The Nobel Week begins on 6 December as this year’s Laureates arrive in Stockholm. Their more than week-long programme will include lectures, school visits and a live conversation with astronauts in space. At the Nobel Banquet, they get to listen to Swedish soloists Lisa Nilsson and Magnus Carlson – singer in the group Weeping Willows – in music arranged by Hans Ek. This year’s Banquet chef is acclaimed culinary innovator Sebastian Gibrand, who works with whole ingredients to reduce food waste. The interaction between humans and nature is a theme that permeates this year’s Banquet.

This year no fewer than 14 Laureates are arriving in Stockholm, while Peace Prize Laureate Abiy Ahmed Ali will participate in the festivities in Oslo, Norway. The Nobel Laureates in Stockholm will begin their stay with a visit to Nobel Prize Museum in the Old Town, where they will each autograph a chair in the museum’s restaurant and donate a specially selected artefact to the museum’s collections. Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, 2019 Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, will donate an original scientific manuscript from 1913 written by Mabel Purefoy FitzGerald, a pioneering female physiologist. It was the first study to show that haemoglobin in the body increases as oxygen levels fall (for example at high altitudes) – a study that was important to Sir Peter’s research and the Nobel Prize.

“The artefacts that we receive awaken great curiosity and give our museum visitors an opportunity to learn more about the discoveries and works that the Laureates are rewarded for. The Laureates’ stories about the artefacts also enable us to become closer to the people behind the prizes,” says Erika Lanner, Director of Nobel Prize Museum.

The Laureates will participate in various public events for more than a week. This will include a conversation with astronauts on the International Space Station, the Nobel Prize Concert, lectures, seminars, meetings with school classes and a visit to the Swedish Riksdag (Parliament). Laureates will also participate in Nobel Minds, a roundtable TV discussion that is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

The chef responsible for the first and main courses at the Nobel Banquet is Sebastian Gibrand, who won the silver medal early this year at the Bocuse d’Or, the world’s most prestigious international culinary competition. He was previously captain of the Swedish National Culinary Team (2012−2016). In this year’s Banquet menu, he works with all parts of each ingredient to reduce food waste and be able to showcase the fantastic quality of Swedish producers. He is looking forward to the Banquet evening and is pleased with the dishes that will be served.

“I work with ingredients that are seasonal and always focus on elevating their natural flavours with a polished finish, whether it’s a beet or a potato. I believe the Banquet guests will appreciate how each plate will look. I know that it will taste good,” says Sebastian Gibrand.

This year’s pastry chef is Daniel Roos, who is in charge of the Banquet dessert for the sixth consecutive time.

The theme of the Divertissement at the Nobel Banquet is The Earth We Inherited. Hans Ek has arranged music based on old and contemporary Swedish ballad traditions − including troubadours Carl-Michael Bellman, Evert Taube, Cornelis Vreeswijk and Thåström. Lisa Nilsson and Magnus Carlson are the evening’s soloists, accompanied by the Örebro-based Swedish Chamber Orchestra. The producers of this year’s divertissement are Marie-Louise Sid-Sylwander and Håkan Ekman.

“The music is connected with this year’s floral decorations in its ambition to portray an eternal cycle of life and death through the changes of the seasons and the various moods of day and night. We inherit our earth and pass it on to future generations – just as with music,” says Hans Ek, arranger and conductor.

 Sanremo, Italy has donated the flowers used at the Stockholm City Hall, where the Banquet takes place, and at Konserthuset Stockholm (Stockholm Concert Hall), the venue for the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony. This year about 25,000 flowers will be used. Per Benjamin will be in charge of the floral decorations at the City Hall, for the fifth consecutive year. His theme is the interaction between humans and nature, the natural cycle and our seasons. The floral decorations on the Table of Honour will be a modern interpretation of a flowery summertime meadow, where the faded golden-beige tones of dried grass and seed pods will be mixed with lovely pale green shades of delicate fresh foliage. The floral decorations will also live on after the Banquet evening, since later that night a trainload of flowers will be visible leaving the City Hall and spreading out across the city, as staff members take charge of the floral decorations and bring them home.

“Many of us carry around a dream of a simple, beautiful life – a life beyond everyday chores, constant connectivity and stress. A life with grass underfoot and a luscious flowery scent. I want to remind people about that feeling and about being kind to nature, which is passed on from generation to generation,” says Per Benjamin.

Helén Magnusson, chief florist at Hässelby Blommor, designed the floral decorations at Nobel Prize Award Ceremony.

Here you can read more about the 2019 Banquet chef and pastry chef, the artists who will perform and this year’s florists: www.nobelprize.org/press-room

Facts …

…. about the Nobel Banquet

The 65 tables in the Blue Hall of the Stockholm City Hall will be covered with some 500 metres of linen cloth, and the meticulous table setting will comprise no fewer than some 9,540 porcelain pieces, 5,400 glasses and 9,450 items of cutlery. Those working with the banquet meal during the evening include a total of more than 40 chefs and 190 servers. 

…. about the Nobel Prize 

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded 595 times to 947 Laureates. Because some have been awarded the prize twice, a total of 916 individuals and 24 organizations have received a Nobel Prize or the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. 

…. about this year’s floral decorations 

The flowers used to decorate the Prize Award Ceremony and Banquet venues are grown in and donated from Sanremo, Italy, where Alfred Nobel spent the final years of his life. At Konserthuset Stockholm, the decorations will use about 300 kilograms of foliage and 25,000 flowers including yellow, cream and apricot-coloured carnations, chrysanthemums, white cymbidium orchids, white phalaenopsis orchids, roses in apricot, yellow and cream-white nuances, various asparagus branches in yellow nuances and mimosa. 

Follow the Nobel Week on nobelprize.org

All Nobel Lectures will be webcast live on nobelprize.org, the official website of the Nobel Prize, and will later be available there in video-on-demand format: www.nobelprize.org/2019-nobel-lectures/

During the 2019 Nobel Week Dialogue, previous Nobel Laureates will meet other researchers and artists to give their perspectives on fundamental issues related to how uncertainty and risk affect our society, our culture and our daily lives. The full-day seminar will take place in Gothenburg, Sweden and can be watched via: youtu.be/7i1yUZD9Bm4.

The Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies is Oslo and Stockholm will be webcast live on Nobelprize.org at 13.00 and 16.30 CET, respectively, on 10 December.

Publication times (Central European Time, CET)

Seating chart for the Table of Honour at the Nobel Banquet: 9 December, 13.00

Presentation speeches at the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, Stockholm: 10 December, 16.30

The menu for the Nobel Banquet, Stockholm: 10 December, 19.00

Press photos of the Banquet dishes: 10 December, 21.30

The Laureates’ speeches of thanks: 10 December, about 23.00

For further information about the Nobel Week programmes and services for the media, please visit www.nobelprize.org/press-room/