About

This blog belongs to me, Ragnar Ingvarsson, an Icelandic physician living in southern Sweden.  I live in Lund with my wife and two children. We have been living in Sweden for the past three years and have settled in nicely. I work at the University Hospital in Lund as a fellow in rheumatology. I could blog about my work which is very exciting, demanding and engaging but I think my hobby is more interesting subject to write about.

My joy for cooking began when my mother gave me, then only 11 or 12 years old, the responsibility of cooking weekly for the family. My parents have for long been enthusiastic home chefs and their interest in cooking also influenced drastically! So there, as a young teenager, I began making Spaghetti Bolognese, frying fish and baking bread. And I loved it! When I moved away from home some 15 years ago, a young chef named Jamie Oliver inspired me as well and I started cooking more and more and felt an ever growing passion for playing in the kitchen and reading about food and wine.

A few years ago I felt like my cooking had become a routine, and I felt a lack of fresh and new ideas. I had just read Nigel Slater's Kitchen diaries when I thought that maybe writing about my cooking would be an inspiration. Blogging had become "the latest trend" in Iceland and I came to the conclusion that maybe it would be the right forum for me to explore my kitchen even further. If someone were to read what I cooked and blogged about that would stimulate me in my cooking ventures.

At first it was only my mother and I who read my blog, maybe a few lonely souls wandered in by chance, but then a reporter from Iceland's largest newspaper contacted me and thought it was interesting that a young doctor had such an interest in cooking. She interviewed me and I published a few of my recipes in the paper and my blog took off! Since its start, just before Christmas 2006, I have had nearly 900.000 visitors. I used to blog in Icelandic and we are only 320 thousand - so I have been quite successful.

But now I want to try blogging in English just to see if anyone wants to read what I write. I think all bloggers will understand the joy one gets for being read and appreciated by someone who stumbles on your blog. How inspiring it is, how that can fuel that pursuit of further gastronomic enterprises. Or at least I hope so!

Welcome to my blog... lets eat and drink and be merry!

PS. I have had some comments in the past about using butter and cream in my recipes, and a doctor should be more health conscious about using such products. I feel that all is well within moderation - and here that is prescribed in healthy doses!

Bon appetit!