Being able to prepare a delicious meal and also to make the plate on which to serve it is a promising combination of talents. Jarmo Pitkänen, a Finnish ceramist and chef de cuisine, has succeeded in combining these crafts.

Jarmo Pitkänen had already been working as a chef for a few years, when he touched clay for the first time and immediately recognized it as an important part of his life. Today he has set up his own ceramics studio and a catering business in his home town of Kuusamo, only 60 km south of the Arctic Circle.

His both professions set the guidelines for Jarmo Pitkänen’s studio work. The modular structure of his pieces allows him to vary their size, which in turn grants him the freedom of creation for the dinner table. He wants to offer his customers something special - experiences that provide feasts for both the eyes and the body.

Travel has been another of Jarmo Pitkänen’s interests. He has visited all the five continents, gathering visual impressions of cultures and familiarizing himself with local tastes. In Australia he exhibited raku sculptures, small in size and futuristic in shape, reflecting his interest in and his journey to the unfamiliar: being profoundly different from his home country, Australia materialized as the unfamiliar both in his reality and in his sculptures.

Both in ceramics and in cuisine Jarmo Pitkänen aims at flawless quality and a perfect product, be it a ceramic sculpture or a superb meal, in which all the customer’s senses are satisfied with the taste, smell, texture and visual outlook of the experience.

The arctic circumstances of Northern Finland are visible in Jarmo Pitkänen’s ceramics. In his recent approach the focus has been on recurrent form with tensions emphasized by the contrasting black and white. The polarity of the colours can be found in the extremes of the Nordic seasons, especially the contrasts of light - in summer the sun never sets, and in winter daylight remains away. The clear tastes of northern ingredients, fish, berries and herbs, add the perfect finishing touch to the unique visual experiences created by Jarmo Pitkänen.