Dill is a New Nordic restaurant in Reykjavík, opened in 2009. It was the first restaurant in Iceland to be awarded a Michelin star, in 2017.
| Dill | |
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| Restaurant information | |
| Established | 2009 |
| Owner(s) |
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| Head chef |
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| Food type | New Nordic |
| Rating |  Michelin Guide |
| Street address | Laugavegur 59 |
| City | Reykjavík |
| Country | Iceland |
| Coordinates | 64°08′40.3″N 21°55′21.0″W / 64.144528°N 21.922500°W |
| Website | www |
History
editDill opened in 2009, shortly after the economic crash of 2008. Investors pulled out and chef Gunnar Karl Gíslason, for whom it was the first independent venture, made up the shortfall using his credit cards.[1] It was located in the Nordic House in Reykjavík, a modernist building designed by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, and was named for the herb dill, which plays a major role in Scandinavian cuisine.[2]
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Gunnar Karl was one of the first proponents of New Nordic cuisine in Iceland;[1] he gathered herbs and vegetables both in a kitchen garden and in a greenhouse, and although the restaurant is not vegetarian, focussed his dishes on them rather than on meat or fish, which he did not always include.[2] He sourced barley from Eymundur Magnússon, a farmer who runs a company called Módir Jörð (Mother Earth) with his wife, and blue mussels from Simon Sturluson, a fisherman in Stykkishólmur who credits him with creating the restaurant market for them.[1] The restaurant also makes extensive use of smoked and dried ingredients.[3] In 2016 a restaurant review highlighted the dried puffin and trout smoked in the traditional Icelandic manner over straw impregnated with sheep excreta.[4]
The restaurant moved in 2015 to the centre of Reykjavík, where in 2016 a reporter for the Boston Globe described it as "evoking a fisherman's cottage retrofitted in a medieval church", with natural stone walls, a ceiling of wooden slats, and low lighting.[3]
Awards
editDill has been named best restaurant in Iceland by White Guide Nordic and the Nordic Prize.[5][6][7] At its new location, the interior designed by Hálfdán Pedersen was nominated for the 2015 Restaurant & Bar Design Awards.[6][8] In February 2017, it was awarded the first Michelin star given to an Icelandic restaurant;[5][6][7] it lost the star in February 2019.[9] Dill reclaimed its Michelin star in February 2020.[10]
References
edit- ^ a b c Jody Eddy, "The Chef Who Rescued Iceland" Archived 2017-04-17 at the Wayback Machine, Food Arts, January/February 2014.
- ^ a b Laufey Haraldsdóttir and Guðrún Þóra Gunnarsdóttir, "Pure, Fresh and Simple: 'Spicing up' the New Nordic Cuisine", in Spices and Tourism: Destinations, Attractions and Cuisines, ed. Lee Jolliffe, Tourism and cultural change 38, Bristol: Channel View, 2014, ISBN 9781845414429, pp. 169–82, pp. 174–79; also at academia.edu, registration required.
- ^ a b Liza Weisstuch, "‘New Nordic cuisine’ balances past and present" Archived 2018-04-23 at the Wayback Machine, Boston Globe, 12 January 2016.
- ^ Lars Roest-Madsen, "This Chef Is Using Shit-Smoked Trout and Dried Puffin to Revolutionize the Kitchen", Munchies, Vice, 19 September 2016.
- ^ a b "Dill in downtown Reykjavík receives first Michelin star awarded to an Icelandic restaurant" Archived 2017-06-10 at the Wayback Machine, Iceland Magazine (Vísir), 22 February 2017.
- ^ a b c Anna Margrét Björnsson, "Dill er fyrsta íslenska veitingahúsið til að fá Michelin-stjörnu" Archived 2017-05-01 at the Wayback Machine, Morgunblaðið, 22 February 2017 (in Icelandic).
- ^ a b Vala Hafstað, "Icelandic Restaurant Gets Michelin Star" Archived 2017-05-25 at the Wayback Machine, Iceland Review, 22 February 2017.
- ^ "Dill restaurant nominated for prestigious design awards" Archived 2017-07-01 at the Wayback Machine, Iceland Magazine, 15 July 2015.
- ^ "Dill lose their Michelin star" Archived 2019-05-22 at the Wayback Machine, Iceland Monitor (Morgunblaðið), 19 February 2019.
- ^ "MICHELIN Guide 2020: Stars & Awards Announced" Archived 2020-02-18 at the Wayback Machine, 17 February 2020.