Norway – the most awarded country in Bocuse d’Or

Norway's Bocuse candidate, Filip August Bendi, and his team reached the goal of a podium finish in Bocuse d'Or Europe 2022. The bronze medal is also a ticket to the world final in Lyon in 2023. 

Norway’s culinary team has once again reached the podium, maintaining its position as THE most awarded country in the competition’s history, even before France. This shows the extremely high level of Norwegian chefs and gastronomy. 

During the competition in Hungary, it was also announced that Trondheim will host the Bocuse d'Or Europe in 2024. Trondheim and Trøndelag is European region of Gastronomy 2022, and is considered Norway's premier food region.  

Filip August Bendi has worked at several of the world's best restaurants, including Noma in Copenhagen, before returning to Norway to train for the prestigious Bocuse d'Or competition. Today, he also works as creative lead at Thon Hotels, and is based at Hotel Bristol in Oslo.

Norway was awarded with a bronze medal for Bendi's two beautiful dishes inspired by the spring: one based on potatoes, and one based on venison.

One of the top chefs in the world

Last year, two-time Bocuse d’Or Europe winner Christian André Pettersen received his second international bronze medal in the 2021 world final, making him one of the most awarded chefs in the history of the competition. 

Pettersen and his Norwegian team have won medals in this extremely demanding competition no less than three times in three years: he won the Bocuse d'Or Europe in 2018, came in third in the international Bocuse d'Or competition in 2019, and won the Bocuse d'Or Europe for a second time in 2020.

The 2021 jury rewarded Pettersen with a bronze medal, cementing the talented Norwegian from the small northern city of Bodø's reputation as one of the most extraordinary chefs on the planet. 

Most awarded country

Bendi and Pettersen are only two among a wave of innovative and creative Norwegian master chefs leading the culinary revolution that has taken place in Norway in recent years.

Every second year, 24 of the most promising chefs in the world meet in Lyon in France to participate in the world’s most prestigious culinary competition. Since it was first held in 1987, Norway has won five gold, three silver, and four bronze medals in the international competition. Norway, together with France, is the country with the most international Bocuse d’Or awards. 

There is something exciting cooking in the Nordics now, too – all three 2019 medallists and two of the 2021 medallists are Scandinavian, making it a go-to region for food lovers. And now, two of the medallists in the 2022 European competition are Scandinavian. This means that the Nordic culinary wave is far from over... Are you ready to come and taste its delicious and innovative flavours? 

Bent Stiansen was the first Norwegian to achieve the grand award in 1993. Since then, Norwegian chefs have been represented in the international final 16 out of 18 times. 

World-class cuisine

Many other Norwegian chefs have also gained an excellent international reputation. In addition, an increasing number of Norwegian restaurants have received stars in the Michelin guide in recent years. In 2016, Maaemo became the first restaurant in Norway to be awarded three Michelin stars. The opening of the world’s largest underwater restaurant Under in 2019, and the Michelin star it received in 2020, brought Norway even higher up on the bucket list of serious gourmets.

And there is more. Norwegian cheeses are winning a lot of medals at the World Cheese Awards. In 2016, the blue cheese Kraftkar from small local producer Tingvollost in Fjord Norway was chosen as the Champion of Champions – simply the best cheese of all time. 

Norwegian ciders are now also considered among the finest in the world. 

Frisky, witty and unpretentious

Some of the world’s most important food writers are now exploring the fresh Norwegian food scene. “Egalitarian and sincere, Norway’s version of New Nordic cooking is frisky, witty and unpretentious,” writes Alexander Lombrano in the New York Times, who even labels it “relatively affordable”.

He has a good point when he writes that the growing appeal of the Norwegian culinary scene “isn’t best defined by Michelin – where the dominant DNA is Gallic gastronomic refinement – but rather a delectable local food culture that’s based on the country’s spectacular seafood and produce, amped up by the brevity of its growing season.”