Sweden is best in the world when it comes to cooking! Recently Swedish chefs won the gold medal in Erfurt, Germany at the Culinary Olympics. Both the junior and the senior teams were on top, winning all categories. For the senior team, it was the third time they took gold. Says Isak Oldenburg, who comes from Gotland and competes with the juniors: “It feels good. All Swedish supporters left yesterday, but the Norwegians remained, so the hall was full of Norwegian supporters. It felt good to win in spite of them being there.” Norway, by the way, took bronze in the overall competition preceded by Singapore. Among the junior national teams, Norway brought home Silver following Sweden's gold and preceding Switzerland. And how did the Swedes celebrate their victory? “I don’t know yet. Perhaps with hot dogs and champagne?”

54 national teams travelled from all five continents to compete for gold in overall performance.
More than 1,500 chefs from 54 countries competed for various titles in different disciplines during the event held every four years. The prestigious culinary competition, the Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung (IKA) International Culinary Exhibition - more commonly known as the "Culinary Olympics," ran from Oct. 5-10, in Erfurt, Germany.

For more information about the Swedish Culinary Team, see www.kocklandslaget.se and, about the culinary competition: www.culinary-olympics.com