Star chef Jessie Sommarström returns to FFCR Stockholm—just one month after leading the Nobel Dinner. As an experienced industry expert and a leading figure in gastronomic sustainability, she has a truly fascinating career story to share in her interview with FFCR.
When the then-teenage Jessie Sommarström cooked her first pork chop at a friend’s house, it was as if a new world had opened up. Growing up with a vegetarian mother, her curiosity for new flavors and dishes was ignited. Eventually, Jessie began borrowing cookbooks and experimenting in the kitchen herself. But a career in the industry was far from certain.
“My mother advised me against pursuing hotel and restaurant studies, so I chose a media program instead. Yet, I always found my way back to food,” Jessie recalls.
After high school, Jessie’s desire to work in the kitchen grew, and she began her journey in the industry as a dishwasher. After several formative years in various roles and a trial period as a restaurant owner, Jessie climbed to the top of Sweden’s culinary scene. She won Chef of the Year 2022, was honored as Woman of the Year in the Hospitality Industry 2023, and received the Gastronomic Academy’s Gold Medal. But it is in her role as Head of Food Service at Sodexo that she feels she truly makes a difference.
“The public meal is the most important meal we have. It’s not just about feeding people but about creating sustainable eating habits that impact both health and the environment,” she explains.
Jessie is passionate about using her influence to educate and drive change. By combining traditional culinary knowledge with modern technology and research, she strives to elevate the public meal to new heights.
“We need to rewind and think about how things were done in the past—when we knew where our ingredients came from. With today’s technology, we can return to the original while creating a sustainable future,” she explains.
Her initiatives in sustainable children’s meals are a prime example of this commitment. By using local ingredients and reducing food waste, she has not only simplified life for parents of young children but also laid the foundation for better eating habits for the next generation.
“Food isn’t just about eating; it’s about feeling good, about the well-being of society, and about leaving something better behind,” she concludes.
Despite Jessie’s impressive resume and successes in competitions like *Kockarnas Kamp*, her driving force has always been simple: to make the world better—one meal at a time. Her work with sustainable children’s meals, inspired by her own experiences as a parent, is a prime example of how she combines heart and expertise.
“We made our own purees for our children because we wanted to know where the ingredients came from. Today, everything I do is about the same thing—creating a future where our children, and their children, can live well and sustainably,” she explains.
And as the icing on the cake of yet another fantastic year in Jessie’s career, she has now been chosen for the prestigious task of designing the menu for this year’s Nobel Dinner. On December 10, as royals and Nobel laureates take their seats in the Blue Hall, Swedish ingredients will take center stage. Although the menu is kept secret until the very last moment, she reveals one unexpected detail—that whole-grain porridge will be served! Beyond that, she says no more…
At FFCR Stockholm’s live kitchen—where this year’s focus is on success stories—Jessie will share more about her impressive career and her vision for sustainability and the public meal.
By: Rebecca Hyde-Price Aggestam
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