- Helsinki restaurants launch ten new takes on herring
- Event runs from 25 September to 10 October
- Ten kitchens participating including Nolla and Finnjävel Sali
- Best Herring Dish of the Year crowned on 4 October
- Helsinki Baltic Herring Market held continuously since 1743
Ten kitchens across Helsinki are serving a herring dish of their own design from 25 September to 10 October as part of a new event called Helsinki Baltic Herring Market in Restaurants. It is the first time the Herring Market, first organised in the mid-1700s, has spilled beyond the harbour and into the city’s dining rooms. The participating restaurants are Aoi, Elm, Finnjävel Sali, Gastro Cafe Kallio, Klaava, Maukku, Nokka, Nolita, Nolla and Sake Bar and Izakaya, each debuting a herring dish developed specifically for the event.
The concept was created together with Helsinki chef and restaurateur Luka Balać, whose own restaurants Nolita, Nolla and Elm are among those taking part. Each dish has been weeks in development with ten different answers to the same fish. Across the city, herring will be rolled, grilled, smoked and dressed in marinades that range from classic to unexpected, plated alongside house-baked breads and the season’s first harvest including pickled, fermented, caramelised and preserved ingredients.
Every restaurant will keep its dish on the menu throughout the full run. Judges from the Gastronomic Society of Finland will visit all ten kitchens to taste the competition, crowning the Best Herring Dish of the Year on the market’s opening day on Sunday 4 October. The Helsinki Baltic Herring Market itself is one of Finland’s oldest public events, held continuously since 1743. This year’s edition runs from 4 to 10 October at Market Square.
Saara Vanhala, Executive Producer of the Helsinki Baltic Herring Market, shared: “The Herring Market is Helsinki’s most important food event, and herring is one of our most important domestic ingredients. Bringing restaurants into the picture lets us build something more experiential: a market tradition that now reaches further across the city, where centuries of maritime food culture meet the kind of cooking Helsinki is known for today.”
