A former Michelin-starred chef was looking for a new hobby after his divorce. He started a gin business in his daughter’s old bedroom.

His divorce led to a new hobby

Árnason, now 46, had considered selling the restaurant, but when the pandemic hit, he said no buyers were interested in buying it, so he has continued running it with his ex-wife.

But he still wanted to find another channel for his creativity.

He found inspiration four years ago while sitting in his seaside house overlooking the Baltic Sea. He wanted to know what the nature around him would taste like when distilled with alcohol.

“The hours of sunshine and the northern climate must affect the taste, I thought to myself,” said Árnason. “Surely, our Swedish water can make an exceptional gin that can be served neat and not always as a cocktail.”

Rather than using dried juniper, cloves, and peppercorns sourced from Asia to make a typical London Dry, Árnason started handpicking his own berries, herbs, and roots like fallow deer and cloudberries — ingredients that flower and are in full bloom in Swedish Lapland, depending on the season.

Árnason said he doesn’t dry his ingredients out — he puts them in fresh, making the spirit drinkable both straight and with a mixer. In contrast, popular gin brands like Hendricks and Tanqueray use dry botanicals or essences to achieve their flavors.

“I want to work with what nature gives me and create something so clean it can be enjoyed neat,” Árnason says.

Today, the bottles of Ógin listed on the brand’s website range in price from 751 to 1,688 Swedish Kronasells, or $74 to $165.

Árnason is not the first chef to dabble in the spirits world. Chefs behind Michelin-starred restaurants like Michael Roux Junior and Alex Dilling, along with celebrity TV presenter Guy Fieri, have also launched their own spirits.

The global gin market has been on the rise and is projected to increase by $7.36 billion between 2023 and 2028, according to Technavio, a market research company.

Dividing the passion

At the beginning of his project, the chef bottled 70 liters of gin. Now, he produces approximately 10,000 liters per season and makes both gin and vodka. All his clients are Michelin-starred restaurants, and that’s how he intends to keep it.

“I’m not going to sell to every restaurant or to the supermarkets in Europe,” he said, adding that he wants to open the client base up to high-end hotels and top bars.

The chef still runs the restaurant with his ex-wife, splitting his time between that and his new company. The workload for the brand varies depending on the season.

Árnason says they’ve achieved profitability but declined to provide specifics. “It’s still small, and it will probably be a few years before I make more from Ógin than from Bryggargatan,” he said.

While Ógin is growing, Árnason says he’s not in a hurry: “This is about building a brand that stands for the highest quality and no compromises.”