First Vegan Fine-Dining Restaurant Opens in Finland

Finland’s first all-vegan fine-dining restaurant recently opened in Helsinki. VILLD was founded by self-taught chef and food entrepreneur Ossi Paloneva, who took on the challenge of creating a wild-food concept restaurant in a fine-dining atmosphere. “In fine dining and the more ambitious scene of cooking vegan has quite surprisingly not existed before us,” Paloneva told VegNews. “I waited for a couple of years for someone to take on the challenge, but no one did.” Paloneva was previously part of a team that created Finland’s first waste-food restaurant and worked as its head chef. For VILLD, Paloneva makes use of local plants such as lupin, hemp, and rural grains, and forages most of the ingredients used in the kitchen. “By using traditional cooking techniques like smoking, fermenting, sprouting, and dehydrating, we turn the ingredients into powerful multi-sensorial experiences,” Poloneva said. The restaurant offers an experimental menu that changes based on the ingredients available. It features signature dishes such as cold wood sorrel soup with smoked lupin and charred onion, and drinks such as homemade kombucha, kefir, and herb cold brew.