Food Gastronomy in Finland

Photographer: Kimmo Brandt

In Finland you can find edible, wild, naturally growing food everywhere, from national parks and to green public urban areas – even people’s backyards.
Wild food includes but is not limited to herbs, vegetables, fish, berries or mushrooms.
Foraging for berries and mushrooms is deeply rooted in Finnish culture.
A central aspect of this culture is ‘everyman’s right’, which refers to the right of everyone in Finland to enjoy outdoor pursuits – including nature’s nutritious yields – regardless of who owns or occupies a given area.
Eating freshly-picked wild blueberries from a forest is a unique experience in itself!
Food tourism and visits to wild nature inspire people, both in Finland and around the world.
There are already a few restaurants in Finland that serve dishes and event entire menus that are prepared using only ingredients sourced from nearby forests, which can be treasure-troves of nutritional gems, providing unique flavours from wild vegetables and herbs such as nettles, dandelions, horseradish, clovers, birch leaves and pine or spruce cones.
Chef Jyrki Tsutsunen is one of the leading advocates of wild food in Finland.
Tsutsunen, who prefers not to call himself a chef, employs a rather unconventional approach to food culture.
He prioritizes and promotes responsibility and ecology in modern gastronomy.
For years, Tsutsunen worked as a chef in the kitchen of the St. Petersburg Consulate and has had a strong influence on Helsinki’s fine dining scene.
Today, Tsutsunen works as a freelancer, organizing unique and memorable culinary and cultural events.
In addition to tasting experiences, Tsutsunen wants to bring other senses, memories and emotional states to the table.
Nearly all the food he serves and prepares for the events is made of ingredients he collected himself from nature. Tsutsunen’s imagination is limitless.
In his cuisine, he might use – in addition to more common wild herbs – like pine cones, lichens and ants, to name only a few.
To complement the culinary experience, the events also feature live music.
In the past, Tsutsunen has toured Europe on two different occasions to promote wild Finnish food.

Finnish Chef Jyrki Tsutsunen picks pine cones, which are best collected when they are young and small and after marination in sugar syrup become a delicious addition to desserts, in Porvoo, Finland. EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT.
Finnish Chef Jyrki Tsutsunen picks pine cones, which are best collected when they are young and small and after marination in sugar syrup become a delicious addition to desserts, in Porvoo, Finland. EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT.
Conifer tips are ready to be picked in Porvoo, Finland. EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT.
Sweet spruce syrup, a delicious product made by the sun slowly melting sugar in a jar with spruce tops and absorbing the flavours and aromas, resulting in a tasty syrup that is a widely used sweetener in many desserts, is produced in glass jars in Sulkava, Finland. EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT.
Wild pansy (Viola tricolor), a beautiful mild-tasting flower often used to garnish desserts and salads, grows in a forests in Helsinki, Finland. EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT.
Finnish Chef Jyrki Tsutsunen holds wild pansy (Viola tricolor), a beautiful mild-tasting flower often used to garnish desserts and salads, that grows widely in Finnish parks and forests, in Helsinki, Finland. EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT.
Finnish Chef Jyrki Tsutsunen picks wild pansy (Viola tricolor), a beautiful mild-tasting flower often used to garnish desserts and salads, that grows widely in Finnish parks and forests, in Helsinki, Finland. EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT.
Finnish Chef Jyrki Tsutsunen washes wild pansy (Viola tricolor), a beautiful mild-tasting flower often used to garnish desserts and salads, that grows widely in Finnish parks and forests, at his kitchen in Helsinki, Finland. EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT.
Chef Tsutsunen (C) offers a sticky stick with ants to a guest of his experimental dining event in Punkaharju, Finland. EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT.
Finnish chef Jyrki Tsutsunen presents a tray with tasting portions on spoons at his kitchen in Punkaharju, Finland. EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT.
Pieces of barley bread are garnished with marinated red onions, browned butter, vendace roe and dry-cured egg yolk at a kitchen in Punkaharju, Finland. EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT.
Everyman’s right in Finland grants everyone the right to pick mushrooms, berries, flowers and wild herbs from nature, such as these Cep mushrooms growing in a forest in Sulkava, Finland. EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT.
Everyman’s right in Finland grants everyone the right to pick mushrooms, berries, flowers and wild herbs from nature, such as this chanterelle mushrooms in a forest in Sulkava, Finland. EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT.
Chamomile, red clover, rosa rugosa and rosebay willowherb (fireweed) – dried to prolong their useability – are arranged in glass jars in Porvoo, Finland. EPA-EFE/KIMMO BRANDT.