Finland’s Palace restaurant awarded a Michelin star

The Michelin Guide 2019 for the Nordics has been unveiled in Denmark, recognising excellent restaurants on a three-star scale. After a lengthy break and renovation of its historical premises, Palace returned to the list with one star under the leadership of one of Finland’s most significant chefs at the moment, Eero Vottonen.

“It feels wonderful that the immense passion we put into everything we do has been noticed beyond Finland as well,” said Vottonen. “We’ll continue to develop our concept in a holistic way to emphasise the complete experience and strive for a second star in the future.”

The 35-year-old chef sees the job as fundamentally a team effort. From the beginning, Palace has had a central role in training the next generation of chefs.

“These kind of rewards are very important from this point of view. Young chefs are able to see that, with hard work, it’s quite possible to reach the top of the world,” he elaborated.

In esteemed company

Palace is both the oldest and most recent Finnish restaurant to receive the esteemed recognition. Finland’s first Michelin star was awarded to Palace Gourmet, the forefather of the current establishment, in 1987. The chef in charge at the time was Eero Mäkelä.

“It’s wonderful to continue the work that Eero Mäkelä started. I don’t think there’s a chef in Finland who doesn’t respect him,” stated Vottonen.

This year’s edition of the Michelin Guide featured a total of six establishments in Helsinki, each of which was given one star for being a “very good restaurant in its category”. Other restaurants that kept their star status were Ask, Demo, Grön, Olo and Ora.