Book review inspiration than technique. “In a world where time has become a luxury, Fool does things differently. We allow ourselves to reflect, understand and take our time. We want to inspire our readers and tell stories that only appear if you look a little bit closer,” they say in the first issue’s introduction and mission statement. The contents are eclectic too, starting with a feature article by Tara Stevens with photographs by Per-Anders of the couple’s favourite spot, Mugaritz restaurant just outside San Sebastian. Taking an unusual approach, they focused on the staff foraging. As Head of the R&D kitchen, Oswaldo Oliva, puts it: “When you have been at Mugaritz for a while, you come to understand that a flower is a far greater luxury than a lobster.” Typical of the exceptional work in this magazine is a photographic essay of Peter Blombergsson, who supplies ducks to Magnus Nilsson’s Fäviken Magasinet restaurant in northern Sweden. Pages just highlighting the heads of five of the ducks demonstrate why this is both a labour of love and a very different kind of food magazine. My only caveat is that the first issue does rely heavily on their personal passions. The next issue is due in Novemember and it will be interesting to see how they expand the concept of food on a much wider palette of subjects and vdnture beyond their own favourites.
Photography ©Per-Anders Jörgensen
WORD FROM THE TOP Despite not being a native English speaker, Lotta Jörgensen kindly agreed to answer some questions about Fool. What background do you both have in the food world? Our food background: eaters. I am also a former Art Director of Swedish Gourmet and Per-Anders has, as a photographer, shot food and people around the world for many years. His latest book is the English Mugaritz book from publisher Phaidon. What prompted you to start the magazine? It is clearly a labour of love, but how did you gauge the financial prospects? Since we met, we have spoken about doing a gastronomic magazine. We were tired of working for others and we wanted to do a food magazine more as a combination of New Yorker and Vogue Italia especially since there are recipes everywhere. Why publish recipes from high end restaurants when Vogue Italia does not carry sewing patterns for high end fashion brands. Financially, we need to find someone who can sell ads for us or at least have some advertorial collaborations at some point. As it is now it is a risk. Why is it in English rather than Swedish? Does that limit its appeal at home? If we made a magazine in Swedish we could
only reach nine million people. Out of nine million people we would have around 500 potential hard core readers. Fool is a niche magazine, our market is more suitable for. The world! Can you describe who you’re writing and designing for? Who would you see as a typical reader of Fool? Our typical reader is s super foodie. Among those there are chefs, restaurant employees, food industry developers, lifestyle junkies and fashion people. We are doing the magazine for them so we believe we have reached our goal with the first issue. What other food magazines have or continue to inspire you? We like magazines like Meat Paper, Lucky Peach and Gastronomica, as well as great reportage magazines like New Yorker and Intelligent Life and fashion magazines like Vogue Italia and Port. These are great inspirations. Can you tell us something about your own personal tastes in food? What excites you? What heroes do you have that you plan to include in the magazine? We are omnivores with exceptions. We do not want to eat endangered species, meaning no more angulas (baby eels) and no sturegon caviar. We get all excited about well cooked food made by honest people with ideas rather than expensive ingredients. We have many heroes, they are everywhere and
they will all be featured in Fool at some point. Most food magazines use photography almost as food pornography. Your work is much simpler and more honest. Is that a reflection of how you think food should be prepared? Would you see the same style as appropriate for, say, a feature on Bocuse? I think our approach to the plate or the serving dish can be applied to any type of food. In our first issue we were focused on natural so it’s more ‘natural’. How do you see the magazine developing? I appreciate it is early days, but would you want to add books or video to the mix? It all depends on who will come along and help us financially. As it is now we are financing this ourselves. If we had the financial muscles there would be no end of things we could do. We have plenty of ideas. Dream meals? Dream food destinations? Dream meal would be sharing a dinner with all our parents (unfortunately, not all of them are with us any longer). Dream food destination? A Roman bacchanal in Roman times. Your most memorable meal? Our wedding dinner at Mugaritz 2001. Please visit www.fool.se
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