East or West, Home Cooking is Best
To celebrate the christening of his son, chef Jaakko Nuutila decided to bake Namibia’s first Karelian pasties. He had the dough base sent by post from Finland, and getting rye flour involved a 600-kilometre journey. The pasties went like hotcakes.
Karelian pasties are traditional Finnish fare. When homesickness crept up on Jaakko Nuutila in Africa, it was through these pasties that he recreated the authentic and delightful taste of Finnish food, which has remained his favourite even though his vocation as a chef has taken him all around the world.“Of course people in other places know their farming too, but our northern climate helps keep plant diseases and pests in check, meaning that only a minimum of pesticides is required. When the fruits of the forest and the fields are clean and unspoilt, the game animals that live off them are also of excellent quality.”
Jaakko Nuutila is fanatical about whatever he does. As the freshly elected director of the Finnish Culinary Team, Nuutila took over the mission to show the quality of Finnish cooking. The chefs went straight to the Finnish Government in order to set things in motion.
Nuutila is also seeking to raise the international profile of Finnish chefs. As former captain of Finland’s championship cooking team, he wants to revitalize the team and show the world that Finns can cook, too.
“This year, Finland will be celebrating 90 years of independence, and this should also be made manifest in our cooking. We never went through a stage of haute cuisine; besides, not so long ago there was so little food that many people did not know in the autumn whether they would still be alive in the spring. Yet our food has strong basic flavours, and we know where it comes from and how it was produced,” Nuutila argues.
BY RIITTA MUSTONEN
PHOTO BY KREETTA KUOKKANEN
