Nordic cuisine's previous culinary claim to fame was the Muppet Show's Swedish Chef. The sketches began with him in a kitchen waving some utensils, while singing his signature song in mock Swedish-something to the effect of "Bort, bort, bort!"

The Finnish chefs, Matti Romppanen and Tero Siltanen who just opened Routa, Barcelona's first restaurant offering Nordic cuisine, know that singing in gibberish and cooking with a tennis racket won't necessarily cause a revolution.

Instead, the duo, coming from Helsinki's two Michelin star Chez Dominique, have opted to go back to the basic traditional Nordic food preparation techniques, such as smoking, salting and pickling, while relying on quality and organically grown ingredients found in cold and exotic Northern climates.