The Michelin restaurant closes its doors – The tables were fully booked in 2 hours

In Helsinki, a restaurant that has been a top chef closes its doors on May Day Sasu Laukkonen life’s work. Laukkonen, who has achieved both a Michelin star and a green star for Ora, is a restaurateur who has never wanted to hide in the kitchen.

Ora has become known as a restaurant where Laukkonen takes table reservations personally, and where he presents the stories behind the dishes among the customers. Ora has always been the same as Laukkonen, and it has been a conscious choice of the top chef.

When a restaurant focuses on one person, it brings with it responsibility and pressure. People don’t always understand that when they see Laukkonen happy in his restaurant or when they receive a phone call from him personally.

Laukkonen has a daughter who is 13 years old. The top chef has had the restaurant for 12 years.

– It is not difficult to guess whose house I have spent all the evenings and weekends at, says Sasu Laukkonen.

That’s why Laukkonen sent a press release at the beginning of February, where he said he would close Ora’s doors after May Day. Two hours after the publication of the announcement, the restaurant’s tables were fully booked for the last months. There have been 17–36 table parties in line every evening.

– I have always loved my job and the fact that I have been able to decide how to run my restaurant. I also like that I can make the decision to quit myself.

The top chef turns 48 this summer. It’s time to take better care of yourself.

Let’s go to Sasu’s to eat

The story of the restaurant located on Huvilakatu began in 2010, when Laukkonen founded the Chef & Sommelier restaurant together by Johan Borgar with. The restaurant focused on organic food received a Michelin star in 2014.

When the story of Chef & Sommelier came to an end, Ora was born in 2017. Ora was Laukkonen’s own masterpiece, focusing on Finnish ingredients.

– When other restaurants began to appear around Chef & Sommelier, which focused on organic and local food, I realized that I had to jump further. For the first couple of years, I watched how others handled table reservations. They often had to ask me something, so over time it started to become a burden and I took matters into my own hands.

Ora began to profile more and more in Laukko.

– There are two ways to run a restaurant. The first is that you want to make money. It is challenging in this field. And then you have to think about the reason why customers keep coming back. The other way is to put yourself in a box.

Laukkonen chose the latter. He wanted to be the reason why customers would return to the restaurant again and again.

– I had already reached the stars. I didn’t feel like I had to compete with them. It was a race with myself: how quickly could I get the customers to talk about going to Sasu to eat, not just going to Ora to eat.

The word hurry.

Ora also became known as a fine dining restaurant, where the menu was served as needed, for example vegan. This is not a given in high-end restaurants, but Laukkonen decided to take special diets as an opportunity. The more she made vegan food, the more ticklish it became.

– Why wouldn’t I want more customers? I have experienced special diets as a calling card.

The more tired, the bigger the charm

The unsustainability problems related to fine dining restaurants have been a topic of conversation this past winter after Noma, chosen as the world’s best restaurant, announced its intention to close. Humane working hours and a profitable business are often difficult to reconcile.

– In 27 years, I have done 50 years’ worth of work, if compared to an ordinary employee in another field. I would regret it if I hadn’t made the decision to quit, but now I don’t regret anything, says Laukkonen.

Over the years, he has humanized his own working hours whenever possible. Whereas Chef & Sommelier was open five days a week, Ora has only been open four. He does not deny that running a restaurant is difficult.

– The more tired it is, the more it twists in ecstasy. A psychologist would say this is wrong, and yes, we all know how contradictory this is.

– But there is solidarity in the industry that cannot be found elsewhere. If something goes wrong, it’s not easy to leave your coworkers in trouble. Do I even need to comment if it makes sense because I’ve still loved this job.

According to Laukkonen, the problem of unsustainability does not only apply to the fine dining world, but also to mid-level restaurants, even if you get some kind of compensation for overtime.

– If you ask about restaurant workers from other sectors, it quickly becomes clear that people from the restaurant industry don’t ask when the break is, instead they ask if they need to work overtime.

Laukkonen believes that change will happen in the industry, but it will take time, because the old operating models are stuck. However, there will be pressure on employers, which will inevitably cause change, albeit slowly.

– Within a year, I’ve also had people apply who asked how many evenings off and weekends off they get a month.

The last holiday

But let’s go back to the beginning of February. Before Laukkonen published anything, he contacted his loyal customer, who has spent May Day in Laukkonen’s restaurants with his entourage for the past 12 years straight. Also in the corona year, although then remotely. Laukkonen promised that there would be no worries, he would organize May Day for them one last time.

Then he sent a message to the 150 customers who visited Ora the most. In an email, he explained his decision. Laukkonen wanted to give loyal customers the opportunity to make a table reservation before the information was made public. Because that’s the kind of man he is, valuing his customers until the last service.

Now May Day is at the door. On Monday, May 1, Laukkonen will offer, among other things, wild duck and pheasant to two loyal groups of customers in Ora. There will also be pickles that will travel to the Kaskis restaurant in Turku after May Day. Laukkonen is happy that they will not go to waste.

After lunch, the doors close for the last time, and the top chef, known for his high work ethic – who never drinks alcohol during working hours – maybe clinks a glass of sparkling wine before it’s time to clean the restaurant for the last time.

The last few months have been busy due to practical arrangements. There has been a new kind of atmosphere in the settings. Customers have brought Laukkonen homework gifts and flowers. They speak their own language about the fact that people have really come to “Sasu to eat”, not just to Ora.

– This has been pretty incredible.