When Patrik Pettersson was seven years old, he made the bold decision to invite two girls from his school class to dinner at his home. He expected, with the earnest innocence of a child, that his mom would cook for his guests. “She told me, ‘If you’re going to invite girls over for dinner, then you will also cook,’” Pettersson says, recalling that, in the end, his mom did most of the cooking while he helped her. “The day after, I was king of the whole school. I was the guy who could cook. Even though I was young, I understood the power of food.”
These days, Pettersson wows not classmates but amazed diners at his new restaurant, By Patrik Pettersson, which is located inside the Kompose Hotel Sarasota adjacent to the airport. By day, the restaurant is a humble breakfast bar; by night, it sets the stage for an exhilarating five-or seven-course culinary performance that changes every three weeks and stars Pettersson and his team. Before relocating to the United States, the Swedish chef lived in Stockholm, where he worked in his family’s roofing business. He sold the company in 2019 and began his culinary pursuits in earnest, operating a restaurant from his house. “I’m more or less self-taught. Between the ages of 17 and 25, I worked in restaurants in Stockholm, but just as a line cook,” he says. “Entering the kitchen was like going into another world that wasn’t like anything else, and that’s what I liked.”
During the pandemic, Pettersson’s home eatery rose in popularity, giving him a place to experiment with new recipes—a passion he brought with him when he moved to Sarasota in 2023 and joined his wife and children (former IMG students) who already lived in the area. Through his wife, Pettersson met Justin Bay, a marketer with restaurant experience. The pair decided to open a business and landed on the unique space inside the funky, modern Kompose Hotel. “When they built the hotel, the only thing they had in mind was a breakfast buffet, but it worked out perfectly because it’s an open kitchen,” Bay adds. “The chef is on display, he’s got great visibility of all the guests in the dining room, and it’s a very beautiful interior.”
Like a magician under a spotlight and against a backdrop of cereal canisters, Pettersson astounds diners from the kitchen with his inventive concoctions. “For me, it took many hours to think of the kind of restaurant that we could start from here,” he says. “We can’t do certain dishes here because we don’t have the facility for them, so we create dishes that fit this environment.” Patrons can opt for either the five- or seven-course tasting menus, which show off the chef’s skill and playfulness. One evening in December, he served up a Mushroom Bisque Espuma. Small mushrooms sprout from the bowl of soup like a forest and an earthy porcini and truffle bread, tinged with mossy green, envelopes the diner in the flavors and aromas of the woods. The whimsical course takes guests on a culinary adventure, inviting them to rethink their preexisting notions of what food can be, and each course represents a destination in this expedition of Pettersson’s imagination. “I find inspiration everywhere. When I create a dish, it can take me months before I put it out,” Pettersson adds. “A lot of times, my brain goes to what’s next. I put a dish together, serve it the first weekend, and then I’m thinking about the next weeks.” As an homage to his Swedish roots, he keeps the Toast Skagen as a permanent menu item. This dish, invented by a famous chef in Sweden following World War II, features wild-caught shrimp, tossed in a crème fraîche mayo with horseradish, shallots and dill, sitting on a thin slice of toast and topped with citrus dust and citrus gel (the chef’s special twist). “At least 40% of restaurants in Sweden serve this dish,” he says. While marveling at Pettersson’s creations, guests can indulge in wine pairings or cocktails and mocktails from the bar, and enjoy desserts made by Bay’s wife, Jessica. The bright green Thai Basil, with a simple syrup, gin and sour mix, arrives topped with fluffy coconut foam and a juniper garnish, amusing the palate and complementing the revolving tasting menus. “We have had guests who have been here three or four times because they like what we do and they want to try the next menu,” Bay says. “The menu changes every three weeks, and that does two things: it gives Sarasota something new to try out, and it helps the chef with his creativity so he’s not making the same thing over and over again. It looks like fine dining, but we want to make it fun dining.”
