Team event with my colleagues happened to be on the same day as the Night of the Arts. The topic of our event could not be more suitable: it started with the food for the soul by visiting the Taidekoti Kirpilä and was crowned with the superb food for the body at Chef&Sommelier.
Taidekoti Kirpilä is actually a little museum in an apartment. In 1988 the owner of the exposed collection died and in his testament left all his art items to the Finnish Cultural Foundation with the only condition: he wanted the collection to be available for public. Now his home is transformed into museum and is open for visiting twice a week.
Mostly collection represents paintings of Finnish artists, for their admirers this place is a must-see. I did not dare taking pictures of those pieces of art, they should be seen with your own eyes.Overall the collection counts about 350 paintings. But apart from the paintings, there were some sculptures and interesting interior objects, like the ones below.
We had a guided tour, so had the pleasure to hear the stories of some pieces. Like the one about the monkey statue: whenever guests would ask the collector where his portrait or sculpture was, he would point to this guy :)
Next stop in our Night of the Arts was little restaurant, that got a Michelin star, Chef&Sommelier. The dining room is really small, tables need to be booked weeeeeeeeeeell in advance, but this was a real experience! For that night I forgot about the diet and just ENJOYED every single bite.
The menu contains only a few items and from the names you would never know what is the food that you get, you only get to choose the ingredients you want. The ingredients change all the time, as the fruits or vegetable get ripe. Menu is updated every couple of weeks. The concept is to choose from 3 to 9 courses. The Chef has some land close by Helsinki, where he grows lot of the vegetables and herbs himself. Other ingredients have all their stories, that Chef tells when the food is served. It feels like you just came to see your good friends, who are happy to make best food for you from the best available ingredients and accompany it by the best drink they got in their cellar. There are no waiters, Chef and Sommelier do all by themselves.
Sommelier has a great collection of wines, that he orders from all aver the world, so no chance to find them in Alko :( He can help you pick fantastic combination of drinks to your food.
Of course the bread is also "homemade", as well as butter.
The Chef likes to treat his guests with some little surprises :)
This "bonus" was called "parsley and beetroot".
Pike perch and herbs.
Mushrooms and roots.
Lamb and tomatoes.
One more surprise from the Chef: orange sorbet.
Cheese plate
Fennel and apple.
And one more surprise: cauliflower and licorice ice-cream.
This meal was all about Art. Both food and service were exceeding any expectations. I am sure this place will be revisited many many many times. The prices are not really cheap, but the whole experience was worth every cent of it!
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