Star Chefs
Funke dives in! Scallops from Norway
Blue skies, ice-cold water: Fernsicht chef Tobias Funke dives for scallops off the coast of Norway.
June 16, 2019
Text: Kathia Baltisberger Photos: Brunner Fotografie Heiden
A look behind the scenes. Tobias Funke is going underwater. The 16-point chef from Fernsicht discovered diving in Sri Lanka a year ago. „Actually, I had a huge amount of respect for the great, dark unknown,“ Funke says with awe. But the fear subsided and the chef found he enjoyed it. Not entirely without ulterior motives: „I take a close look at my producers. In Switzerland, I know everyone; I even visit cattle farms in Ireland. But I had never been underwater, even though we get so much food from the sea.“
Funke wants to know exactly how the scallop divers work. So he goes underwater himself.
Special equipment is required for the dive in the ice-cold sea.
Coincidence. Tobias Funke contacted a scallop diver in Norway whom he knew from a TV documentary. „I simply asked if there was a way to dive with him. Because when something interests me, I want to take a deeper look at it.“ Frank Ballack, a German expat, was taken with the idea. By chance, it then turned out that Tobias Funke had already been serving Ballack’s scallops in his gourmet restaurant Incantare for years. He sources them via Bianchi, the specialist for fish, shellfish, and crustaceans. However, he did not know any details about the producer.
Frank Ballack dives with his crew off the picturesque island of Frøya.
Hand-harvested. Funke traveled via Oslo and Trondheim to the island of Frøya. On a fishing boat, he headed out with Ballack and his crew to the best spots for scallops. But first came the endurance test: the Norwegian Sea was a mere 8°C. „I had to pass an additional exam for these temperatures,“ says Funke. He had already practiced in February in Lake Constance at just 4°C. The special suit and the sense of anticipation distracted the chef from the cold. The scallops lie on the seabed. „You have a net attached to your suit, and then you collect the scallops by hand. An initial selection happens underwater. You only take the old, 13 to 15-year-old scallops,“ Funke explains. Smaller shells, starfish, or crabs escape on their own, so the bycatch is zero. „When the net is full, the boat pulls it up. In one spot, we collected up to 200 kg of scallops this way.“
The worker on the boat pulls the catch up from the seabed.
No fear of the dark unknown: Funke has since become an avid diver.
German-born Frank Ballack emigrated to Norway about ten years ago.
„It doesn’t get any fresher.“ The sea off Norway is not a diving paradise like the Red Sea or the South Pacific. Nevertheless: „It might sound a bit cheesy now, but after the first dive, I was just happy. It impressed me immensely,“ Funke raves. Back on land, the scallops are sorted again—those that are too small go back into the sea. Then they are packed and shipped. „It doesn’t get any fresher in Switzerland. They are harvested in the morning and are in our kitchen 24 hours later.“ And they arrive alive. Scallops from Japan or the USA arrive either flash-frozen or gassed. „The difference in quality is enormous!“ says Funke. The chef won’t be hanging up his fins anytime soon: „Next, I’m going to look at how they dive for Balfegó tuna in Spain.“
