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Tasting Nordic flavors with Chef Jaakko Sorsa
Authentic flavors: Finnish chef Jaakko Sorsa prepares a six-course dinner featuring Nordic cuisine to pamper the taste buds of guests during a visit to Jakarta
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span class="inline inline-center">Authentic flavors: Finnish chef Jaakko Sorsa prepares a six-course dinner featuring Nordic cuisine to pamper the taste buds of guests during a visit to Jakarta.
When it comes to cooking, Finnish chef Jaakko Sorsa wants to produce an eating experience that is not available at home.
When it comes to cooking, Finnish chef Jaakko Sorsa always tries to be clean and honest ' bringing the authentic flavors of Nordic dishes to Asia.
'With my dishes, you can really see the main ingredients that you are about to eat. The flavors all come from a modern cooking technique,' Sorsa said.
In his recent visit to Jakarta for The Underground Supper Club organized by DBS Bank and the Asian Food Channel, he presented his cooking philosophy in a six-course dinner featuring Nordic cuisines ' from fresh salmon and mushroom to duck breast and veal tenderloin ' that coddled the taste buds of his guests.
Sorsa said through his dishes, he wanted to produce an eating experience that was not available at home.
'People come to my restaurant to pay for the ingredients they couldn't get by themselves. For example, we have scallops that are shipped directly to Hong Kong from Norway that people couldn't find that in the supermarket,' he said.
Sorsa is the executive chef of the FINDS ' an acronym for Finland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden ' restaurant in Hong Kong, through which he promotes not only Nordic dishes, but also its culture.
Most of the food is prepared with the ingredients of Nordic countries and via typical European techniques such as smoking, curing and pickling. Seafood is often the highlight dish because Nordic people are surrounded by sea and lakes.
'Our food is very seasonal. In spring we have lots of mushrooms and then we have all different kinds of vegetables in the summer. In autumn, wild berries and duck are very common and it's also time to preserve things, including meat, to be presented during winter and on Christmas,' Sorsa said.
The restaurant's loyal customers are mostly non-Nordic, proving that his mission to become an ambassador for Nordic food has been a success.
'Back in 2004 when the restaurant was first built, nobody knew about Nordic food. So it's really interesting traveling around Asia and selling our story through cooking,' he said.
Sorsa first came to Hong Kong in 2004 when he was offered by his friend the opportunity to join a new Nordic restaurant. But his culinary journey actually began 20 years ago, when after high school, he found himself most attracted to the culinary arts.
'Watching my grandmother cook since I was little sparked my interest in cooking, but I never thought I would do this as a career. I was always interested in how the taste of one's cooking can be different from that of others,' he said.
He enrolled to the Perho Culinary School in Helsinki and later worked in several restaurants before he enlisted as a UN peacekeeper ' and chef ' in South Lebanon.
'It was an interesting cooking experience because you really didn't have main ingredients, so you had to import them. I cooked a lot of high-calorie food and meat,' he said.
After one year, he traveled to Fiji to work at a restaurant for a few months before returning to Helsinki to help out with a new restaurant called Chez Dominique. The new restaurant aimed to get a Michelin star ' the hallmark of fine dining quality for restaurants around the world.
'Our target was to get a Michelin star. And after working like crazy for two years, 100 hours per week, we got it,' says Sorsa, who wrote the Scapas Dining recipe book.
Not wanting to be the second-in-command anymore, he left his job as a sous chef at Chez and traveled again. This time, he went to Bermuda to work at the Fairmont resort for a couple of years before traveling to Canada and Switzerland.
He was also on the chef team preparing dinners for state official visits in the Presidential Palace of Finland and earned several royal experiences when he was asked to cook for Princess Takamado of Japan, the Princess of Sweden and the Princess of Saudi Arabia.
After some stints in some of the finest restaurants in the world, Sorsa finally settled in Hong Kong and built a family there.
Sorsa was recently recognized for the Foodie Fork Award as the 2015 Chef of The Year. Sorsa is looking forward to expanding his business in other Asian countries.
'I like the idea how food can really connect people together. And here in Asia, the people are curious about food, it's always at the center of a group discussion and eating itself becomes an important moment.'
'I love being in a place where people are so interested in food and talk about food all the time.'
' Photos Courtesy of DBS
