Who Is Andreas Viestad’s Wife?

In 2011 Viestad opened St. Lars restaurant in Oslo where the cuisine is based on serving raw or grilled food with an emphasis on Norwegian produce and unusual cooking techniques.

In 2010, Viestad started working on a new food and agriculture project, a center for food culture for children at Geitmyra Gård, a protected farm in the middle of Oslo, inspired by Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard. He established a non-commercial foundation, and in September 2011 Geitmyra matkultursenter for barn opened. The center teaches children about cooking and growing food.

On a visit to Zanzibar, hotelier Emerson Skeens offered Viestad the position of “consultant chef” at the Emerson Spice Hotel, which Viestad accepted. Though an unpaid position, Viestad has said, “One only gets to run a restaurant in Zanzibar once in a lifetime”. His book Where Flavor Was Born: Recipes and Culinary Travels Along the Indian Ocean Spice Route (2007) was a departure from previous themes of Scandinavian cooking. The book was selected the “Best Foreign Cookbook in the World” at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in April 2008. His book on Norwegian food was awarded Special Price of the Jury at the 2009 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. From 2008 to 2012, Viestad wrote a monthly column titled “The Gastronomer” for The Washington Post about the science of everyday cooking. Viestad’s recipes and writing have also been published in Gourmet, The Sunday Times, Vanity Fair, Food & Wine and Vogue.

In 2003, Viestad premiered as the host of the public television series New Scandinavian Cooking. With 5 million U.S. viewers per episode and a global reach so vast it was, at the time, viewed as the greatest ever exposure of Norwegian culture, second only to the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. As the host of seasons one, two, three, five, six, eight, nine, ten and eleven Viestad became internationally known. In 2008 the series included four hosts and was named Perfect Day, of which Viestad was a co-host. The twelfth season is due to be released summer/fall 2015.

Viestad has been involved with the “molecular gastronomy” movement since 1999, working especially with French food scientist Hervé This at the Collège de France in Paris, and was a member of the International Workshop for Molecular Gastronomy, where he has participated with food scientists, such as Harold McGee, and Peter Barham and chefs Heston Blumenthal and Pierre Gagnaire. In his popular Washington Post column “The Gastronomer” that ran from 2008 to 2012, he wrote about the science of everyday cooking.

From 1995 to 1997, Viestad wrote for Morgenbladet, between 1997 and 1998 for Dagsavisen, and has been with Dagbladet since 1998. His weekly column in the Dagbladet weekend supplement Magasinet titled “Det beste jeg vet” began in 1999, initiating his collaboration with photographer Mette Randem of critical acclaim.

Andreas Viestad (born 5 April 1973, Oslo) is a Norwegian food columnist and TV chef. He has hosted seven seasons of New Scandinavian Cooking broadcast in the U.S., China, Germany, Italy, Finland and on BBC Food in over fifty countries since 2003, and is a food writer for Dagbladet and Morgenbladet newspapers in Norway. He has had a monthly column in The Washington Post titled “The Gastronomer”. Viestad has been called “Norway’s most exciting food writer”, and “Norway’s culinary ambassador”.