The City of Helsinki’s new food strategy aims to highlight the Finnish capital’s unique food offerings and promote Helsinki as a world-class food city.

Helsinki has a lively and high-quality food culture that is still not internationally recognised. Food will also be a central theme at the Matka Nordic Travel Fair on 20-22 January 2023. Helsinki’s food story will be shared with the world by the restaurant Finnjävel’s pop-up at COMO The Halkin Hotel in London from 21 March to 1 April 2023.

In Helsinki, numerous innovative restaurants, the oldest market halls in the Nordic region, the Teurastamo centre of urban and culinary culture, distilleries, microbreweries and other craft companies, such as bakeries and chocolate producers.

For many people, the first things that come to mind when asked about Helsinki are its northern location, the happiest people in the world, and its functional design. On the other hand, the Finnish capital’s high-quality and unique food culture has remained a well-kept secret and often pleasantly surprises visitors.

“The strengths of Helsinki’s food culture are its versatility, personality and a certain kind of uniqueness that combines local flavours and cultural influences from both East and West with a bold and innovative approach. The level of Helsinki’s top restaurants is illustrated by the fact that one restaurant has been awarded two Michelin stars and five with one Michelin star,” says Nina Vesterinen, Tourism Director at the City of Helsinki.

Helsinki wants to focus even more intensely on food tourism.

Helsinki will highlight the best aspects of the city as a food travel destination at the Matka Nordic Travel Fair on 20–22 January 2023 by setting up Helsinki Food Court in cooperation with Food Camp Finland and Messukeskus. The programme highlights the city’s vibrant urban culture with its events, visitors and restaurants as a key strategic priority for promoting vitality and well-being.

The restaurants in Helsinki have enormous and partly untapped potential, which can be used with partners to develop the city as an attractive destination providing beautiful experiences for visitors. Helsinki will also launch its food culture strategy work with the travel fair. The aim is to make Helsinki a world-class food city of interest. Internationally, food has become a critical appeal factor for tourism in recent years.

Restaurants play a vital role in the vitality of cities.

Helsinki is currently implementing its Helsinki Tourism and Events Programme 2022–2026. The Matka Nordic Travel Fair in Helsinki is Northern Europe’s largest tourism industry event.

Finnjävel brings traditional Finnish dishes into the 20^th century and to London.

Muru Group’s restaurants are an excellent example of their versatility – “our taste worlds vary from the French cuisine at Pastis and the fish and seafood dishes at Sue Ellen to the Italian cuisine at Fiasco and the pure Finnish flavours at Finnjävel.”

“So much is happening in Helsinki’s restaurant scene, the range of offerings continues to expand, and natural gems offer unique experiences throughout the city.” The restaurant Pastis will represent Muru Group at the travel fair, focusing on rustic French cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and attentive and individual service.

One of Helsinki’s developing restaurant and food culture advocates is Timo Linnamäki, restaurateur and Chairman of the Board of Muru Dining, which operates several restaurants in Helsinki.

We strongly believe in Helsinki’s potential as a restaurant city at the international level, and we will be promoting this message by opening Finnjäveli’s pop-up restaurant at COMO The Halkin Hotel in the Belgravia district of London from 21 March to 1 April 2023.

“We aim to offer a unique food experience that attracts international interest in Finnish food culture, producers and ingredients and inspires people to travel to the source to experience more,” says Timo Linnamäki.

The restaurant’s concept is to serve the best Nordic flavours and bring traditional Finnish dishes reminiscent of your grandma’s cooking into the 2020s with a new, innovative approach.

Finnjävel originally began as a temporary pop-up restaurant but has since established its operations and gained its first Michelin star in 2021. In the same year, Finnjävel received the acclaimed Service Award for the best service in the Nordic countries. The pop-up will also present the Helsinki Distilling Company and Finnish Gin.

 

 

Written by: William Trevan

 

 

 

 

 

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