"IKEA" news and stories

Ikea, the Scandinavian home furnishings giant known for high design and low prices, has made an extremely successful foray into kitchen renovations in recent years. In some up-and-coming neighborhoods there's nary a non-Ikea cabinet to be found. Cunning, cheerful cookware, too, is a staple in youthful kitchens everywhere. Now the company has taken what seems like the obvious next step: They've created a cookbookwith the same spare, minimalist sensibility the brand is known for.

As with all Ikea products, the book has a distinctive Swedish name -- Hembakat är Bäst, or Homemade Is Best -- and it contains some thirty basic recipes for what one assumes are traditional Scandinavian treats, such as vanilijhorn (apparently similar to almond croissants) and pepperkakor (gingerbread cookies). Are the recipes any good? Who knows? The attention right now is focused on the styling and photography -- provided in this case by Carl Kleiner, a Stockholm-based photographer well known for his own minimalist, offbeat aesthetic.

Unfortunately for all of us stateside Swedish wannabes, Hembakat är Bäst isn't yet available in the U.S. If you've got Old World cousins -- or any pals doing their junior years abroad -- implore them to send a few copies across the Atlantic. Language barrier? No problem. Anyone who's ever figured out how to use one of those wordless Ikea instruction manuals will find this to be -- wait for it -- a piece of cake. (Oh yes we did!)

A few of the best links on the Web this week:

• Italy's asparagus season has begun!
• Looking to occupy some free time this weekend? Try snarky Food Writer Bingo.
• Two new food reality shows from the folks behind the Jersey Shore are looking for cast members.
• If you're planning to cook lamb for Easter, don't do it without reading this guide first.
• Ten years after Kitchen Confidential, chefs can no longer afford to be bad boys.

If this weekend's sunny forecast makes you realize a good spring cleaning is in order, furniture megastore IKEA will come your rescue with their ample storage and organizational goods. In addition to offering free pencils and measuring tapes, IKEA will fill your stomach with free breakfast from Friday, April 2 through Sunday, April 4. After you exhaust yourself running through their maze of a showroom, refuel with a scrambled eggs, bacon and potatoes breakfast and one cup of coffee.

This offer is valued at $1.98, is limited to one per customer and is not available at IKEA Hicksville, IKEA Houston and IKEA Direct.

Meatball plate at Ikea. Photo: roboppy/flickr

Swedish meatballs may be the mainstay at the Ikea cafeteria, but the flat-pack furniture chain is branching out.

Next month, Ikea will hold five free cooking classes with well-known chefs as part of a marketing campaign with Family Circle, Mediaweek reports.

Food University Presented by Family Circle will stop at Ikeas in Seattle (Oct. 20, Caprial Pence), Costa Mesa, Calif. (Oct. 22, Katie Chin), Tempe, Ariz. (Oct. 28, Claudine Pepin), Sunrise, Fla. (Nov. 3, Oliver Saucy) and College Park, Md. (Nov. 5, Mary Ann Esposito) for two-hour seminars that promise an introduction to ingredients, tips on entertaining and spicing up a menu as well as healthy family recipes.

The seminars are free and open to the public.

[Via Mediaweek]

These fat, shiny, sugar-crusted gumdrops could make Willy Wonka weep for joy, and a dentist weep, period.

Given that the best candy can trigger nearly hallucinatory pleasures (chalk it up to the sugar high), it's somewhat fitting that this is not actually a photo of gumdrops. Technically, it is, but what you're really looking at is a photo of another photo of gumdrops. Taken by johnnypants over at Flickr, it's a shot of a promotional poster at Ikea. Sneaky, eh? Still, you've got to hand it to those Swedes: just as their furniture can fool anybody into thinking they know their way around an Allen wrench, these gumdrops are so vivid that you'd be forgiven for thinking they were gobbled up right after this photo was taken. And maybe they were ... somewhere in Sweden.

[Via Flickr]