A wood-fired pizza topped with salami, mozzarella and herbs on a restaurant table, photo by Joel Willans

The Pizza Berlusconi battle: How Finland beat Italy at pizza

February 12, 2021

Few political insults have been answered as thoroughly as Silvio Berlusconi's remarks about Finnish food. He made them in 2005. Finland replied in 2008, with a pizza, in New York, in front of judges.

If you want to know what Finnish food culture actually looks like, this is a good place to start.

The original insult

In 2005, Berlusconi was campaigning for Italy rather than Finland to host the European Food Safety Authority. He said he had been obliged to endure Finnish cuisine, and made a joke at the expense of Finns eating marinated reindeer.

Marinated reindeer is genuinely traditional in Lapland. Elsewhere in Finland it is more often stewed or dried. The remark was wrong on the detail as well as rude about the country.

President Tarja Halonen responded with composure. Finns tend not to react loudly to provocation. They tend to remember it.

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Finnish pizza culture: the context

Kotipizza, the chain behind the pizza, runs more than 290 outlets and is the largest pizza chain in the Nordic countries. Pizza arrived in Finland in the 1970s and was adopted with characteristic thoroughness.

What followed was not imitation. Finnish pizza grew its own vocabulary around Finnish ingredients: lingonberry, chanterelle, smoked reindeer. The same instinct that puts cardamom in a bun and rye under everything.

A tray of freshly baked Karelian pies with crimped rye crusts and melted cheese — A country that already knew what to do with rye and a hot oven was never going to copy anyone's pizza.

Make Pulla Not War t-shirt in black, worn by Anneli glazing a tray of fresh pulla in a Finnish kitchen, Very Finnish Problems — Finland's preferred method of settling an international dispute. Bake something excellent, enter it, win.
Shirt: Make Pulla, Not War T-Shirt · €27.95

Finland wins in New York

In March 2008, Kotipizza entered the America's Plate International competition in New York with a pizza of smoked reindeer, tomato sauce, cheese, chanterelle mushrooms and red onion.

It won. The Italian American entry came second. Australia came third.

A wood-fired pizza on a white plate on a red tablecloth, Very Finnish Problems — No garnish, no plating, no speech. Just the thing itself, which was rather the argument.

Only afterwards, in the summer of 2008, did the pizza get its name. Kotipizza called it the Berlusconi. The win came first. The joke was applied to a trophy that had already been collected.

Finland did not name the pizza and then try to win with it. It won, and then decided who the pizza was for.

Why reindeer and chanterelle work

Reindeer is lean and low in fat, with a lightly smoky, gamey flavour milder than venison and more distinctive than beef. Smoked reindeer has been a Finnish ingredient for centuries.

A packet of Sallan Villiporo alder-smoked reindeer crisps, porosipsi, on a Finnish tablecloth, Very Finnish Problems — Alder-smoked, air-dried, sold in a bag next to the crisps. The ingredient he was rude about has its own snack aisle.

Chanterelles grow across Finnish forests through late summer and autumn, earthy and slightly peppery. The pairing was not invented for a competition. It existed in Finnish kitchens long before anyone put it on a base.

Birch baskets of freshly picked chanterelles, boletes and lingonberries on a Finnish terrace, Very Finnish Problems — An ordinary afternoon's picking. This is the supply chain the winning pizza came out of.

Man in a rowing boat on a Finnish lake wearing the black No niin t-shirt, Very Finnish Problems — Three years of saying nothing, then two words when the result was read out. It covers everything else too.
Shirt: No niin T-Shirt · €27.95

What happened next

The name did its work. Italian papers, Corriere della Sera among them, covered a Finnish pizza chain naming its winning reindeer pizza after their prime minister. Berlusconi's original insult had become Kotipizza's marketing.

The pizza stayed on the menu for years and was eventually renamed Poro, which is simply the Finnish word for reindeer. The joke had been made. There was no need to keep making it.

The Finnish approach to criticism

The insult happened in 2005. The trophy arrived in 2008. That gap is the whole story.

There was no press conference, no diplomatic note, no campaign. There was a recipe, a competition and a result, and only then a name. The response to provocation is not immediate and emotional. It is considered, practical and eventually thorough.

You can see the same instinct across the Finnish food collection.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pizza Berlusconi?

A pizza by the Finnish chain Kotipizza topped with smoked reindeer, tomato sauce, cheese, chanterelle mushrooms and red onion. It won the America's Plate International competition in New York in March 2008 and was named after Silvio Berlusconi later that summer, in response to remarks he had made about Finnish food in 2005. It was later renamed Poro.

What did Berlusconi say about Finnish food?

In 2005, while campaigning for Italy rather than Finland to host the European Food Safety Authority, he said he had been obliged to endure Finnish cuisine and joked about Finns eating marinated reindeer.

Did the pizza really beat Italy?

Yes. At America's Plate International in New York in March 2008 the Finnish entry took first place, with the Italian American entry second and Australia third.

Does Finland really have a pizza culture?

A substantial one. Kotipizza alone runs more than 290 outlets and is the largest pizza chain in the Nordic countries. Finnish pizza developed its own character around ingredients like smoked reindeer, chanterelle and lingonberry rather than copying the Italian version.

101 Very Finnish Problems began as a list of observations about Finnish life. It became a book because the observations kept coming.