Tuesday 27th November

Welcome words
Welcome words by the Deputy Mayor of Helsinki, Mr. Hannu Penttilä, bio of Penttilä

Operation Abattoir

The Abattoir is a new urban cultural and culinary melting pot with a laid-back atmosphere, just around the corner of Kallio and other up and coming districts. The listed red-brick buildings of the Abattoir originally served as a slaughterhouse. Small indie restaurants, foodie events and artisan shops are now welcoming locals as well as visitors that want to experience Helsinki “off the beaten track“. Slowly The Abattoir area will become a lively extension to Helsinki’s other stylish cultural hot spots, such as the Cable Factory, Korjaamo, and Suvilahti.

The Abattoir is in food terms “fresh from the oven” as a public place, but getting here has been quite a ride, but what’s really exciting is the fact that the future of the area is being shaped right now. Experience “the living lab” and hear about the next steps of this constantly evolving creative food hub. Can a former slaughterhouse in an basically abandoned hood survive and actually blossom?

Presented by Mr. Ville Relander, Project Manager at the City of Helsinki

Food, culture and modernity in Finland

Professor Johanna Mäkelä is the first professor of Food Culture in Finland. She started at this position in 2012 in the University of Helsinki. Her main research topics are food and consumption sociology, practices and changes of eating, corporate responsibility, sustainability and participatory methods.

Presented by Ms. Johanna Mäkelä, Professor of Food Culture, University of Helsinki, bio of Mäkelä

Food Hubs

Many farmers and ranchers, especially smaller operations, are challenged by the lack of distribution and processing infrastructure of appropriate scale that would give them wider access to retail, institutional, and commercial foodservice markets, where demand for local and regional foods continues to rise.
Food hubs can help. By offering a combination of production, aggregation, distribution, and marketing services, food hubs make it possible for producers to gain entry into new and additional markets that would be difficult or impossible to access on their own. Snohomish County has developed a unique model that creates demand and provides services to local producers.

Fukuoka is one of the best gourmet towns in Japan. The city is blessed with abundance fresh sea foods and a variety of ingredients that are used in Mizutaki (chicken broth hot pot), Ramen noodle, Sashimi and Mentaiko (spicy pollack roe) as well as other local cuisine. These food products are highly evaluated as "Fukuoka-brand" both at home and overseas.

In addition, Fukuoka is also famous for the street stalls, known as yatatai, which are rarely found in other parts of Japan, provide a special place where people can enjoy delicious dishes while chatting with strangers sat beside them. This presentation will introduce the charms of Fukuoka foods along with public-private partnership initiatives for creating a more attractive city using its own local foodstuffs.

The Cultural Sauna

The Kulttuurisauna is a new urban, contemporary Finnish public sauna on the Helsinki waterfront. It is a low-carbon sauna that runs on renewable energy and is eco-efficient. Nene Tsuboi, a Japanese designer and Tuomas Toivonen, a Finnish architect are in charge of the designing, constructing, financing and running of Kulttuurisauna. They will combine bath-keeping and design as
their future profession.

Optional site visit to the Cultural Sauna and bus transfer to the hotel