A unique, vegan and zeitgeist-driven lunch spot located next to the breathtaking nature reserve at Finnish Design Shop’s headquarters in Turku. This architectural marvel, situated alongside the showroom, is a stunning place to visit while enjoying the rich tones of the surrounding woodland. The boundary between forest and restaurant blurs as Tallberg introduces one-of-a-kind, year-round, foraged ingredients and health-boosting themed-lunches. Open to the public as well as serving the Finnish Design Shop staff. Throughout June, July and September, Tallberg held several wild food-themed Saturday brunches, and executed multiple larger events up to 200pax.
Beyond conceptualising and launching the restaurant, Tallberg managed all aspects - from kitchen design and equipment procurement to licensing and menu development around local, seasonal superfoods. He built a hefty recipe bank, hired and trained the team, and managed operations for the first 18 months, establishing solid daily routines that enabled the team to smoothly take over running responsibilities.
Summa summarum (Norwegian expression, we don’t use in UK?): a chic and innovative, vegan-driven, completely dairy and gluten-free offering was suddenly available in a brand new, unexpected spot of Turku.
Entire food and drink menus were created around annual and seasonal cycles with vast amounts of micro seasonal ingredients such as birch sap, 30+ edible wild plants, and 30+ edible wild mushrooms. Polypores such as chaga and reishi featured on the menu, alongside a wide range of Finnish wild berries.
PHOTOS: Finnish Design Shop, Betoni, Sanna Gebeyehu, Liisa Valonen, Tommi Anttonen