*DESIGN IN SOCIETY* Interview with Sasu Laukkonen from CHEF&SOMMELIER Restaurant, Helsinki.

*DESIGN IN SOCIETY* HELSINKI

SASU LAUKKONEN & IRANZU GUIJARRO. *Design In Society*

Sasu Laukkonen Chef&Sommelier Restaurant cook speaks to us about «The Beauty of the Tasting». During my last year in Helsinki, I had the chance to work in 2  Spanish Food Projects. One is Goola, an online food shop and Alambique Oy. Both wanted to bring the best tasting pieces of Spanish food to Finland. My last months, I have been visiting professional chefs in the city. One of them was Sasu Laukkonen. A creative, humble and marvelous cook! I knew him in one of my selling appointments and after 1 hour of conversation with him, I proposed to make an interview. It was amazing chat with him. His way of expressing and speaking about ingredients and food designs made me think more about the richness that we have in Spain. We have a high quality food and land. We are lucky!

Of course, everything has been possible thanks to my friend and best professional Jose M. Sanchez of Kinetic Pixels and my boyfriend, Tuomas.

Here you can watch and listen to the interview. Do it! It’s really relaxing and interesting chat! ;-)

SASU LAUKKONEN & IRANZU GUIJARRO. *Design In Society*. Behind the Scenes: Jose M. Sanchez as a camera man and Tuomas as a microphone man.

SASU LAUKKONEN & IRANZU GUIJARRO. *Design In Society*

Olive Oil Cortijo de Suerte Alta from Spain.

A TREASURE FROM THE HEART OF ANDALUSIA, SPAIN.

Ummm! Delicious…some drops after cooking and as we say in Spain «you can lick your fingers».

I’ve heard several times calling to Spanish Oil «Gold Liquid». Here I want to share with you one of my favorites oils from Spain, Cortijo de Suerte Alta Coupage. Coupage means that the oil is made with a mixture of different olives. In this case, picual, hojiblanca and picuda. The picuda, sweet at first, gives it a taste of leaves. The hojiblanca provides a pungent and grass sensation and finally the picual provides a light bitterness and the touch of figs and tomatoes.

In Helsinki you can find in gourmet shops or in Alambique Oy website. http://www.alambique.fi

Ummm! Delicious flavoured Olive Oils & Virgin Nuts Oils made in Spain. Azada.

Last week, I have been working in Viini, Ruoka ja Hyvää Elämä (Wine, Food and Good life) Fair with Alambique company in Helsinki. Clara Llamas, the founder of Alambique Finland, is bringing to Finland delicious and quality food products from different parts of Spain. I totally fell in love with Alambique’s selection of food products. I can tell you that she is doing an amazing selection for Finnish market.

Today, I am going to introduce you Azada’s Aromatic Olive Oils and Cold pressed Virgin Nuts Oils from Spain. Kevin F. Russel is the producer of these exquisite and beautiful oils. I met him during the fair and we were discussing about this.

After 2 days in Helsinki and in The Wine & Food Fair What are your feelings? I am delighted to be in Helsinki and to have had the opportunity to speak to our Finnish customers. They are tremendously savvy when it comes to specialty oils and I am happy to see that our oils are so successful in this food fair. We are used to attend food fairs for trade only but this fair has given us the opportunity to introduce our oils to a wider audience as it is open to public. We hope to come again next year.

The name of the fair in Finnish is «Viini, Ruoka & Hyvä Elämä»- Hyvä Elämä is Good life!! Tell us about the good life of being oil producer. Good life has a very strong meaning to us. It is part of our DNA. We are all about selling a lifestyle rather than a product. In fact, customers want to buy a story and not just a product. In our case, we like to say that we are selling a destination: We sell Spain in a bottle!

As you know, I’m working with Clara Llamas from Alambique Finland Company in Helsinki. When I watched and tasted your beautiful and intensive tasting oils collections, I got totally impressed and curious. Can you explain us how is Azada Oil Production? We are speciality oil producers with more than 15 different oils that fall into two categories: Flavoured oils made from the pressing of natural ingredients together with olives and virgin oils made from roasted nuts. Both lines follow a strict quality process to ensure the best premium oils. i.e. Spain is a prime nut producer. Our almonds, hazelnuts or pistachios have a distinctive flavour that the US, Turkey or Iran can’t meet. In addition, our commitment is with the local farmers. We rather protect our patrimony against working with an importer of nuts’.

We want to offer a taste of Spain in a bottle and our nut oils are a wonderful Mediterranean experience that can be used for both savory dishes as well as desserts. We are now working together with Michelin star chefs on recipes that can be easily prepared at home and we are also running some tastings at the best delicatessen shops throughout Finland so people can try our awarded oils.

Imagine that you have to choose your favorite oil, which would it be? I don’t have a favorite oil. It rather depends on what I will be cooking that day, I will use one or another.

For Kevin it is difficult to choose his favorite oil but for me I got really impressed with Lemon Aromatic Olive Oil…Amazingly you can separate the two flavours without any problem tasting the authentic of lemons and Olive Oil. When one product is done with love and wisdom, you can appreciate very easily.

Have a look to their web page and online shop. A Perfect Gift for Christmas!  www.azadaorganic.com

And, of course! If you are living in Finland have a look to Alambique’s web page. In some weeks, they are going to have a new online shop. www.alambique.fi