If you’re a seafood lover, as I am, you likely already know that the food world offers a wealth of famous fish stews: bouillabaisse from Provence, shrimp gumbo from Southern Louisiana, cioppino from San Francisco, creamy clam chowder from New England. I’d like to officially nominate another member to add to that culinary club: the superb salmon soup that people in Finland know as lohikeitto! Every bit as delicious as the others, lohikeitto has just as long—if not longer—a history, and is equally enmeshed in its local culinary culture.
Why haven’t you ever heard of it? World-renowned writer Kalle Oskari Mattila offers some insight:
Here’s the thing about us Finns: we haven’t traditionally been very good at branding. … Engaging in excessive promotion doesn’t suit the quiet, self-effacing Finnish spirit; in Finland, you’re expected to do your job well and then let the work do the talking.
In this case, the work is done in the soup pot. And fortunately for you and me, the folks at the Bakehouse have decided to do a good culinary deed and put lohikeitto on their regular menu—we’re making it every Friday for the foreseeable future. So I’m going to help the marketing-averse Finns out by spreading the word far and wide about this extraordinary, centuries-old Scandinavian salmon soup.
Having eaten it a fair few times since we started serving it last month, I can vouch for the authenticity and excellence of what the Bakehouse’s savory kitchen is crafting each Friday: chunks of fresh Atlantic salmon and pieces of potato, carrots, and leeks in a light, creamy, butter-enriched fish stock that’s enhanced with allspice, nutmeg, and a good dose of chopped fresh dill. Since the Bakehouse team does all the hard work, all you and I need to do is swing by on a Friday and grab a piping hot bowl from the soup well—or, as I’ve done more than once now, pick some up from the cold case, take it home, and reheat.
I like to gild the Finnish soup lily by adding a good-sized piece of Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter atop the hot bowl, as well as a grinding of allspice and some black pepper. Paired with a green salad and a chunk of Bakehouse bread—Vollkornbrot, Country Miche, or Roadhouse all sound terrific to me—it makes for a wonderful meal that takes “fast food” to new levels of culinary greatness!
In 1982, Ari Weinzweig, along with his partner Paul Saginaw, founded Zingerman’s Delicatessen with a $20,000 bank loan, a Russian History degree from the University of Michigan, 4 years of experience washing dishes, cooking and managing in restaurant kitchens and chutzpah from his hometown of Chicago. They opened the doors with 2 employees and a small selection of specialty foods and exceptional sandwiches.
Today, Zingerman’s Delicatessen is a nationally renowned food icon and the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses has grown to 10 businesses with over 750 employees and over $55 million in annual revenue. Aside from the Delicatessen, these businesses include Zingerman’s Bakehouse, Coffee Company, Creamery, Roadhouse, Mail Order, ZingTrain, Candy Manufactory, Cornman Farms and a Korean restaurant that is scheduled to open in 2016. No two businesses in the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses are alike but they all share the same Vision and Guiding Principles and deliver “The Zingerman’s Experience” with passion and commitment.
Besides being the Co-Founding Partner and being actively engaged in some aspect of the day-to-day operations and governance of nearly every business in the Zingerman’s Community, Ari Weinzweig is also a prolific writer. His most recent publications are the first 4 of his 6 book series Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading Series: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business (Part 1), Being a Better Leader (Part 2), Managing Ourselves (Part 3) and the newly-released Part 4, The Power of Beliefs in Business. Earlier books include the Zingerman’s Guides to Giving Great Service, Better Bacon, Good Eating, Good Olive Oil, Good Vinegar and Good Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Ari regularly travels across the country (and world) on behalf of ZingTrain, teaching organizations and businesses about Zingerman’s approach to business. He is a sought-after Keynote speaker, having delivered keynotes for Inc. 500, Microsoft Expo Spring Conference, Great Game of Business Gathering of Games, Positive Business Conference at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, American Society for Quality (ASQ), and the American Cheese Society. Most recently, Ari and Paul Saginaw were invited to address an audience of 50,000 for the University of Michigan 2015 Spring Commencement.
One of Zingerman’s Guiding Principles is being an active part of the community and in 1988, Zingerman’s was instrumental in the founding of Food Gatherers, a food rescue program that delivers over 5 million pounds of food each year to the hungry residents of Washtenaw county. Every year Zingerman’s donates 10% of its previous years profits to local community organizations and non-profits. Ari has served on the board of The Ark, the longest continuously operating folk music venue in America.
Over the decades, the Zingerman’s founding partners have consistently been the recipients of public recognition from a variety of diverse organizations. In April 1995, Ari and Paul were awarded the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County’s first Humanitarian Award. In 2006, Ari was recognized as one of the “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America” by the James Beard Foundation. In 2007, Ari and Paul were presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from Bon Appetit magazine for their work in the food industry. Ari was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Cheese Society in 2014. And Ari’s book, Building a Great Business was on Inc. magazine’s list of Best Books for Business Leaders.
Notwithstanding the awards, being engaged on a daily basis in the work of 10 businesses and 21 partners, writing books on business and in-depth articles on food for the Zingerman’s newsletter, Ari finds time to be a voracious reader. He acquires and reads more books than he can find room for. Ari might soon find himself the owner of the largest collection of Anarchist books in Ann Arbor outside the Labadie collection at the University of Michigan library!
