Fika: Made in Sweden

My father would have loved to know that the baking board and rolling pin he had made for me as a child led me to write a book about fika. I have been a homebaker ever since and wherever in the world I have lived I have baked – often with that same rolling pin. 

In New Delhi my friends loved my baking so much that they persistently suggested I open a bakery. A researcher on breastfeeding and HIV at the time, their suggestions made little sense to me. 

But my brain did its own processing. One day I thought to myself, If I were to open a bakery, it would be all Swedish with only Swedish bread and pastry. “But would that really work,” I asked myself. After counting to more than 10 typically Swedish pastries I concluded that as far as the pastries this was a fine idea. 

Then it struck me, “What about everything around our pastries, fika, in one simple word?” Something that had just been a part of my everyday life all of a sudden presented itself as a cultural treasure. I instantly found it so amazing that I was sure the whole world needed to find out about it. If nobody else did, I was going to see to it that it happened. 

On a mission to share fika with the world I had a reason to open a bakery. I went about learning about bakeries with such zest that I even spent a summer as an apprentice at renowned NK Bakery in Stockholm. Finally, I had to face the fact that no amount of learning about bakeries made me feel equipped to actually open one. 

But I could write a book! I opted to publish it through my own micro publishing company, Albertine Publishing. Again, I am sure my father would have been delighted that I named it after his grandmother, Albertine.

Deliberate design decisions
It took me years to find the right photographer. My friends ridiculed me for being picky and asking for the impossible. But one Sunday morning there it was, the photo that told me I had found a photographer whose photos, rather than documentations were interpretations and told a story. I was elated. The photo was of a pile of frozen berries and vegetables. Unusual, a little crazy and so beautiful! The photographer was Magnus Skoglöf.

I had no idea at first that Magnus is one of Sweden’s most eminent food photographers. But by the time I called him, I did. A bit defensively I explained that my book would be a book about fika, but without recipes. I’ll never forget Magnus’ answer, “How nice!”

From that first phone call, it was obvious that the two of us were on the same page. Now we needed a graphic designer to join us on that page. Finally, Magnus found Cecilia Kusoffsky. Our views – of aiming high, yet with a twist – were so aligned that the three of us would fit on a stamp.

Our first joint decision was to go for photos that were of poster quality, a decision inspired by the fact that a number of Magnus’ photos are hanging in one of the restaurants at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm.

Next, we discussed the format of the book. I was adamant that the book should not be a coffee table book, the kind that weighs a ton and ends up being a decorative piece only. Yet I was quite attracted by the somewhat tall, yet slender format that Cecilia suggested. When she proved that it easily fit in my rather small  backpack, the matter was settled. 

The open thread stitch back required no discussion at all: A little crazy, beautiful in its own way and brilliant because the pages of the book fall flat out, allowing the reader to fully enjoy the photos. We settled on blue thread to match the gold of the word FIKA on the cover – as the blue and yellow of the Swedish flag.

Another deliberate decision was to print the book at Göteborgstryckeriet, in Gothenburg, to ensure high quality and more control over the printing process than if we were to send it abroad for printing. Not that we needed another argument, but imagine that our book, Fika: Made in Sweden would be printed “someplace other than Sweden”!

Every decision added to the book’s production cost. We felt it was worth it. A book about a cultural treasure deserved the best. And we wanted the book to be a pleasure both to give and receive. 

Winning awards
As proof that the book’s quality has been appreciated, it has won two prestigious awards.

The book was the Sweden winner in Gourmand Cookbook Awards, Category “Coffee”, 2020, where it has been shortlisted among the four best in the world.

The book also won the category of “Ceremonial meals” in the 2020 competition of The Academy of Meal Science, Sweden.