FOOD & DRINK
HELENA PUOLAKKA BRINGS
HER MODERN EUROPEAN COOKING
TO SKYLON ON THE SOUTHBANK
Helena Puolakka, who has previously worked with Pierre as hand dived scallops with spinach and champagne velouté;
Koffmann, Pierre Gagnaire and Gordon Ramsay, is taking over chicken ballotine with girolles, turnips and a vin jaune sauce;
the kitchen as Executive Chef at renowned Modern European chateaubriand with baby gem, truffled peas and madeira; brioche
restaurant, Skylon on the Southbank. This will mark a return to with mandarin jam, toasted milk mousse and lemon verbena and
the restaurant for Helena, from her six years spent at Skylon as hot pear with feuille de brick, cocoa and crème fraiche.
Executive Chef in 2007. Originally from the south-west coast of
Finland, Helena has devised a new menu at Skylon that showcases Helena will be returning to the restaurant once again before she left
her classic French training, creating sublime fresh and seasonal in 2012 to become Culinary Director for Cirrus Inns before rejoining
dishes. With stunning views across the River Thames, Skylon offers D&D London in 2017 to open Aster as Chef Patron.
lunch, dinner and weekend brunch.
Helena notes: ‘Opening Skylon for D&D London was a new platform
Currently Chef Patron at Aster restaurant in Victoria, Helena will be for me to learn the industry and was extremely valuable for my
overseeing the kitchen at both venues. Helena spent long summers development for future roles. You can take the chef out of the
in Archipelago of Finland ‘foraging, fishing and living off the land’ kitchen but you can’t take the kitchen out of the chef so when the
from a young age, which was when her dream of becoming a chef opportunity arose to bring my style of cooking back to Skylon, I
began. couldn’t resist but to go back to the kitchen.’
Working in Paris under Pierre Gagnaire at his three-Michelin- Skylon
starred eatery, Pierre Gagnaire in H
otel Balzac, Helena’s cooking Royal Festival Hall | London | SE1 8XX
has been refined by the French techniques learnt through her time W: w
ww.skylon-restaurant.co.uk | T: 020 7654 7800
there. Her menu at Skylon includes dishes with a French hint such E: [email protected]
Social: F & I: @skylonrestaurant | T: @skylonsouthbank
Issue 36 2019
The Art of Luxury
55