Marika Lehtinen from Finland has returned to Circolo Scandinavo for the second time. For Marika, Rome is not just a city. It is a place that you experience with all your senses, through food, history and everyday life. Marika first came to Italy to study in Parma. She joined the first Master’s programme in Gastronomy and Quality Food Products in 2005. The way she found out she had been accepted is something she still laughs about.
“I was on my way to a party on Finnish Independence Day when they suddenly called me and started interviewing me in Italian. I was in the elevator thinking ´this is a disaster´. I was sure I wouldn’t get in.”
And yet she did. In Parma, food is not just something you eat. It is culture, economy and identity. She learned that wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano can function as money, and that families mark their own prosciutto.
“Parmigiano is like the real gold.”
During a visit to the Barilla factory, she realised that even something as simple as cooking pasta is more complex than we think. We tend to believe that al dente is the same for everyone, but it is not. Even in Italy, everyone cooks it differently.
Before Italy, Marika had already lived abroad several times. She did a high school exchange in the United States, studied in London, and later spent time in Hong Kong. There, food became an adventure in a very different way. As the special guest at dinners, she was often served the strangest parts, such as fish eyes, or even snakes. It was meant as an honour, but she remembers wishing she could just be ordinary.
“Just give me rice with some sauce,” she says, smiling.
After her studies in Italy, she returned to Finland and began working in finance and accounting. Even though her professional life took a different direction, gastronomy is more than an interest for her: it is a way of life. She often comes back to Italy because she feels challenged here. When she talks about food with Italians, they question her, argue with her and push her further, and she really enjoys that.
One of her main interests in Rome is Roman Jewish cuisine. The food of the Ghetto, shaped by history and difficult times, tells a story of survival and creativity. Fried dishes, simple ingredients, strong flavours. On Fridays, she often goes to the Jewish bakery. It has become her small tradition: standing in line, buying something warm, taking part in the rhythm of the neighbourhood. It is something she chooses to do.
For Marika, Rome is alive. It is not a museum. She compares it to an onion: you think you know it, but then you peel another layer and discover something new.
At Circolo Scandinavo, Marika finds community, something she values deeply. She describes it like a family – perhaps a slightly crazy family, but still a family. With this family, she feels like she is not only visiting Rome. She is living it, often in the kitchen, through cooking, sharing stories and food, and discovering new sides of the city every day. Much of her life here happens in the kitchen. There is no stress and no weeks of planning. Traditions here feel positive, she says. You cook because you want to, not because you have to.
Soon it will be time to leave. But this is not a goodbye. Rome, she says, stays with you. And she is quite sure she will come back. Hopefully very soon.
Text: Arvid Granmo
Bild: Sara Rynefors