Thank you for smoking – Scandinavian salmon migrates to Stoke Newington

Salmon at the smokehouse. Photograph: Hansen & Lydersen

It is a far cry from the fjords, freezing seas and romantic forests of Norway, but in a little corner of Stoke Newington Ole-Martin Hansen has made a business selling smoked salmon using a recipe that has been in his family for four generations.

Having lived in Hackney since his student days, he taught himself the craft using his grandfather’s old notebooks. Today Hansen & Lydersen supplies everyone from Gary Barlow to Yottam Ottolenghi using the same blend of beechwood and juniper – reportedly devised by his great grandfather for Queen Maud of Norway.

“It’s very nostalgic,” says Ole in his office-come-kitchen above the smokehouse. “It’s something I remember from my childhood. The taste transports me straight back to when I was fishing with my father eating my grandfather’s salmon with home-made bread from my mother.

“You have the beechwood, which has a very sweet flavour mixed with juniper, which has the poetry of the forest.”

Ole still sticks to his grandfather’s philosophies like letting the salmon move in the wind when they’re being smoked, cutting the fish vertically to get the whole journey of flavours in each mouthful and only ever packing it in greaseproof paper to let it breathe.

“We want to be a small producer,” he says. “I use suppliers that have the same integrity as myself – family businesses rather than big shareholding companies.”

This month Hansen & Lydersen is joining forces with AWC Antique Wine Academy for an event with wine connoisseur Luca Dusi to talk about how to match Italian wines with different cuts and flavours of salmon.

Ole-Hansen will be hosting the ‘Hand-crafted Norwegian Smoked Salmon paired with Fine Wines’ event at AWC Wine Academy on 27th June. To receive an exclusive Hackney Citizen offer of £75 per ticket (usually £95), call 020 3219 5560 and quote ‘hansenlydersen’ to book your tickets.