Inside Nolla: How Chef Paddy is Redefining Sustainability in Helsinki’s Food Scene
Published on: September 2, 2025
Social Pantry’s second trip to this incredible city and what a trip! We sat down with Paddy to talk about what it really means to run a zero-waste kitchen, how working at Nolla has shaped his approach to cooking and why sustainability should be on every chef’s menu.
What made you most excited about a staging at Restaurant Nolla?
For me it was the prospect of returning into a high-quality busy restaurant service. I know that eventually I’d like to go back into restaurants in one way or another, so I was keen to keep my skill set going there. That, and my intrigue into how Nolla were approaching their USP of being a zero-waste restaurant. I was excited to see the methods used to get to that ‘zero’ and understand Albert and teams’ attitude towards it.
What were your first impressions of the kitchen and the way the team works?
The kitchen itself was a fascinating space; small but practical, with no space unused. Everything had a place and by day two I knew where it all was. It reminded me of a pub I worked at in Melbourne. The team worked efficiently and were very focused on getting the job done whilst maintaining an ethos of sustainable cookery.
Was there anything that surprised you about Nolla’s approach to zero waste?
I think it was how into the detail they’ve gone. Factors one would generally not think about considering, had been considered. From the sourcing of the alcohol-based sanitiser, to looking at a box of offcuts, separating them and drying, fermenting, pickling each bit. That, and the adaptability to the waste using it straight away. I had some pulp from tomato oil that I made, which was made from dried skins and vines. I asked about what I should do with it, and chef just told me to put it in the vegan XO sauce that was made that day. Albert said he received a box of pineapple skins from a juice supplier, to make vinegar out of. He wouldn’t have used pineapple otherwise as it wasn’t a native Finnish product.
How did working in a different country and culture influence your experience as a chef?
It made me understand that kitchen language is universal, there just might be some slight tweaks which you have to get used to but that comes quickly after a busy service. It was great to see different fish, meat and vegetables. I got to work in a city that could easily work directly with farmers, providing everything in reusable, returnable containers, or without packaging at all. The mushroom man brings the mushrooms in personally, you get a container, transfer it and off he goes. In the meanwhile, each supplier will stick around for a chat, having a quick discussion about what’s going out and what’s coming into season. It’s a great way to work with food. With regards to the culture, the kitchen and restaurant staff were from a mix of different cultures, so gauging the Finnish culture of kitchens was perhaps a bit overshadowed by such a heavy mix of nationalities. All the kitchen team showed me from that point is that working in a kitchen is for everyone from anywhere.
Nolla is known as Europe’s first zero-waste restaurant — what does “zero waste” look like in practice in a professional kitchen?
You’d expect it to start with the food, but it doesn’t. It starts with the disposables and making them disappear with innovative but simple changes. Once that’s sorted, you can work on the food. Menu creation should be adaptable, with BOH and FOH being able to change the menu understanding at an hours’ notice. Attitude towards the cause should be followed and accepted by all members of the team, so they can shout about it to the guests, and so they can work with the team when they are perhaps not following the ethos. The food ethos should be utilising seasonally, working directly with suppliers to get the best quality at the best time of year. Every inch of waste or by-product should be questioned and equipment necessary to process the waste to become a new ingredient should be available to use. Storage of such should also be available. Once the food and disposables are sorted, you can then look at the service-ware, the cleaning options and educating the guest.
Did you notice any small, everyday habits or systems in place that really make a difference to reducing waste?
It was great to see wooden cutting boards, different towels for different uses (no blue roll), lids for all containers, no foil or cling film & no disposable gloves, just good basic hygiene. The water for cleaning down surfaces was ozonated, making it disinfecting and antibacterial. This stopped the use of washing up liquid. The sanitiser was an alcohol by-product of the distilling industry. All lab tested for safety.
Were there techniques or processes you think Social Pantry could adopt or adapt back in London?
Yes, I think a round table with all senior chefs would help ensure some of these practices could be put into place. Having an onsite composter in some sites would be useful, but we would need to understand where the compost could go from each site.
How did the team approach sourcing, storage, and using ingredients creatively to avoid waste?
All leftover bread was re-used for the sourdough pasta dish. Downstairs and upstairs there was rows and rows of pickles, ferments and dried product ready to include in future preparations. Sourcing-wise everything arrived in reusable containers, and from within 250km. Fermented tomatoes would be a base in a tomato chutney, redcurrants slightly past their prime would go into a sorbet, and dried vegetables would be blitzed up to be the base of a vegan XO sauce. Most veg trimmings would be collected over time to make a vegetarian treacle. Meat wise, fish would be used in a dish, then bones would be pressure cooked to make gelatine used in a sauce and as a setting agent for ice cream and ganache. Any trimmings would be included in a rillette as part of the main.
Was there a dish you worked on that really stood out to you?
There was a sourdough pasta dish on that had an incredible amount of creativity in it. The pasta was made from leftover bread from the bread service. Blitzed up sourdough with wheat flour and water, rolled into an agnolotti type shape. Filled with a chicken farce made from hens that had finished producing eggs. Crayfish sauce made with local Finnish crayfish stock (from crayfish that didn’t have all their claws), finished with a delicious raspberry kosho and some frozen local raspberries brought to temper. That had a dusting of smoked, burnt, dried and blitzed red pepper skins. There was also an invasive lake fish called the Pikeperch (Zander) and that had an incredible self-gluing property, which meant that you could roll it up without the use of cling film or meat glue and it would hold its shape when cooking.
How does cooking in a zero-waste environment influence creativity and innovation in the kitchen?
It allows one to take a step back and look for ways to push yourself and create delicious food with waste. It allows for constant conversations about the food, far more than a traditional restaurant setting. At a time where chefs in high end hospitality settings are now no longer cooking, but more following a process, it gives them the chance to question, to ponder and to solve problems.
Did staging at Nolla change how you think about menu design?
It made me question whether certain dishes are actually necessary to be on a menu. As a business, why do we pander to the needs of the consumer when if we give them a limited choice based on our ethos, and focus on selling that component plus our other USPs, could we still win business and end with satisfied guests?
What skills or lessons did you take away from working with the Nolla chefs?
The main crux was of course the ethos of questioning everything. Why are we doing this? How can we adapt quickly to still achieve what we need to?
Was there a moment of teamwork or learning that really stuck with you?
I think it was overhearing that three of the chefs were going to hang out at one of their houses on a Monday evening off and spitball menu ideas whilst jamming on drums together. That sounded like a cool team to be a part of. One team, one dream.
How did the stage challenge you personally as a chef?
I found it challenging in the sense that it allowed me to refine my eye for fine dining and bring back some of the knowledge I had previously learnt in events and restaurant kitchens. Every plate should look the same, all bases and purees should taste how they’re meant to. The essence of coming back to terms with those factors was challenging for me. It also challenged me to think outside the box when dealing with ingredients and gave me a great platform for my future work.
How do you plan to bring what you learned back to Social Pantry’s kitchen?
I’ve already thought about how I will add processes into my own kitchen as we are due a refurbishment in December. There will certainly be some elements of that refurb which will include systems to cut down on waste. From the events and workplace side, we could introduce a zero-waste menu, that involves using up freezer stock and gives the chef a chance to use up ingredients or produce left from previous events that could be sold at a discount, for example. As I mention below, a lot of it is educating the end consumer to accept it. I think largely our chefs absolutely hate waste and would be easily adaptable to making the end goal achievable. The challenge would be then instilling that focus onto the freelance chefs that come and go in our kitchens, and making sure they adhere to those requirements, even if they’re just with us for a day.
Do you think zero waste dining is achievable on a larger scale in hospitality?
From an events point of view, I think the education side of zero-waste still needs some work. A lot of consumers may still not understand that to achieve the status of being zero-waste, significant investment will have been inputted into a business as a whole. It does not necessarily mean that one will be eating leftovers. It means that by-product has been managed with sustainably and effectively using equipment purchased at great cost, and extra labour to manage that waste. It does not mean prices will become more competitive, it may even mean having to pay more for a zero-waste good in the face of protecting the planet, ecosystem and the bottom line.
It is also required that the right attitude from the team, suppliers, and guests is needed to understand that adaptability is key. The chefs in charge of designing menus should be capable of researching their own ways of using product and sourcing the right ingredients without breaking the bank. I think yes, it is possible, but it requires a lot of work from all stakeholders within the business.
What advice would you give other chefs who want to reduce waste in their own kitchens?
Be mindful of your movements, don’t habitually throw everything away. Ask if you have time to process the waste into something else. Ask if it can be added into another dish. Ask for support from above to help achieve this. There’s no harm in experimenting. If it doesn’t work, it’s fine – it would have been thrown away anyway. You can choose a different angle next time. Encourage team mates to feel the same way and have the same philosophy. Work in ways that are more efficient so you can find the time to process waste in the right way. Do research into ferments, pickles and drying. The internet is a valuable resource and can tell you pretty much everything. If everything is within the health and safety parameters, the waste world is your oyster.
What was your biggest takeaway from this experience?
When an opportunity comes across your desk to do anything away from the day-to-day, that will certainly nurture you as an individual and a professional- take it. There is a bigger world out there than your own bubble and seeing that is the most valuable learning for me.
Did your time at Nolla change how you view food, sustainability, or your role as a chef?
It’s inspired me to work closer to the knowledge that there can be a closed loop system within the UK food industry, and I would be keen to work with others to understand how that looks.
If you could sum up the stage in three words, what would they be?
Enlightening – Happy – Nourishing
