Helsinki Baltic Herring Market pre-event brings unique herring dishes to Helsinki restaurants

For the first time, the Helsinki Baltic Herring Market in restaurants event will bring delicious herring dishes to ten Helsinki restaurants from September 25th to October 10th. The restaurant collaboration is part of developing the Helsinki Baltic Herring Market into an even more experiential event that spreads wider across the city, where a centuries-old market tradition meets modern maritime food culture, summarizes the Herring Market’s executive producer, Saara Vanhala.

The even bigger Helsinki Baltic Herring Market will once again enliven the Helsinki autumn with an even more diverse selection at the Market Square in early October. This autumn, you can start awakening your taste buds as early as September, when ten restaurants in the heart of Helsinki organize Helsinki Baltic Herring Market in restaurants theme weeks in their own establishments starting on September 25th.

The restaurants creating their own unique herring dishes are Aoi, Elm, Finnjävel Sali, Gastro Cafe Kallio, Klaava, Maukku, Nokka, Nolita, Nolla, and Sake Bar & Izakaya. The new concept has been developed together with Helsinki-based chef and restaurateur Luka Balać, whose restaurants Nolita, Nolla, and Elm are participating in the event with their own herring dishes.

“In my opinion, the Herring Market is Helsinki’s most important food event, just as herring is one of our most important domestic ingredients. I want to showcase this again in the light it deserves.”

The development of the herring dishes has been underway for weeks, and soon there will be a treat for the taste buds in ten different ways. In these dishes, the uncomplicated yet ingenious ingredient—herring—is treated with insights that celebrate the versatility of the “small great fish.” The ten restaurants will serve herring rolled, grilled, smoked, and flavored with various marinades. The flavor palette is complemented by various breads, fresh seasonal treasures, and pickled, fermented, caramelized, and preserved summer delicacies that fit perfectly with autumn.

Each participating restaurant will serve its customers one uniquely developed herring dish between September 25th and October 10th. The Gastronomic Society of Finland will visit the restaurants to sample the offerings and award the “Best Herring Dish of the Year” on the opening day of the Helsinki Baltic Herring Market, Sunday, October 4th.

One of Finland’s oldest public events, the Helsinki Baltic Herring Market, which has been organized since 1743, will take place from October 4th to 10th, becoming even larger and more versatile as a combination of archipelago traditions and modern food culture. The full program for the market week will be published on Wednesday, September 16th.