There are cities one moves to. There are cities that welcome you. Oslo, as it turned out, belonged to the latter. I had written to Toril Flåskjer, General Manager of the Grand Hotel who is the local Bailli, long before my semester had even begun. I was curious about how one might make contact with the Chaîne in a foreign city when one was not yet even living there.

Our first conversation took place sooner than expected, even before my own apartment was ready to move into. Toril warmly welcomed me and made me feel at home in Oslo. Together, we talked about the Chaîne here, there and everywhere. About the differences between a Bailliage on the Rhine and one on a fjord. In my luggage I had brought a herbal liqueur from Meyer-Näkel and two bottles of Kölsch from Gaffel and Schreckenskammer. In a sense, a small liquid greeting from the Bailliage of Mittelrhein, which also found a warm reception by the fjord.

What followed was an invitation from the Bailliage of Oslo to an evening at Vaaghals, the restaurant on the fjord that Maîtres Rôtisseurs Jørn Lie and Christer Rødseth have been running for some ten years. Its cuisine is rooted in Norwegian ingredients, while at the same time having no reservations about engaging with the culinary traditions of the continent.

The evening began, as befits an event organised by the Ordre Mondial des Gourmets Dégustateurs (OMGD), with a wine tasting. The company VININOR guided us expertly through the wines and, especially for me, in English. The whole thing was conducted with a natural ease that impressed me as a German guest. Even during the tasting, it became clear what would characterise the evening as a whole. There was plenty of explanation. Serious discussion about wine, without the occasion ever becoming overly serious.

The food was not served plate by plate but placed in the centre of the table: large platters, bowls, four people and a shared approach. It is difficult to pass around generous dishes without getting into conversation, and so the first hour was spent less on chewing than on talking - about wine, about the Chaîne, and about life in Oslo compared with life in Cologne.

There was little to complain about on the culinary front either. Hake to begin with known as "lysing", which make even a familiar fish sound distinctly more Nordic. A variation on Norwegian veal followed. To finish, Kvæfjordkake with raspberries. By the time we reached pronunciation of the Norwegian names, I was finally dependent on the assistance of my Norwegian table companions.

The wine pairings were consistently well chosen. That was until dessert took a small detour through Rheinhessen with a Weinheim Riesling Auslese. In the middle of Norway it seemed almost to be longing for someone who knew its homeland! The Auslese in particular provided a lovely reminder of my own university town, which is also in Rheinhessen.

The real lesson of the evening, however, was not on the plate. It was in a preconception I had brought with me without even realising it. Norway, I had thought, was practically synonymous with salmon. My table companions took this remarkably calmly. Even with a degree of indifference. Instead they spoke passionately about cod, crabs and lobster. A small but telling reminder that sometimes we do not travel in order to discover a country, but to let go of the images we have created of it.

The appreciation of the cuisine and service, familiar from Chaîne evenings, was not absent either. It simply came without ceremony. Almost in passing, with warm applause rather than a lengthy tribute. That, too, suited an evening which never needed to make a point of emphasising its own standards.

Perhaps I experienced this evening through slightly different eyes than I would have done a year ago. I have recently taken responsibility within the Bailliage of Mittelrhein for developing the Jeune Chaîne. Something, therefore, that does not yet exist there in this form: a structure for younger members, a format, an ethos. Accordingly, I was particularly attentive to the effortless way in which gastronomic standards and a certain informality came together at Vaaghals.

What I take away from it is not a ready-made blueprint. Rather a confirmation of an idea that is not mutually exclusive. When served in the right way can complement and sustain one another.

In the end, though, one thing above all stayed with me: how little it actually takes for an invitation in a foreign city to become an evening among Confrères. You travel from Cologne to Kristiania. Many hundreds of kilometres from home one remarkably quickly finds oneself sitting around a shared table.

The Kölsch in my suitcase probably wasn't necessary after all.

By the time I started defending the Cologne Carnival after the final glass, everyone at the table knew where I came from anyway!

Finn Schottmüller
Vice-Chargé de Missions (Jeune Chaîne)