One of the things I love about professional chefs is that they’re often up for an adventure. Take Hakan Lundberg, Chef de Cuisine at Cosmos Restaurant in Minneapolis. When I first approached him a couple months ago about helping me put together a food photo shoot on top of a frozen lake, he put up about ten seconds of indecision, then jumped squarely on board. I did luck out a little bit, though; his first ice fishing experience happened after I made the request. If things had happened the other way around, I’m not so sure I would’ve got the same answer.

Ice Fishing Gourmet – Images by Chris Bohnhoff

This shoot definitely had more variables to contend with than installment one of the Worldly Gourmet series last summer with Asher Miller. Variable number one goes by the name Lake Minnetonka. I went out to scout the shoot location a week prior to our chosen date, and temps had been in the upper 30s for several days. The foot of snow sitting on top of the ice had been turned to slushy puddles. Not really what I wanted to see. Then a good news/bad news kind of thing happened: first, a big cold snap froze the puddles, which was great. Not so great was the 14 inches of snow that came a couple days before the shoot, making travel across the lake much more tricky.

A very busy week leading up to the shoot meant that dialing in the location would have to happen the morning of the shoot, which certainly provided a couple anxious moments (that’s code for nearly driving in to the lake, then getting stuck for 15 minutes), but in the end we found a great spot and hit our schedule perfectly. Hooray for local knowledge, trusty assistants capable of taking turns at pushing a stuck vehicle, Google Maps, fallback options, and fallback fallback options!

Once we got to our spot, a magical thing happened that I find often happens when it’s time to take photos: the thick gray clouds parted, the wind died down, and the weather turned about as nice as you could expect on a late-February day in Minnesota. Hakan’s son Isaac had a great time ice fishing (although the highlight of his day seemed to be when the fish heads were removed – he kept asking if it was time, and when it finally was, he ran around screaming, TIME TO CUT THE FISH HEADS! TIME TO CUT THE FISH HEADS! Clearly the son of a chef – plus, check out the photo of him cutting carrots), and we did exactly what we had set out to do: have a great time, and take some fun quirky photos.

Much-deserved thanks to my collaborators, Food Stylist Rachel Sherwood, Prop and Wardrobe Stylist Jenny Jenkins, and Photo Assistant Nate Ryan. And of course, thanks to Hakan Lundberg, a true culinary artist, for being so giving with his time and talents. Check out his Cosmos Kitchen blog for the latest in his professional world, or, even better, stop by Cosmos to sample some of the most creative, beautiful plates in Minneapolis.

Lastly, if you’d like to see a couple behind-the-scenes shots from the day, c’mon over to my Facebook Page for the rest of the story.

Last night the Sample Circuit gathered in the swank dining room at Cosmos Restaurant and, as has been my habit this year, I was there to document it.

As I’ve reported in these very blog pages, what Executive Chef Hakan Lundberg does with ingredients is unique to Minnesota. Hakan really gets a kick out of opening a window on to the process for his diners, and last night he and his #1 sous chef were in the dining room creating fois gras lolipops and fruit ‘explosions’ for the crowd. Cool for foodies to be able to see the magic in motion and interact with the chefs.

Fruit explosion magic being perpetrated by sous chef Shawn

Team Cosmos’ version of the Sample Circuit was unique in relation to the others so far this year: much higher degree of difficulty on all the dishes, lots more variety, but no banquet table service, only passed trays.

The Cosmos shrimp cocktail

For those in attendance on their first trip to Cosmos, I’m sure the sample they received has them intrigued and definitely wanting more.

Plenty more photos from the night on the Sample Circuit Flicker stream (supplied by yours truly).

OK, I’ve got to apologize in advance: this is the post where I reveal the full extent of my ability to geek out over food. Be forewarned.

Food is fascinating for so many reasons. It’s an art form, a vast sector of the economy, a focus of many communal experiences, a basic human need. Cooking is a broad spectrum from the most simple to the extremely complex, and each point on along the way has its own distinct kind of deliciousness.

One of the newer points on the food complexity spectrum is on the high end – it’s molecular gastronomy, and it’s a worldwide trend in cutting edge cheffing. What is this molecular gastronomy? It’s post-modernism on a plate. Familiar dishes deconstructed and presented in small, surprisingly presented, multi-sensory, highly distilled packages. Here in Minneapolis, our representative on the cutting edge is Hakan Lundberg Chef de Cuisine at Cosmos Restaurant. The dude is kind of a magician.

Here’s his fois gras plate:

Served with dried fruit compote, pistachio pickled watermelon radish, and. . . more fois gras mousse frozen in liquid nitrogen. The frozen bits look crunchy and jagged on the plate, but get them in your mouth and they melt and transform in seconds. Here are a couple shots of the making of the plate:

Breaking up the frozen mousse:

Another example: fruit ‘explosions,’ served between courses as a palette cleanser. Now I’m blanking on the exact flavors involved (strawberry and melon?), but the juice is frozen in to semi-circular forms, then dropped in to a warm solution that forms a thin gelatin layer as the juice thaws. The globe of juice is floated in another juice and served as a shooter:

And as you bite the globe, it explodes and the flavors merge. Pretty fun.

For entree-style fun, here’s a photo of the lamb chop as served.

Before being brought to the table, wood charcoal is fired, the smoke is caught in the glass globe and placed over a cut of lamb belly. Like the highest-end smoked bacon. And such a cool effect when the globe is lifted – like a micro camp fire in the middle of this beautiful dining room.

It’s fun to encounter a style of cooking that hits you in such different and unexpected ways. Obviously I’m only touching a small (and probably not the most representative) tip of what Hakan’s cuisine is all about – we only had a couple hours to hang out – but it’s the kind of experience that opens up new possibilities. Hakan is himself a blogger, so definitely check it out and see what kind of tricks he comes up with on a regular basis. And, of course, get yourself to the Sample Circuit to get your ticket to the event hosted at Cosmos Wednesday, June 3. It’ll be a party.

More at chrisbohnhoff.com