Stephen Interviews:
Chef Ari Nieminen
His current Website

hef Ari Nieminen (was)* the Executive Chef of Firebird, one of New York’s most unique and exciting restaurants. Since his childhood in Finland, Nieminen has had an appreciation and love of cooking that was inspired by his aunt who was a professional chef. His love and passion for food mirrors his love for life in all its diversity. To pay for his college studies he played in a rock band and entertained throughout Europe. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in Psychology, he attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York and went on to work with some of the most prestigious names in the restaurant world: Charlie Palmer, David Burke and Guy Reuge to name a few. Today he is one of the most sought after chefs on the television talk show circuit, and was recently named by Zagat as one of the top 24 chefs in New York City.

SV: When did you begin cooking professionally?
AN: I was about nineteen or twenty, but I actually studied languages and psychology first.

SV: I’ll bet that’s helpful in the kitchen.
AN: Yes, it’s very helpful in this profession. You have to counsel everybody from the front of the house to the back of the house. The chef is always at the center of everybody’s attention, and you have to do a lot more than just cook. SV: Tell us about your childhood in Finland.
AN: My family had a farm. Most of Finland is dairy farms. We had cows, chickens, rabbits, horses and pigs.

SV: So, all the food was very fresh.
AN: Extremely fresh.

SV: The cuisine of Finland is one that most people are not particularly aware of, but I know that the close affiliation with Russia has had an impact on Finnish food.
AN: The Russian influence upon Finnish cooking is more prevalent, but with a decidedly French influence. When I look at my Finnish cookbooks, my Swedish cookbooks, my Russian cookbooks, I think that the similarities come from the time when Finland was ruled by Russia. At that time you had the French chefs cooking at the Czar’s court. It was Empress Catherine the Great who first brought French chefs to Russia.

SV: What ingredients are used most often in Finnish cuisine?
AN: They use a lot of mushrooms and obviously freshwater fish. There are between sixty thousand and seventy thousand lakes in Finland. Finland is the “ Land of Lakes” and most of them have edible fish: Pike, Perch and so forth—as well as Herring from the Baltic.

SV: Who would you say has been the greatest influence on your style of cooking?
AN: First there’s the love I have for it— that probably comes from my family. My great aunt was a chef by profession. That gave me the love and respect for it.

SV: What type of cooking did your aunt do?
AN: She went to cooking school in the early 1900’s in Finland, taught by Russian chefs in Finland.

SV: So, she got the classic training.
AN: Very classic training. She gave me some of her recipes and notes from her school years. She cooked in restaurants and then she worked as a private chef in a household. A very, very rich household. They lived on an island on the southern tip of Finland.

SV: Ah, so she had an unlimited budget for her supplies.
AN: Pretty much...Well, she did that and then later on in her years she got married and had children and then settled down. They had a little farm nearby where I grew up. She used to take care of my brother and I when we were young. I became inspired by watching her cook and just doing things with her—like using leftovers. A lot of times cooking is really the art of using the leftovers and creating things from opening the fridge and pulling out a little of this and a little of that. An end piece of Ementhaler cheese would be left over and she would take that and create just the best cheese custard out of it! That could be served with the fish that we were having or a roast that we were throwing in the oven.

SV: Well, with an influence like that in your life, how could you not go into food!?
AN: In her house, she had a wood-burning stove and there would be like a grand jus going at all times. She would just keep adding stuff in there. It was the best thing on a cold winter day, to have a cup of that. You would dilute it with some water, because it was usually strong. You would have a cup of that just to warm you up. She cooked very classically. Going back quite a few years...like when a pig would get slaughtered in the Fall, the hams would be cured. Then on the second day of the butchering the intestines would be available and we would make sausage and blood pudding. I just knew it all. And I watched them make soap, cooking soap out of the excess fat that was rendered. I saw the perfect utilization of the entire animal. She even made glue herself! It was mind-boggling what she could do.

SV: What do you enjoy cooking most?
AN: I am very fortunate. I really love all of it! From charcuterie to pastry, to fish to meat.

SV: Do you have any favorite restaurants in San Francisco?
AN: We had two fantastic meals at Masa’s and Fleur de Lys.

SV: What style of music do you think goes best with a romantic dinner?
AN: I would have to say it depends upon the mood you are in. I tend to go for classical and I am partial to Sebelius.

SV: For a Sunday brunch I rather favor Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” What do you favor for a nice, light champagne brunch?
AN: If we have a champagne brunch at home, say with crepes, my wife plays Andrea Bocelli! I adore his voice.

SV: What kind of foods would you consider to be aphrodisiac in nature? That is, for a grand seduction, what would you serve?
AN: Champagne of course. In addition to that, truffles, caviar, paté de fois gras, and oysters never fail. The given aphrodisiacs that everybody knows, but if I were to prepare a very romantic dinner for two, say on our anniversary, instead of going out and I opted to cook, then a lot of it is the love that you put into it.

SV: What film has your favorite eating scene in it?
AN: A Chef in Love.

SV: Tell me about the scene.
AN: It’s the entire movie. The best scene is one where he is forming bread. It is just him in the kitchen with his wife and his helper. He is handling the bread very aggressively. They are not actually eating in that scene. He is making the bread and they get into a heated discussion. Throughout the movie it is the love that this chef has for his profession. This chef lived and breathed his passion. That is how I feel about what I do. If I were to describe myself, it would be with that movie.

SV: Tell us about what you have been doing with Firebird. Are you the first chef there, or the second chef?
AN: I am the second chef. A different chef opened the place and he left shortly thereafter. Firebird opened in November of ’96, and he left around Easter of ’97. They did a nation-wide search, and my name came up. They made an offer to me, and I went to visit and I fell in love from the first.

SV: Well, it brought you the honor of being one of the top chefs in New York!
AN: Yes. When I went there and saw it, everything about it just clicked.

SV: You cooked for quite a few stars in Hollywood, but I noticed a lot of celebrities at Firebird as well.
AN: Yes, last night Jeremy Irons was in. We also get a lot of big names from Broadway.

SV: This is a very demanding clientele.
AN: Yes, and if you capture them, if they come back because they loved what they had, that is the challenge. To stay fresh and keep the quality consistent. Obviously, these people have money, and if you capture them because they like what you do, they will keep you in business and afford you to do what you love to do the most. Which is to cook!

SV: You also feature live music at Firebird.
AN: Yes. In addition to the cabaret performances, we have piano and a harpist.

SV: What a lovely experience to go in and have a magnificent meal, enjoy a cabaret show, and then finish up with a little harp and piano, along with some champagne and an enticing dessert!
AN: It’s a whole experience. You come in, have your meal, and see a nice cabaret performance. Afterwards you go upstairs to the parlor and unwind with a honey vodka or a cognac and dessert while you listen to the harp.

SV: It’s like a pleasure palace.
AN: That is what the owner wanted it to be. It’s like visiting a Russian gentleman’s home, circa 1910, before the Revolution. Hence the different rooms. Every household like this would have a ballroom for their get-togethers, and a library, a parlor and so forth.

SV: Your wife Maria, she grew up in Sicily, and her grandparents have a winery and olive trees.
AN: Yes, in their compagnia they have all of that growing. Everyone is so self-sufficient there. I think, like Finns, they are people of the earth. They respect the land. They say if you spit on the ground in Sicily, then something will grow out of it. It looks so dry, when you fly over it, or drive around there, but, when you get to these compagnias, these little farms that they have, they are so full of life and vibrancy. If you pick a lemon off of a tree and eat it, it’s so heavy and so juicy and so sweet. It’s incredible. Like an eggplant. A little tiny eggplant, when you pick it up, you are so surprised at how much it weighs. Because it is so dense, and it is so sweet, that you can just slice it and put a little olive oil on it. Oil that they pressed themselves. What is wonderful about the olive oil is that the entire olive is pressed. So that it has the sediment in it and it’s not separated into cold pressed oil.

SV: You obviously have connections in Sicily; I trust you have some of that olive oil brought over.
AN: Yes. They put it in 5-liter jugs, and when somebody comes, they bring it. Or else they ship it in the mail. They also put their homemade sausages and stuff in there.

SV: What would you give as a tip to our readers for cooking at home?
AN: Patience, and always have your heart in it.

*Editor's note: Chef Nieminen is currently Executive Chef at The Water's Edge in N. Y. C..

Text © 2000 SYR Inc.

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