Boasting two Michelin stars and an immaculate reputation, the cooking having been described by Industry Magazine as “novel, vibrant and relevant,” Aska, in Brooklyn, New York, is the creation of Swedish-born chef and owner Fredrik Berselius. His style has been categorized as New Nordic, although this succinct description fails to do justice to the richness and complexity of his cuisine.

The heart of Aska

As a chef, he combines his love of nature and the food he enjoyed growing up in Sweden with a New York culinary mindset and ingredients he sources from carefully selected producers in the American northeast and his vegetable garden.

Aska occupies a restored 1860s warehouse building close to the Williamsburg Bridge. The space is split across two levels, with a cellar lounge and garden.

Perhaps appropriate for a restaurant whose name means ‘ashes’ in the chef's native tongue and where cooking is taken with deadly seriousness, Aska's exterior is painted black. A similarly somber aesthetic characterizes the interior, with its minimalist design and polished dark wood. In contrast to the look, however, the feel inside is happy and buzzy, thanks to the surprise and delight provoked by each exquisite dish the chefs deliver personally to diners.

For those unable to dine at Aska but eager to know more, Berselius has shared 85 of his recipes, along with personal reflections on cooking and recollections of his Swedish upbringing, in a book that takes its name from the restaurant, published by Phaidon in 2018.

Despite his prodigious success, Berselius might never have become a chef. Growing up in Stockholm, he dreamed only of being a professional snowboarder. But while visiting his sister while she studied hospitality in London, he was introduced to the world of fine dining and a seed was planted. He worked in various restaurants in London in the early 2000s before moving to New York, where his culinary education began in earnest. After studying nutrition at the Natural Gourmet Institute, he gained experience in kitchens including Per Se.

In 2012, Berselius opened Frej, a pop-up serving affordable Scandinavian cuisine. Later that year, he used the same location in Williamsburg to open the original Aska. By 2014 the restaurant had outgrown this space, so Berselius took the decision to close and find somewhere larger, reopening Aska in its current location in 2016.

When he's not meticulously preparing his exquisite tasting menus or concocting imaginative new dishes, he can be found out and about in nature, running marathons or cycling in the Catskills, where he also likes to keep an eye open for new ingredients.

Aska earned its first Michelin star within a year of opening in its original location in 2012, receiving the second shortly after the reopening in 2016. It also boasts a coveted three-star review in The New York Times and a place in Bon Appetit magazine’s 10 Best New Restaurants in America.

The Chef

Fredrik Berselius was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, but followed in the footsteps of his sister Michaela by moving to London. It was she who introduced him to the world of fine dining and it was in London that in the early 2000s, after failing to be accepted to study art at Central Saint Martins, he “fell into cooking”.

Hungry for something new, he moved to New York City. After studying nutrition at the Natural Gourmet Institute, he worked in a series of NYC restaurants, culminating in the renowned Per Se.

In 2012, Berselius opened a pop-up restaurant in Brooklyn called Frej which was followed in the same location by the original Aska. In its first year, Aska earned a Michelin star, which then became two stars, after Aska reopened in larger premises in 2016.

When he’s not in the kitchen evolving his celebrated take on New Nordic cuisine, Berselius likes to be out and about, surrounded by nature. He has competed at a high level in various sports, from snowboarding to cycling, and enjoys combing the countryside for interesting ingredients while pedaling in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York.

Restaurants

In 2012, before launching the restaurant that would go on to make his name in the world of fine dining, Berselius and partner Richard Kuo opened Frej, a pop-up restaurant serving affordable Scandinavian cuisine Located in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, Frej turned out to be a short-lived venture, but from its ashes rose the first incarnation of Aska, appropriately meaning ‘ashes’ in Swedish. Here, the carefully curated tasting menu combines Scandinavian influences with thoughtfully sourced ingredients from local producers in the northeast US.

Within a year, Aska had earned its first Michelin star, a recognition of its innovative bridging of the gap between the culinary heritage of the chef’s birthplace and the resources available near his Brooklyn home. Encouraged by the restaurant’s success, Berselius decided to move it to a more expansive location by the Williamsburg Bridge, where the restaurant reopened in 2016.

After just a few months, Aska gained a second Michelin star, becoming one of only a handful of restaurants in New York to achieve this honor. A three-star review in The New York Times soon followed, and it was also named one of the 10 Best New Restaurants in America by Bon Appetit magazine.

Recipes and dishes

Berselius describes Aska as having a “New-York driven menu” which, however, features flavors largely taken from the Swedish tradition of his childhood. While it may seem paradoxical, the chef sees similarities between these two parts of the world in terms of the landscape, the produce and more.

He is a believer in local, often foraged ingredients, and a perfectionist when developing his menus—a single recipe with only three ingredients apparently took him two years to develop—but the results speak for themselves. The richness and complexity of flavor he conjures from seemingly simple ingredients is breathtaking, his signature bladderwrack or sea oak served with an emulsion of blue mussels being a case in point.

The techniques he and his team use to achieve this culinary magic include fermenting, pickling, curing and smoking—all staples of Nordic cuisine, all employed to add Berselius’ twist to his ingredients.

In 2018, Berselius published his first cookbook, Aska, with Phaidon, in which he shares not only 85 recipes but also some of the secrets of his approach and celebrates the heritage of both his Swedish upbringing and his adopted US home.

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