Mesterkokken

Oystein Sunde's song "Mesterkokken" is a humorous take on the life of a chef who seems to have a knack for culinary disasters. The lyrics are filled with playful and absurd imagery, painting a picture of a chef whose cooking is so bad that it drives people away from the restaurant and into the bathroom. The repeated mention of bizarre dishes like "biff á la lindstrøm" and "ku á la lumpur" adds to the comedic effect, suggesting that the chef's creations are not just bad, but utterly ridiculous.

The song begins with the chef describing his various culinary concoctions, which include heart massage and year-old grouse, as well as the use of inappropriate substances like red spirit for meat and white spirit for fish. This sets the tone for the rest of the song, highlighting the chef's incompetence and the absurdity of his cooking methods. The chef's misadventures continue as he takes a job at the Grand Hotel, only to be thrown against the wall because his food is so bad that more people are in the bathroom than in the restaurant.

Despite his failures, the chef remains undeterred and opens his own establishment, Hoksund Taverna & Grill, where he continues to cook as he pleases. The menu is French, but the food is unmistakably Norwegian, and the chef even offers dynamite to customers who want to blow up a fish. The song concludes with the chef imagining his arrival in heaven, where he tries to convince St. Peter to let him stay by arguing that everything that goes down must eventually come up, including his terrible cooking. This final verse reinforces the song's theme of resilience and the chef's unshakeable confidence in his culinary skills, no matter how misguided they may be.