By Sourav Mandal
A worldwide food carnival and a movement that allows anyone to set up a restaurant, café or a bar.
The first ever Restaurant Day (Ravintola Paiva, in Finnish) was celebrated on May 21st 2011 and the food carnival quickly grew up to be the biggest food event in the world. Within five years, 26 600 pop-up-restaurants have been opened in 75 different countries and food has been served to approximately 3 million people.
The idea is simple, really. On a Restaurant Day anyone can set up a small restaurant, anywhere. This means ordinary people get to play chefs for a change resulting in a whole lot of fun and food plus wonderful meetings and memories, even odd ones. It’s a food carnival where anyone can open a pop up restaurant. It revolves around people who want to share food experiences with each other. Opening a restaurant, café or bar is a very common dream for many people; Restaurant Day offers a possibility to realise that dream.
It was founded by three Finnish guys Timo Santala, Antti Tuomola and Olli Sirén, who wanted to have fun without bothering about the complicated regulations required to formally open a restaurant.
Tips for people to enjoy Restaurant day – It’s better to do a bit of research and plan the route accordingly. It is quite an adventure exploring different types of cuisines all in one day. Don’t go with a pre planned schedule, it will be thoroughly exhilarating to let your mind wander, go with the flow and let your taste buds make your decisions. The home restaurants offer a unique blend of niche tradition and meticulous craftsmanship. You will be rewarded with a truly unique experience.
People who are planning to organize restaurants require some helping hands, planning for group activity, sharing and caring, reaching out to new customers, clever marketing and preparing the actual delicacies. Trying to be innovative and experiment with new recipes is the keyword for success.
I thoroughly enjoyed tasting the various delicious recipes from all corners of the globe, including our own North Indian and South Indian food. It brings people from diverse cultures together who get to know one another while tasting different cuisines from various countries. Truly it is a melting pot of various nationalities, cultures and food enthusiasts. It was a unique exploratory journey for me as I experienced more about world cuisine in one day than I had earlier. It is a microcosm of the culinary habits which characterises our diverse planet.
Official Restaurant day website link http://www.restaurantday.org
(Sourav Mandal is originally from Durgapur, West Bengal. He has been living in Finland for the last 4.5 years. He completed his Masters in “Service Management” from Aalto University, Helsinki and has been working in ICT sector here. )
