Tommi Tuominen’s Finnjävel has a Michelin star

In early September, a restaurateur and chef Tommi Tuominen was pulled.

We lived in exciting times. The most prestigious honors in the restaurant world, the Michelin stars, were again handed out.

Tuominen received a call stating that the Michelin organization wants to be in video contact with them while filming the interview.

Could this be Finnjävel’s first star?

Tuominen laughs the emotions that went on the roller coaster then, as the restaurant manager planted in front of the TV group Otto Sovenius and Tuominen heard that Finnjävel was awarded the Service Award for the best service in the Nordic countries.

Nice. What a disappointment.

However, it was not allowed to be shown in front of the TV camera.

– The confession is great, but when you have been waiting for a star, it didn’t really feel anywhere, Tuominen describes his feelings at the time.

– Koitin is cheerful. At first, I didn’t even know what the new recognition was all about. It is a super hard thing now that I know that only one of them was distributed to the whole of the Nordic countries. Fortunately, our first reaction was cut off from the final tape.

But right after that, it was reported that Michelin would have another piece of news as well.

The star came from there.

As the only Finnish chef and restaurateur, Tuominen has two Michelin stars, one at Finnjävel Salon and the other at Demo.

But the profession of a chef was not a childhood dream. The import drifted into it.

The young man who graduated from elementary school dreamed of a career as a professional snowboarder, but his mother had a different opinion about it.

– I accidentally ran into a professional kitchen. I was a restless guy, so the average wasn’t enough for high school. The mother insisted on going to vocational school. Big brother had attended a restaurant school on the kitchen side, so I left the same footprints.

Tuominen was not enthusiastic about the job of a chef at school either, but his first internship Jyrki Sukulan The pearl changed everything.

– I saw what that job was in a real professional kitchen. I got excited. It had momentum and dangerous situations.

There was no harm in the fact that the hottest nightclub in town was in the same building.

At the gigs of the catering company, Tuominen saw a beautiful and brave life.

There were tough factors in Helmi’s kitchen, such as going to London Helena Puolakkawho currently runs Savoy ‘s kitchen in Helsinki.

– I immediately got a good lesson. At the same time, I got used to the hard pace of work and the mood of doing things.

With a friend and partner Henri Alén presented Tuominen with the business idea of ​​the first Finnjävel, which opened in the South Coast in 2016, he was at least skeptical. Or let’s say directly:

– I thought it was insane.

But as Tuominen thought for a moment, it became clear to him how things would work. The fine dining restaurant, which prepares traditional food, had to think far enough and bold enough. The half-wool would not work.

Finnjävel Salonki, which now operates in the Art Hall, is what Tuominen’s goal was from the very beginning. There are only 35 seats in the cabinet, the portions are technical, sophisticated, the menus are carefully thought out, the drama arc works.

According to Tuominen, traditional food must be shaped into a special, elegant and modern form so that it no longer looks what it once was. But the world of taste is exactly the same.

– Everything has to be taken this far for traditional food to work. It’s not enough to just make really good food.

In the restaurant, which relies on traditional Finnish food, the ingredients are not lobster or duck liver, but potatoes, roots, meat, fish, berries and mushrooms that are familiar and common to us.

The price of the menu is not based on the high cost of the raw materials, but on the huge amount of craftsmanship and skill. It may have taken a total of ten hours to make one dose.

The experience offered by the salon, despite its familiarity – or because of it – brings the feelings to the surface. Many are sensitive to food.

The basic flavors are memories of Grandma’s dining table. It provokes the strongest reactions of all.

– The customer may have prejudices about the dose. Few even remember eating fat from childhood. Then that memory comes from somewhere and pam, tears well up in my eyes. Many tell us that this is just like in childhood.

The food tradition rises from our own history and is therefore relevant.

The raw materials for Finnjävel Salong’s fat are the same as they used to be in the grandmother, and except for potatoes, they are even in their original form.

The pork ribs are sliced, cooked and stewed to maturity, accompanied by a traditional brown flour-sized brown sauce. Only the appearance of the dose has been changed.

However, Tuomu is in a hurry that, of course, the intensity of the experience is affected by what Grandma has been like. Not everyone has eaten fat.

Tuominen and Alén encountered a problem with the original Finnjävel: there is no good meat available in Finland.

– We have destroyed our own food tradition. The meat of cattle and pork has been modified differently than it has been before, Tuominen gasps.

He notes that big meat houses sell what customers want to buy. If the customer wants completely dry, completely skinless and completely lean and tasteless pork meat, it is produced.

Gradually, change is taking over the entire market, leaving no room for small, differently operating breeders.

– 50 years ago, meat fat was exactly that. It also has a taste. No nonfat pouches taste good at all.

Bringing ashes that we have a deep-seated idea that fat is bad. He hopes for reasonableness.

– I’m not saying that the fat should be poured into your mouth all the time, but every now and then it’s damn good.

Eventually, Tuominen and Alén found a breeder in Finland with a small number of piglets living in good conditions. They get exactly the percentage of fat pigs they want.

Although Tuominen thinks that all meat production has been going in the wrong direction, he has recently noticed a change for the better.

Here, too, you have to try and restaurants with your fingers in the game. In order to correct the trend that began in the 1980s, work has been done in restaurants for 10-15 years.

Gradually, customers start getting used to the fatter meat and find that it tastes much better.

Tuominen regularly researches various publications, such as dissertations and dissertations, which may contain research information on traditional foods. He picks up thoughts and ideas from all over.

There are no more traditional foods and no more are coming.

Sometimes old portions are recycled or a completely new version of the food is made.

Before the food is in front of the customer, there may be several months or years of development work behind it. Sometimes the dose goes straight to the finish.

Only those who are far enough away from the original will receive final approval. There is no attempt to imitate it.

– We can’t compete with the original. Our fish rooster will never succeed in Partanen’s fish rooster.

For the past year, Tuominen has made a rice pudding his favorite.

– It was so beautiful and delicious in all its simplicity. Such successes rarely come.

Bringing it has already learned that not all flavors please everyone. And he’s not even trying to please.

Otherwise, lose your own line.

And then you don’t get Michelin stars.