HELKA’S KITCHEN

Helkan Keittiö (Helka’s Kitchen) is a rich-in-atmosphere restaurant in which nature and design provide the setting for a Finnish restaurant experience. There are 155 seats that divide into three different rooms. One can find either a peaceful or a more open place for dining. The kitchen opens to the restaurant hall so the customers can watch the cooks working hard in the kitchen.

The chef of the restaurant has planned the menu seamlessly according to the overall concept. The menus change three or four times a year, but, when writing this article, for example lamb roast from the Åland Islands and roast goose from Hauhala farm are on the menu. The restaurant prefers Finnish producers in acquiring the raw materials. The Finnish climate can make it difficult to acquire some raw materials, so sometimes the kitchen has to use foreign suppliers. The focus is, always, on tasty food that has been prepared honouring Finnishness. On the á la carte list one can find both Finnish and international classics as well as innovative portions that are supplemented by carefully selected wines.

What comes to the wine selection: Finnishness is present also there, even though grape wines are not produced in Finland. One of the red wines of Helkan Keittiö is Francis Coppola Black Label Claret 2002. The vineyard currently owned by the famous movie director was founded by a Finnish sea captain Gustave Niebaum that got rich in fur business in 1879 and searched a proper farm from Napa Valley in order to establish a competing vineyard to the French, German, and Spanish top wines. In 1880, he established the vineyard Inglenook that, during decades, produced, according to critics, “the best wine of the whole world”. In 1975, the vineyard was bought by Francis Ford Coppola who continues the success story of Gustave and his estate. Genuinely Finnish wines are the berry wines of Finnish vineyards, and they are presented at the restaurant a couple of months at a time.

Also the restaurant Helkan Keittiö has been designed by Gullstén & Inkinen, the main partner being Artek. In the restaurant, the concept of Finnishness and nature are presented more strongly than in the hotel rooms: Sentimental pictures and birch trunks acting as coat racks remind guests of nature outside the city. The interior design of Helkan Keittiö is very successful and suitable for all-year activities – there is coolness for hot summer days, and warmth for the cold evenings of autumn and winter. Different kinds of guests can sit at the tables in perfect harmony, but there is also privacy when needed.

The clientele of Helkan Keittiö is evenly divided into three parts: In addition to hotel guests and bunches of friends; groups of a Finnish host/ess and foreign guests dine there. Helkan Keittiö provides its foreign guests a modern picture of Finnishness also concerning food: Ancient Finnish foods or exotic foods of Lapland are hard to find on the menu – unless one considers reindeer carpaccio as such. Also Finns can be surprised when eating at Helkan Keittiö. Finnish, carefully prepared food is excellent!