Salt baked onions and white asparagus, confit in burnt onion oil.
Sliced thin and layered into each other, covering a ragù of bone marrow, chicken skin, elderflower and lemon thyme.
Seasoned with roasted chicken wing butter and finished with a clear broth of very good chicken and lovage.
Sour cream sorbet, lemon thyme, Norwegian sea salt and toasted timut pepper.
Whipped aquavit butterscotch underneath and a sauce of preserved blueberries, toasted cinnamon oil and woodruff oil.
Fresh, bitter, sweet, grassy and bright.
Salted egg yolk miso.
Something we use across all aspects of the menu, savoury or sweet, depending on the season.
One of my favourite things we've ever made.
A dessert from a couple of menus back.
Steamed chanterelle custard, blackcurrant wood and aged caviar.
Toasted chanterelles and timut pepper infused into a dense, fudge textured custard. Unsweetened whipped chanterelle cream underneath. A slightly bitter caramel of brown sugar, madeira, birch syrup and toasted barley. Blackcurrant wood and leaf oils, plus burnt onion oil. Finished with @n25caviar Kaluga hybrid to bring balance and a nutty, umami depth.
Winter truffle and honey custard.
Spiced bread, pickled spruce and fresh truffle. Aged truffle miso and roasted hazelnut oil.
One bite, unless you have a spare shirt.
The opening bites are there to set the tone.
We want them to hit every note. A whole dish in one bite. Umami, acid, salt, sweetness, bitterness, smoke, perfume and temperature. In balance with themselves and with the bites before and after.
Our 'tart tatin'. Eschallots in a madeira and dark plum vinegar caramel. Pineappleweed and white onion marmalade. Thyme and lemon thyme.
'Grotteost', one of our favourite cheeses, as a sablé, a warm purée and raw slices.
Charred Jerusalem artichoke and smoked birch syrup, whipped roasted almond vinegar cream, grated almonds and our @n25caviar giving a long umami finish. Finished with a heavy spray of distilled vinegar and a dusting of green juniper.
A warm bowl, cradled in the hand, eaten immediately. Perfect only in the moment it is served.
A hot porridge of walnuts, lavender and morels.
Cold, whipped walnut and fermented honey cream.
Ice cream flavoured with honeycomb and smoked strawberry miso.
Reindeer, dusted with juniper needles and cooked over charcoal.
Glazed with blackcurrant wood, cep, verbena berry and aged wild berry vinegar.
Finished in hot butter with hard herbs.
We change the entire menu four times a year at Maaemo. The day before it goes live, we cook for ourselves and treat it like service.
We set the room and the kitchen as we would for our guests.
Front of house and our kitchen porter eat the full menu.
Juice and wine pairings are adjusted.
The menu guide is read one last time.
Questions are asked. Details are sharpened.
The day after, when the doors open and we welcome the season’s first guests, the menu is locked in and the experience is seamless.
Very proud of this team.
Reindeer from Stensaas Reinsdyrslakteri in Røros, hand picked for size and fat content.
We dry age the bull reindeer backs in house, forming the starting point of a two-dish sequence.
Through long-standing relationships with the herders, the tongues, hearts, sweetbreads and shoulders are set aside for us and form the second serving.
A privilege we look forward to every year.
Bread is never just bread. It carries the same weight as any dish we choose to serve.
Does it fit the menu? Is the texture right? How does it feel in the hand, how does it tear, how does it eat?
What is the right fat beside it, or does it even need one?
And does it belong in the moment it appears at the table?
We strive to answer those questions with intention.
And of course, with great bread.
