Michelin chef Kim Mikkola currently lives in Tallinn.
Now you can say that you are a top chef Kim Mikkola was just visiting Helsinki. In 2017 he came from Denmark, in 2022 he moved to Estonia.
During the Finnish translation, he managed a lot: He founded the Michelin-awarded Inari restaurant, opened a food truck, which grew into a chain, sold homemade food from the Koti by Kim Mikkola restaurant to take with you during the worst corona times.
Now Inari is closed and Mikkola has moved to Tallinn. What on earth?
Kim Mikkola is having a good time in Tallinn. Pasi Kostiainen
Mikkola doesn’t see anything strange about it. He asks himself: Why not?
After elementary school, the girl who grew up in a suburb of Helsinki moved to Salo to study, then back to Malmi, after which, according to her own words, she hasn’t really been from anywhere – at the same time, the whole world is home.
Now home is in Tallinn.
When he moved to Tallinn, he was a complete dead end, a tourist who only wandered around the center a few times.
Restaurant Kampai by Kim Mikkola offers Asian-inspired food. Eeva Paljakka
– I am at home in many cities. Although I worked for five years at the Copenhagen restaurant Noma, I lived in Asia for two and a half years. Tallinn is really interesting. And I haven’t seen even 20 percent of this, says Mikkola.
Mikkola’s goal is to make cool things. That’s his core idea.
– We have one life, so we have to do things we like, Mikkola states at the table of his Asian-inspired Kampai restaurant.
Kampai is located in Tallinn in the trendy Noblessner area, right by the sea. Eeva Paljakka
Combai is one neat thing. The second is Kotkot, which offers good food at an affordable price.
Kotkot is a chicken restaurant born in the corona era. When the restaurants were closed in 2020, Mikkola started digging through his ideas in the table drawer. He had always thought that one day he would like to have his own chicken restaurant. The moment had come.
When a food truck opened during the corona virus sold a hundred portions in four minutes, Mikkola knew he had done something right. The story of a small circle started to grow and a food phenomenon was born. The first restaurant was opened in 2021. Now there are four restaurants in the capital region, one in Tallinn, and expansion is planned.
Delicious food belongs to everyone. Mikkola has been of this opinion for a long time.
Kotkoti has an order machine in use, which, according to Mikkola, can offer the customer better service than a human. For example, there are dozens of language options. Pasi Kostiainen / Visit Estonia
At the moment, Mikkola strongly believes that now we need to raise the mood of the big group. Despite all its finesse, fine dining touches only a small part of people.
– Of course, there is nothing wrong with fine dining. Inari 2.0 is already drawn, but it’s not time yet, Mikkola reveals.
Kotkoti combines east and west, because that’s how it is in Asia too. Mikkola reminds that American soldiers have brought fried chicken to Asia. The strongest fried chicken culture is precisely in Vietnam, Korea and Japan.
Kim Mikkola wants everyone to have the opportunity to eat good food. Pasi Kostiainen / Visit Estonia
Mikkola praises the Estonian way of approaching things:
– There is a good culture of doing things here. I am in love with the Estonian attitude. When it’s done, it’s done. Things are taken care of. Fine by me.
Mikkola knows how to get things done herself.
After returning to Helsinki in 2017, it didn’t take long before Inari opened its doors. Mikkola and his team received a Michelin star in just over a year, were in newspapers, on television. He opened chicken restaurants, moved to Tallinn.
– Nothing is enough for me.
But sometimes you have to remember to brake. Mikkola has learned that too. One teacher has a daughter born last year.
Mikkola has given birth to a little commotion. It is related to the chickens used by Kotkot, which are not Finnish. However, the reason for the origin of the chickens is not in the price, but in the quality. Mikkola wants to use halal meat, which, contrary to some preconceived notions, has since 2009 been as ethically produced as other meat in the EU region.
Restaurant Kampai by Kim Mikkola is in an old submarine factory. Eeva Paljakka
The broilers come to order from a Baltic farm, they are certified, traceability and growing conditions are good, delivery reliability and uniformity, Mikkola lists reasons for choosing broilers in addition to halal meat.
Raised in northern Helsinki, he is used to multiculturalism. Hip-hop and rap circles are part of Mikkola’s youth.
– These chickens cost me more than Finnish chickens. Even though it’s a worse business, I want as many people as possible, regardless of religion, to be able to eat Kotkot’s chicken dishes.
The top chef laughs that some consider him a traitor and some consider him a really good guy. He already knows that you can never please everyone. There is always feedback, half of which is just criticism and half of the messages are praise.
Mikkola is interested in people and stories. According to him, the greatest wealth in traveling is seeing and hearing stories. He tries to bring them to his restaurant as well.
Mikkola thinks that food and dining are at their best a combination of chemistry, anthropology and psychology.
Kim Mikkola already has Inari 2.0 planned, but he still doesn’t know when and where the restaurant will see the light of day. Pasi Kostiainen
Among other things, the basic seasoning of Asian food, i.e. fish sauce, has an interesting history. Fish sauce was a highly used spice in the Mediterranean at the time of the Roman Empire, garum, a fermented fish sauce. It was as common as ketchup in our time.
– A Roman soldier never went anywhere without garum and sea salt. Then garum disappeared from the world for 500 years, until suddenly it started to be made in Asia. Nowadays it is the number one story in Asia. How has it moved from Europe to Asia? Mikkola ponders.
Mikkola’s restaurants are also a suitable mix of history, culture and delicacies.