The Nobel Banquet: Climate-Smart Gastronomy Supporting Sustainability

The Nobel Banquet dinner in Stockholm has become renowned for its commitment to zero food waste, reflecting Sweden’s broader sustainability goals and leadership in food innovation. Through creative menu planning and advanced culinary techniques, the event demonstrates how high-profile celebrations can prioritise environmental responsibility with gastronomic excellence.

The Banquet takes place in the Stockholm City Hall on December 10 every year and is broadcast live on Swedish Television. It hosts around 1,300 guests, including Nobel laureates and their guests, members of the Nobel Foundation, and other dignitaries, such as the Swedish Royal Family. The event is renowned for its celebratory atmosphere, featuring live music and social dancing following dinner.

The three-course dinner is collaboratively composed by a selected chef and pastry chef. While the menu offers a chance to celebrate Scandinavian cuisine, it also provides space for those responsible for the gastronomy to leave their personal mark.

The high-end Banquet not only celebrates laureates but also models a future-focused, sustainable approach to food that aims for zero waste – an approach increasingly emulated across Sweden’s culinary world. Menu planning for the Nobel Banquet strives to achieve this by precisely matching portions to the number of guests and designing recipes that utilise local seasonal ingredients efficiently. Another strategy involves encouraging chefs to make use of whole ingredients.

In addition to mindful menu planning, the Banquet includes strategies to prevent overeating, and creative utilisation of leftovers. Leftovers are transformed rather than discarded, being creatively repurposed into other products. For example, in 2019, a chef repurposed leftover raspberries to create a dusting powder for the dessert.

In 2024, the kitchen staff was led by multiple award-winning Executive Chef Jessie Sommarström. One component of last year’s menu was cultured porridge made from Swedish grains. With this, Jessie Sommarström aimed to highlight the importance of whole grains and to demonstrate that it is possible to create a banquet menu based on ingredients affordable to almost everyone. Additionally, she wanted to emphasise the value of whole grains in our diets and their role in improving public health.

In parallel, she desired to integrate principles of climate-smart gastronomy, including the use of hydrothermally treated whole grains in the main course. It is a technique developed to enhance nutritional value and reduce environmental impact. The ingredients were selected to ensure all parts could be used creatively, often repurposing the usually discarded trimmings and leftovers from initial preparation into new dishes.

What did chef Jessie Sommarström choose to serve with the cultured porridge? The main course featured a chicken quenelle with Swedish legumes and autumn truffle from the island of Gotland. It was accompanied by celeriac glazed with miso from Swedish fava beans and a bouquet of cabbage flavoured with apple and herbs. The porridge showcased how traditional ingredients can be innovatively refined for the most elegant settings.

Pastry chef Frida Bräcke highlighted another perspective, noting that she wants to ensure the next generation understands the importance of utilising what nature provides. One of the components of the Banquet dessert was apples, one of the few Swedish ingredients that are in season year-round.

The Nobel Banquet serves as a flagship event in Sweden’s national effort to reduce food waste, with Stockholm leading efforts that combine municipal food waste reduction targets with creative culinary upcycling. The Banquet’s visibility helps spotlight and inspire other institutions and restaurants across Stockholm to implement similar practices, such as ‘pay by weight’ menu systems, the reuse of leftovers (for example, converting coffee grounds into cookies), and collaboration between restaurants to utilise surplus ingredients circularly.

A notable highlight at the Nobel dinner last year was the incorporation of hydrothermally processed barley and wheat, developed through the Mineral Shift project led by the Axfoundation and its partners. These grains, designed to enhance both nutrition and planetary health, featured in both the Banquet’s gourmet main courses and in pilot programmes for institutional kitchens, such as eldercare facilities. It showcased how Nobel’s sustainability models extend beyond the dinner itself, aiming for broader transformation across various sectors of society.

The Nobel dinner food waste strategies