Algae, lingonberry and superpowers at the Nobel party

Beetroot, lingonberry and algae. That was what royalty, laureates and other guests were treated to in Stockholm’s City Hall at this year’s Nobel banquet. Economics laureate Claudia Goldin drew cheers with her speech about how she got her superpowers.

In the winter cold outside the City Hall, police officers stood with reinforcement weapons. But inside the Blå hall there was a cheerful party atmosphere when this year’s Nobel laureates were to be celebrated with dinner.

The Nobel banquet, which is not infrequently called the party of parties, began shortly after 7 p.m. when royalty, dignitaries and the newly awarded laureates marched down the steps of the City Hall.

The 86 guests of honor took their seats at the honor table, decorated with flowers from the Italian coastal town of San Remo where Nobel spent his last years, arranged by Nobel florist Per Benjamin.

Lingon from Mockträsk

The menu, a well-kept secret until the very end, was this year in the sign of the sea. Beetroot baked with seaweed and salt and a cream on seaweed from the west coast were served as a starter. The main course consisted of a cod loin stuffed with king crab, served with a kohlrabi roll, fried body cake filled with cod and king crab, and pickled onions with mushrooms.

As if that wasn’t enough, it is served with winter vegetables and summer pickled primroses and a sauce on grilled mussels. Everything signed by star chef Jacob Holmström.

For dessert, there was baked chocolate cream with compote made from lingonberries. These particular lingonberries usually live in Mockträsk outside Boden, and were flavored with tar syrup in honor of the evening.

Love song by Meyer

In the breaks, there was music as usual, what stood out was perhaps a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes”. Magnus Lindgren, who was responsible for the artistic design of the entertainment, acted as conductor and offered wind instrument performances.

The beautiful song was performed by the soprano Elizabeth Meyer who, among other things, appeared on a balcony, surrounded by a surprising amount of artificial smoke. Also returning was a girls’ choir from Västerås, in sparkly sweaters. Blacknuss added some funkier tones.

At 11 p.m., the dinner broke up for dancing upstairs, but before that the prize winners, one per prize, got to give speeches. The most cheered was the economy prize winner Claudia Goldin, who told that she needed superpowers to be able to handle the ringing phone and the exploding e-mail inbox after the award announcement in October.

Meaning for many

But when she got to grips with the messages, she realized that it wasn’t just an award for her, but that it meant something to other women around the world.

– A woman thanked me from “the mothers, grandmothers and grandmothers, sisters and daughters around the world. There are a lot of people, she said and concluded:

– And through these hundreds of happy, cheering messages, I got my superpowers.

The Norwegian and literature prize winner Jon Fosse gave the shortest and most to the point speech of the evening, where he – somewhat unexpectedly – admitted that he predicted that he would be awarded the prize one day.

Hungarians proud

Hungarian journalist Zoltan Bugnyár reports on the spot for Hir TV and the newspaper Magyar Nemzet. Usually the Nobel Prize does not get much attention, but this year the interest is greater as the country has two laureates, medicine laureate Katalin Karikó and Hungarian-Austrian Ferenc Krausz.

– It’s a bit strange, but it feels great, he says, and continues:

– It is very festive.