Everything was on track when it came to Jón Óskar Árnason’s culinary career — until it wasn’t.
Born and raised in Iceland, Árnason partnered with his then-wife Sarah to open a bistro named Bryggargartan in her Swedish hometown in 2004. Five years later, they relocated to Skellefteå, a town 480 miles north of Stockholm with a population of under 80,000 people.
Skellefteå, part of Swedish Lapland, has become known as the “kitchen pantry” of Scandinavia following the New Nordic culinary movement. It’s where many Michelin-star chefs forage, hunt, and catch their own ingredients — including grouse, arctic char, and cloudberries — for their restaurants. Árnason is one of those chefs.
“Our focus was on bringing top-level gastronomy to a region that had been in a gastronomical standstill for decades,” Árnason told Business Insider.
Árnason said he had always felt in control of his career, but when the pandemic hit, he found himself at a crossroads. After almost twenty years of marriage, he and his wife were …