek and kohlrabi

Some of the contestants were competition veterans, having competed in a similar long running gourmet challenge Ostseegericht in Germany, either this year or previous years.

Hotel Falster made slight changes to their pig's cheeks dish since their outing in Germany earlier this year.

Students from CELF were assigned to help the various restaurants with the final preparations to their dishes.

Chef describing his competition dish.

While most of the cooking was done in advance, the dishes had to be put together on site.

Peeling baby red onions.

The panel of judges was made up of journalist Nadia Mathiasen (Smag & Behag), food historian Bi Skaarup, Birgitte Blands Søndergaard from Czarens Hus, Dorte Kofoed, lecturer at CELF, Katia Østergaard from hotel and leisure organisation HORESTA.

It was not a case of the judges decision is final, as 200 guests had to give their verdict too. Some restaurants were better than others at impressing the guests. La Comida served their calves' cheeks from banana leaves which no doubt contributed to the gourmet experience.

Banana leaves may not count as local produce, but certainly contributed to the gourmet experience.

But alas the diners were not impressed enough with the banana leaves as La Comida only managed second place. Restaurant Svanen from Hotel Maribo SøPark pipped them to the post with their honey and malt poached pork.

The winning entry from Restaurant Svanen, Hotel Maribo Søpark

The event was the first of its kind to take place in Denmark and was part of the regional initiative Gro -Grønne Regionale madOplevelser- Regional Green Culinary Experiences.

Some of the entries.