The Story of the Glenn Strömberg Collection/Collezione Italiana (GSC)

Quality and Credibility. These two words epitomize Glenn Strömberg as a former footballer of highest international rank. They are his guiding light when he works as an expert commentator on Swedish Television - but also at the dinner table.

Prefabricated foods have never appealed to Glenn. Just as on the football field he was never just content with running as far, as much and as smart as the others. He ran further, more and smarter.

In the TV studio he prefers to keep quiet to stating the obvious, what the viewers will already know. Instead he communicates what the audience wants to know and perhaps didn’t know they wanted to learn about the game. At table he has cultivated his ability to partake in what is good in life. Not exclusive, not expensive but real - and prepared with love.

Glenn says: ” I’m not a chef, but I love good food. During all my years in Italy, the Italian kitchen has been generous to me. And thanks to of all my travelling I’ve found that the Italian cuisine is my favourite. To me, it’s number one.

This is also the bottom line of the project Glenn started in 2004, when he decided to market his own brand of Italian foods in Sweden. With his ”Glenn Strömberg Collection/Collezione Italiana” he gives his old countrymen a taste of the country he fell in love with in 1984. He still lives in Bergamo, Italy, with his wife Simona, his daughters Erika, Ylenia and Giulia and their family pets. Glenn wants to grow old in Lombardy, enjoying life, not to mention the wonderful food of the region.

The ”how” is more important than ”where”

It doesn’t matter if good food is served at an exclusive luxury restaurant, a simple bar or at home in one’s own kitchen. Glenn always goes all the way; he puts the same effort into his products as he does everything else in his life.

His fascination with the Italian cuisine started as a hobby. He went with a friend to see an old man who manufactured balsamic vinegar and was taught the age-old tradition of manufacture. To be classified as ”Tradizionale de Mondena” or ”Tradizionale dé Reggio Emilia”, which is the oldest and 

most exclusive type, the vinegar must be aged for 12 years on tap as well as be tested and certified. The more aged the vinegar, the sweeter and the more expensive.

”To me it’s important that it is natural, without artificial colourings or preservatives. A good cooking vinegar needs about 2-6 years to mature. Younger vinegar is less sweet, has a broader range of use and is less expensive.”

That old man’s passion for balsamic vinegar inspired Glen to start searching for other, Italian delicacies. ”Like Sweden, Italy spans a great distance from north to south and there are major differences between north and south with regard to food. Each region has its own traditions. Pride in tradition when it comes to food is enormous and each region has its own speciality. I decided to put together the best from each region into my own collection. This selection is now available on the Swedish market.”
“I have to be there and feel it”

Genuine products all the way through

Glenn’s collection of foods competes with the already existing brands and products on the market but its unique quality comes from being genuinely Italian. His project has entailed as much travel as those eight years did, which he spent in the Italian premier league.

“I’ve visited every producer who’s been given the confidence to manufacture my brand products, talked with those responsible, with the workers and with locals.”

Glenn has declined products, even though product quality and price were great, but where personal chemistry did not pan out.

“My life and the way I live are based on even the smallest details, that they must be right too. Plain business deals are just not good enough for me, I have to be there myself and feel it”

Glenn’s philosophy is equally true for his pasta, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pesto, tomato bases as well as his sun dried tomatoes. It also includes many frozen desserts as Tiramisù, which is his wife’s favourite, real Italian frozen pizza, delicious frozen risotto, salami, air-dried ham, various cheese, white and red wine and of course also grappa. In the future, his collection will also include more Italian delicacies.

A blue-and-yellow Italian

Glenn is Swedish. But he likes to share the tastes of his new home country. The appetizing aroma of Italian foods is almost tangible, listening to him speaks so warmly and lovingly of Italy and the cuisine that has already become a favourite in Swedish homes.

Italians are very proud of their olive oil and claim it is the best in the world. Maybe that is true, though the Greeks and other Mediterranean nations make the same claim. It is said that the areas of Tuscany, Liguria and Lake Garda are the largest and most successful producers of olive oil exported throughout the whole world. However, there is no escaping that 85% of all olive trees grow in Puglia, Campania and on Sicily. These regions too, make a fantastic olive oil manufactured according to age-old tradition.

The details make the whole

Glenn Strömberg doesn’t leave anything to chance. This has also been said by football coach Sven-Göran Eriksson - back in the late 70s. Eriksson was the one to encourage the teenage Glenn to go for it, for that golden future as a hardworking team player.

“It’s warmer and sunnier in the South,” Glenn says, “so conditions should be better for growing olive trees. It’s only logical.”

Glenn was right. Glenn’s culinary preferences have changed since he came to Italy in 1984. He’d left Benfica in Portugal for Atalanta. He watched his new team mates load up on massive amounts of pasta before practice and before games, while only ordering risotto for himself. To him, spaghetti was a culinary disaster as he remembered it from his school days in Lerkil. He needed time to change his preferences and when he did, he discovered something entirely different from what he had expected.

“The Italian kitchen is what I like - and in my eyes it’s number one”

Only the best is good enough

Today pasta is part of Glenn’s every day life. “For me and for my line of products it‘s essential that the pasta is manufactured in the old-fashioned, tried and tested way. Drying times should be long and the temperature low, even though that process is more costly than using a higher air temperature method. The pasta should be made from the best ingredients available.”

Pasta originates from the region around Naples and is their number one food staple. The best producers are found here; this is where Glenn found his. The pasta is flattened on bronze rollers that make for a more rugged surface and a more enjoyable taste. “The rugged surface of the pasta binds the sauce instead of allowing it to slide off, which is important when you combine it with a great tasting sauce such as pesto.”

In the Liguria region, basil is an important crop and the air is rich with its aromatic scent. The scent even wafts from every window and balcony and this is where the best pesto is made. This is also where Glenn buys his.

Sun dried tomatoes should be dried in the sun

The tomatoes are selected from the South of Italy, where they are allowed to grow and mature in a sunny and warm environment. “There was only one way to find out: visiting the tomato growers I was interested in working with. Today I have 17 products in my collection and I’m proud to say that I’ve personally visited all my suppliers. I want to be able to stand behind everything I do.” At the football field. As an expert commentator on TV. At the kitchen table.

- Glenn Strömberg