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06.12.2024

READ HOW OUR RESTAURANT LINEUP IS BUILT

À la Park was born from its creators' passion for food, drinks, and music, and the team is full of true food enthusiasts. From the very beginning, the goal has been to create an exceptionally high-quality culinary experience. To achieve this, the team sought a restaurant industry professional with experience in cooking under festival conditions. The festival’s restaurant lineup is overseen by chef, catering entrepreneur, and media personality Pipsa Hurmerinta, who we first started discussing with as early as winter 2024.


How did you get involved with À la Park?

“I first heard about the idea in the beginning of this year when the festival team reached out to me. Right away, I thought this was an amazing concept, as nothing like this has been done in Finland before. The festival will feature a lineup of the most interesting and current restaurants.”


What makes a restaurant interesting?

“The most fascinating and inspiring thing about a restaurant is the passion behind it and the fact that the people involved are doing what they genuinely love. That’s always cooler than overthinking what others might want to experience. The most interesting thing is people doing what they absolutely want to do.”


What is missing from Finnish food or restaurant culture?

"I’d like to see even more diversity and boldness in Finnish food and restaurant culture. We already have more of it than before, but especially in fine dining, there’s been little representation of for example diverse ethnic food cultures."


What kinds of concepts are you hoping to see from À la Park's restaurants?

“I’ve told everyone I’ve spoken with to come up with something special. It would be great to see something surprising from every restaurant. Something outside the box, not just the same dishes they usually have on their menus. It’s always more fun for both the creators and the diners when there’s a chance to experiment and have fun.”

"Each restaurant coming to À la Park will also work with me to plan their festival menus. It’s important to ensure there’s no overlap in the offerings and that the dishes and concepts are as varied as possible. It doesn’t benefit anyone if the menus feature similar dishes or concepts that are too close to each other."


What’s your go-to everyday meal?

"Our family’s go-to weekday meal is definitely tacos—we eat them a lot. They’re so versatile and always delicious. And you can also get tacos at Meripuisto!”


The menus of the restaurants participating in À la Park will be designed in collaboration with the curator to ensure a comprehensive offering, with no redundancies or duplicate dishes. So far, only the first names in the festival’s restaurant lineup have been announced, but there’s a lot happening behind the scenes. Expect plenty of updates about both food and drink offerings soon!