Foodies Over 50

NELS BIGGELSSON 

Nels Biggelsson was for many years known as "Den Svenska Kocken" on a long-running television program of the same name in his native Malmö, Sweden. 

Sverige's answer to Julia Child and The Muppets' Swedish Chef, Nels is now retired from his duties as Sweden's most beloved gastronomiska experten, and is focusing on translating and digitizing his many books on the cuisine of his homeland, much of which has its roots in the Sámi culture, who you may know as Lapplanders. 

These include such titles (translated into English) as: 

• I Never Met a Reindeer I Didn't Like
• I'm Game for Anything
• How to Stay Out of Pickle When Preserving Herring
• There's a Cure for Everything in Swedish Cooking
• When Your Swedish Pancakes Fall Flat
• A Matter of Gravlax
• The True Cost of Husmanskost to the Swede's Palate
• Kräftskiva, Kräftskiva, Who's Got the Kräftskiva? 
• Dill 'S' for Svensk
• Lutfisk: I Can Tell No Lye, and 
• It's Lingonberry Season Again!

Nels frequently visits the United States and his Swedish-American relatives, and enjoys American fast food, to a point. He declines, however, to have anything to do with the smorgasbord one finds in America. As he told us, "Den smacker som renar skit." But, he added, he loved Swedish meatballs because they're actually Swedish.