The Smaku event, showcasing the best flavours from local restaurants, will be held for the first time in Helsinki from 4 to 14 September. Over 20 restaurants and cafés will participate in Smaku Helsinki, and prepare tasting portions, known as Smaku dishes, designed to showcase the essence of their establishments.
Laura Varis, the founder of Smaku Events Oy and the event producer from the very beginning sums up its core idea:
“Smaku is a restaurant event based on locality. The participating restaurants create their own servings for the tasting, which is like a delicious business card. It tells you the go-to flavours for the restaurant.”
In Helsinki, localism will be celebrated by bringing Smaku to three different areas: Smaku Downtown, Smaku Kallio, and, unique to Helsinki, Smaku Sea.
During the event, you can vote for your favourite dish at the event website smakufestivals.com. The dish with the most votes will be rewarded at the end of the event.
All Smaku Helsinki restaurants and dishes can be found on the event website and in the Helsinki Food Guide app.
Feast Helsinki will continue in the autumn
At the beginning of the year, the City of Helsinki invited operators from the restaurant, tourism and events sectors to collaborate on planing a year dedicated to food at Helsinki. An open call attracted more than 130 food and drink experiences for the Feast Helsinki food weeks in early summer.
There are still dozens of events scheduled for autumn and the rest of the year. Smaku Helsinki is one of these.
“Smaku Helsinki supports our Feast Helsinki food year event nicely by highlighting local flavours and factors. There will also be plenty of other food and drink events in the autumn, such as Teurastamo's harvest festival, Hakaniemi Market Square's mushroom festival and larger food fairs – and, of course, the traditional Helsinki Baltic Herring Market,” says Nina Vesterinen, Helsinki's Tourism Manager.
In addition to events, the city also invests in strengthening the restaurant and event industry networks during the food year.
“As one of the experiments of the Feast Helsinki food year, we have implemented the Helsinki for Food Lovers restaurant guide tailored to the needs of companies in the travel and event industry. The guide showcases Helsinki as an interesting food destination in terms of food culture and lists the city’s most interesting restaurants recommended by industry experts,” says Vesterinen.
“We organised a successful Food for Thought seminar for industry professionals in the spring, and an industry networking and discussion event will also be held in the autumn.
All the events of the Feast Helsinki food year can be found in the city's event calendar and in the Helsinki Food Guide app.
Picks from Feast Helsinki's autumn programme:
- Smaku Helsinki, 4–14 September
- Street Food Siesta Lauttasaari, 6–8 September
- Teurastamo's harvest festival, 7 September
- Villi ruokavallankumous mushroom festival on Hakaniemi Market Square, 28 September
- Sake lecture and tasting, 5 October and 16 November
- Helsinki Baltic Herring Market, 6–12 October
- Viini & Ruoka wine and food fair, 24–27 October
- Liquorice and salty liquorice festival, 26–27 October
- Porkkanasta Picassoksi food art workshop, 5 November
- Helsinki Christmas Market 29 November–22 December
- Tea walks until 16 November
- Riimit & Viinit song workshop until 22 November
- Distillery tours until 28 December
