Today the winners of Sweden’s leading innovation programme for transforming the food system through restaurants are announced. Circular Gastronomy is behind the award, and the breadth of ideas among this year’s nearly 50 nominations has allowed the jury to select winners across three different – but equally important – categories. They concern the processing of seaweed in a way that benefits the climate, a system that enables more efficient management of resources in restaurant kitchens, and turning a discarded agricultural by-product into exciting new food products. During 2026, the people behind these ideas will receive tailored innovation support to help them move forward on the journey from thought to action.
Climate-positive seaweed processing, kitchen resource optimisation and Swedish soy from pea waste win the 2025 innovation prize.
“More and better nominations than ever before made this year’s jury process demanding but also exciting. We take all the ideas as a sign that restaurants truly are key environments when it comes to transforming the food system,” says Per Styregård, chair of the jury.
The three winning ideas of the Circular Gastronomy Challenge 2025 and their creators are:
Seaweed as a new food – Cajsa Torell, Kobb, Glommen
JURY’S MOTIVATION: We need more readily accessible, great-tasting food made from environmentally positive, healthy ingredients. By processing Nordic seaweed, Kobb does exactly that – creating products ready to use in restaurants or at home, made from resource-efficient marine crops that require neither fresh water, fertiliser nor land, but instead benefit both us and the sea.
Brigade organises work in restaurant kitchens – Sarah Holmkvist Arnason, Brigade, Skellefteå
JURY’S MOTIVATION: Using available resources more efficiently is the fastest route to a healthier food system. This applies not only to ingredients, but also to labour and time. Using a cloud-based kitchen operating system, Brigade transforms restaurant menus into precise lists of purchasing needs and task allocation, and ensures that staff receive their assignments, instructions and checklists on their phones. The platform reduces resource waste, frees up time for gastronomic creativity, creates economic sustainability and circular resource thinking – all in one.
I Rest My Case: umami-rich Swedish soy – Lisa Ö Grennberger, Stillinge Gård, Stockholm/Linköping
JURY’S MOTIVATION: Making use of resources in a creative way and repurposing them within both production and processing is one of the cornerstones of circular thinking. Promoting local ingredients and inspiring sustainability innovation for the restaurant industry, I Rest My Case combines the organic co-cultivation of grey peas and wheat with processing – using by-products that would otherwise go to waste to create an umami-rich soy sauce, and from that a flavourful crumble with potential for many new applications.
The three winners received their awards at Vasakronan’s head office in Stockholm today, January 26. All three will now have access to customised innovation support with coaching from experts as well as contacts and communication to realise their ideas in 2026.
The jury’s criteria for winning the Circular Gastronomy Challenge are that the idea must: contribute to better use of resources, be capable of scaling up and becoming profitable, deliver concrete and measurable benefit, and have the potential to spread and thereby influence restaurants and other parts of the food system.
The jury in Circular Gastronomy consists of chefs and experts with a focus on circular economy.
Per Styregård – Jury Chair, Circular Gastronomy
Ulrika Brydling – Operations Manager Eldrimner, Chef and Sustainability Expert
Sofia B Olsson – Chef and Restaurang Vrå, Sustainable Innovator of the Year 2018
Johan Gottberg – Chef, Consultant and Founder of Restauranglabbet and K-märkt, Sustainable Chef of the Year 2014
Ingela Wickman Bois – Advisor Strategy Circular Business Development and Innovation, Exeter Executive, Business School and Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Marie Wallin Matséus – Site Manager at Torsåker gård, Axfoundation’s development center for the sustainable materials and food systems of the future.
Jens Thulin – founder of Mylla.se and beef farmer at Vismarlövsgården
Erica-Dawn Egan, sustainability strategist at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and CEO of KTH FOOD Centre for sustainable and healthy food systems
Elvira Molin – project manager and researcher at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
For more information, contact:
Per Styregård, jury chair, Circular Gastronomy, per@circulargastronomy.se 070 777 66 78
Ami Hovstadius, CEO, Circular Gastronomy ami@circulargastronomy.se 070 999 45 00
Pernilla Brouzell, partner contact, Circular Gastronomy pernilla@circulargastronomy.se 070 796 21 61
Photo: Erik Olsson
The Circular Gastronomy Challenge is an innovation programme that supports renewal projects in the restaurant industry. Its purpose is to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, and to contribute to gastronomic diversity and healthier food systems. The innovation programme is run by Circular Gastronomy in collaboration with Vasakronan, Martin & Servera, Hällde, Göteborg & Co, Västsverige, Torsta, Malmö Stad and Malmö Food Council, as well as representatives from business, academia and organisations including Accenture, Axfoundation, Generation Waste, Good Food Capital, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Krinova Incubator & Science Park, KTH Food, Restaurangakademien and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.