A Nobel prize-winning meal

I will never win the Nobel Prize for literature, physics or medicine, and definitely not, as my old high school scores will attest, for chemistry. So I never dreamed that I would one day sit down to enjoy the lavish meal served to Nobel laureates at the ceremonial banquet in Stockholm.
Yet for a fee a lot smaller than the Nobel Prize (currently worth about $1 million), I was able to do exactly that on a recent trip to Sweden's handsome capital.

For 1,350 kronor (about $195), the Nobel menu can be enjoyed by any visitor to Stockholm. Perhaps not in the company of royalty and laureates -- such as the three Bay Area professors to be honored Sunday -- and not in the great Blue Hall of the impressive Stadshuset (City Hall), where the Nobel banquet is served each Dec. 10, but close enough. Directly underneath in the Stadshuskällaren (City Hall Cellar restaurant), the same chef and staff will proffer, with the same formality and flair, on the same gilded tableware, the same meal created for those greater mortals.

Every year, chef de cuisine Gunnar Eriksson and notable guest chefs prepare three menus that are tasted and chosen by members of the Nobel Foundation (and kept secret until served). The intent is to provide "a varied menu that has typical Scandinavian flavor," he says, while taking into account cultural sensitivities: "Certain dishes, such as intestines, are avoided."

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