Semiahmoo resident wraps up filming fifth season of Finnish cooking show
By Taylor Nichols
A cooking show airing out of Semiahmoo and into the homes of viewers all over Finland is the perfect fix for the winter blues this holiday season.
Semiahmoo resident May Esther Paavola just finished filming the fifth season of her gluten-free cooking show Mayn keittiö, or May’s Kitchen, in her home. The show airs on Finnish network AlfaTV four to five times a week throughout winter when the new season comes out.
Paavola, 68, was born in Connecticut, but grew up in Finland. She was diagnosed with Celiac disease, a gluten allergy, when she was in her 30s. Not much was known about the disease at the time and gluten-free options were limited. She had to learn to cook and live gluten-free, which she does in the show.
“I’m so excited when I get good tasting food,” she said. “It has to have flavor and it has to look good.”
She likes to use fresh, seasonal and organic foods, and has filmed segments picking out produce at local farms like Birch Bay’s Home Farm and Bellingham-based Joe’s Gardens.
For Paavola, this is the perfect way to couple her love of decorating and good food.
“It’s just being creative. That’s who I am and that’s when I’m happiest,” she said. “And for me it’s very important that I can give to others, that happiness, that they can feel it.”
Paavola’s family moved back to Finland when she was just one year old.
She said she wants viewers in Finland to see something bright and happy in the dark winter months, when some parts of the country don’t see sunlight for days at a time. She conveys the warmth and happiness of her home by having her family, especially her 7-year-old granddaughter, in the show.
“I want that family feeling,” she said. “I think that gives the warmth of the home when everybody’s included in the kitchen.”
She said she works to create a casual, home-style atmosphere. Many episodes, which are 20-25 minutes long, end with a beautifully decorated table in her backyard and her family and friends sitting down to enjoy the full spread.
She includes a decorative table setting in each episode and loves to use natural elements like napkin rings made of vines from her yard, or seashells from the beach.
“It’s very important that the food is flavorful and the presentation has to be nice and colorful,” she said.
Paavola gets her love of food from the loving home she grew up in. Her mother was always cooking and baking, she said.
“The part of Finland where my mother comes from, they are very much focused on the family and they are very giving people,” she said. “The food is like the center of the home.”
In most episodes, Paavola cooks a full meal, including dessert – and it’s no small feat to squeeze it all in the short amount of air-time. That’s where her videographer, editor, and long-time family friend, Juha Haukka, comes in. He’s the one who originally got her connected with AlfaTV, where his brother is the managing director.
Paavola said Haukka filmed her cooking one day when he and his wife, Tiika, were visiting. She thought it was just for fun, but he sent the footage over to AlfaTV and they loved it, she said.
The show is mostly in Finnish, but sometimes Paavola and her friends and family speak English in conversation.
Paavola said she loves different cultures and types of food, and has featured pumpkin pie, Dungeness crab and paella on the show. In one episode, Paavola made traditional Finnish food, including Finnish staple Karelian pies, with her 89-year-old mother who lives in Canada.
Paavola and her family moved to Ontario when she was 16. Ten years later she married her husband, Jouko Paavola, and they moved to Palm Beach County in Florida. They settled in their Semiahmoo home 17 years ago, where they spend six months out of the year. They spend the other six at their home in Florida.
“We love this part of the country. Summers are beautiful, the nature is amazing and life gives so much to us,” she said, looking at the red and brown leaves collecting in her backyard.
Her passion for traveling contributes to her decorating style and the different cuisines she makes for the show.
“I have the European touch,” she said.
Paavola said the show is very popular in Finland. People write to AlfaTV saying they enjoy it because she explains how to do things clearly, she said.
Even though she does the show in Finnish, Paavola said she has friends in the U.S. and Canada who don’t speak the language but still watch the show and try to figure out the recipe. This can be difficult depending on the ingredients and the recipe, as no closed captioning is provided and cooking temperatures are given in Celsius.
In the future, Paavola hopes to do a gluten-free cooking show that airs in the U.S. or Canada.
She’s also considering writing a cookbook. Until then, Finnish viewers will be able to feel the warmth of May’s Kitchen when the new season airs this winter. English-speaking fans might have to brush up on their Finnish, but any viewer will be able to tune in and appreciate the reds and golds of fall in the Pacific Northwest.
Mayn keittiö can be viewed on the AlfaTV website at bit.ly/2CZgqVw. Some recipes can also be found in English and Finnish on her website at glutenfreebymayesther.wordpress.com, or on her Facebook page at bit.ly/2S9WfZi.
From May’s Kitchen to yours
Fall recipes from Semiahmoo resident and Finnish TV personality May Esther Paavola
Ingredients:
8 oz. gluten-free ginger snap cookies
5 tbsp. butter
15-oz. can organic pumpkin
12 oz. can evaporated milk
2 eggs
¾ cup white sugar
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
½ tsp. ground cloves
1 pinch kosher salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Crush ginger snap cookies and put aside in a mixing bowl. Melt the butter and mix into the crushed cookies to make the crust. Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch deep pie dish and bake for 10 minutes.
Scoop the canned pumpkin into a bowl and mix in the cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Add the sugar, salt, evaporated milk and eggs and mix. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the crust and bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Once it has adjusted, bake the pie at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Let cool and serve with whipped cream.
Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
6 cloves garlic
1 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. oregano
2 tsp. dried basil
Lime juice
1 leek (dice and use white part only)
1 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
4-6 cups chicken broth
3 stalks celery, sliced
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
Fresh thyme, chopped
15 oz. can cannellini beans, drained
4 cups fresh spinach
Salt, to taste
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle the oregano, basil and some salt on the chicken breasts. Crush 3 cloves of garlic and heat in an iron skillet with 1 tbsp. butter and 2 tbsp. olive oil. Sauté the chicken breast on both sides for a few minutes. Sprinkle lime juice on chicken breast and place the skillet in oven, baking at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or until cooked through. Cut the chicken breast into cubes and sprinkle some more lime juice over it. Set the chicken breast aside.
Sauté the onion, diced leek and the rest of the garlic in the bottom of a Dutch oven. Add the chicken broth, celery, sweet potato, oregano and fresh thyme. Let it cook on low heat for about 15 minutes, until the sweet potato is soft. Add in the cannellini beans, cubed chicken and spinach. Let it come to a boil, and then turn off. Add salt to taste.
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