Pasta or Potato — Raising Your Child in Three Food Cultures

The basis of Finnish diet is rye; bread, crust, beer or pies.

As much as I love Italian dishes such as Pasta all’Amatriciana, Cacio e Pepe or my favourite when my Milanese boyfriend makes it, pasta Carbonara, I can’t stand the thought my child wouldn’t learn recipes and food culture from my country.

I come from Finland, and even though the Finnish kitchen is not world-famous or rich with fresh ingredients (because of long dark winters and short and erratic growing season) or have intense flavours, it is full of delicious tastes, beautiful pies or casseroles or dishes. The Finnish kitchen uses what it can; berries from forest or gardens; cloudberry, cowberry or buckthorn. We pick mushrooms and spruce and eat lots of fish from the Baltic sea or the thousands of lakes we have in our green country. We use rye flour to make pasty, desserts or whiskey. We are famous for our dairy products, chocolate, bread or black candy Salmiakki.

I adore the Italian way of living for food and food culture. Everything is made with Love.

I admire the way Italians handle their ingredients, are proud of their recipes and take care that the traditions and customs go on. Someone might even say that they take food a bit too seriously. But then again, Italian food is, for a reason, the most popular food in the world.

My boyfriend and I are expecting our first child and being from two different countries and living in a third, we have discussed a lot about how we want to raise our daughter and any future children. The topics go from screen time to language and sports and ways of spending holidays. One major topic is, obviously, food.

The Finnish summer is full of berries, fruits and mushrooms. Blueberry being one of the most iconic of them all for the Finns. We pick them straight from the forest.

About food, I am comfortable making compromises or even abandon some customs. In the end, it is just food and on the other side waits for one of the richest food cultures. But there are some things I have found in me since I moved abroad and grew older.

What makes me a Finn is a Finnish language, respect for Finnish nature and food. There are some other elements, but I would personally summarise my Finnish identity into these three main categories.

I also understand that my children will never be fully Finnish. They will be Finnish-Italians living who knows where. But, I do want to teach them the best parts of their heritage.

They can eat as much pasta as they can (but beware, my unborn children, you might have those exact Finnish genes that make you puff up like a balloon after a small plate of pasta!), but I want them to relish fresh rye bread from the oven with a pat of butter, eat fresh blueberries in the forest and feel how smoked salmon melts on their mouth.

There won’t be a competition between Finnish and Italian kitchens. But there will be real-life lessons on what it is to cook Finnish or Italian dishes. They will learn the names, history and meaning behind many dishes and ingredients. They will dig potatoes from my mother’s garden and pick pomegranates from their Italian nonna’s garden.

But what about the third kitchen? They will go to kindergarten and school in a different food environment. I decided to raise my arms and let it be. They will get their food there and learn from their friends and teachers, and hopefully, they will also appreciate that food culture. At the end of the day, children are wondrous. They can learn new multiple languages and skills, so why not enjoying new flavours or ways of serving food.

What it is, is that they will learn how great and various food can be.

Salmon is traditional food that has several ways of preparing.