My Dear Kitchen In Helsinki is a blog where I share recipes, interviews, food-related events and many other things since 2013. And now, since August 2020, it is the name of my podcast, which is a series of interviews with researchers, practitioners, activists, local producers and anyone else who are working on food-related issues.

First of all, here are the links:

Youtube: http://bit.ly/mydearkitcheninhelsinki
Itunes: https://apple.co/34ibAxG
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2HVfHIx

The podcast aims to attract the attention of not just other food researchers, food activists, or others working on and with food but of the general public. The podcast’s primary aim is to introduce and critically engage with food-related issues that might be unfamiliar for the general public and start a public discussion and debate. Its content focuses on food-related works in Finland or by people working in Finland because, first of all, this has been my home for ten years, and I am now vastly familiar with the issues in Finland. But besides this, while food is an exciting topic in Finland with new restaurants, new cuisines, new food events being explored all the time, the problems around food and the food system are not a part of the general public’s daily agenda. So, can we change this even a little?

I believe that the awareness, activation and inclusiveness of society in discussions surrounding food is one of the necessary steps to a sustainable food future for all. In this way, communities and individuals who are typically labelled just as passive consumers will have the opportunity to be active players in the food system. Everyone is welcome to listen to the interviews, critically question the problems, contribute to solutions, or create a sustainable path forward.

A food podcast as a series of interviews to explore the food system’s problems is certainly not a new idea. There are many podcasts, more than you want, out there like this. What makes “My Dear Kitchen in Helsinki” different is that it is a podcast in English solely dedicated to this question in Finland. The more I look for people to interview, the more extensive people I find in Finland. How do they related to each other? How many people are aware of their works? How many people know that there are many exciting food works coming out of Finland – not just delicious restaurants but also critical questions and intellectual understanding? I am exploring this and sharing it with Finnish society and the rest of the world.

As of today, June 4th, 2021, the podcast has 14 episodes. Some of the topics I covered so far are food sovereignty, food collectives and cooperatives, food justice, veganism and gender relations, sustainable food systems, and food sustainability complexity. There are many more issues discussed, and there are more coming.

I have created the “Podcast” menu above to connect the blog and the podcast. Whenever I publish a new episode, I will also write a blog post introducing the interviewee and the topic. I hope to write more on the issues discussed as well, but whether I will have time to be able to do this or not is yet to be seen. I hope I get your interest and support to do more!

I record the interviews at one take, and there is no editing except for sound adjustments. My dear friend Ufuk Evcimen, a sound engineer and the production manager in Storytel AB, a Swedish audiobook company, makes this adjustment.

Let’s get this podcast rollin’!