Bold Visions & Michelin Magic: How One Chef Took Nordic Fine Dining to the UAE Luxury Market
When I founded Nordic Hospitality Experience on January 18, 2025, my roadmap had a clear goal: Target the Middle Eastern luxury market by 2028.
What I couldn’t have predicted was that high-end gastronomy moves faster than any roadmap. Just two months later, the phone rang.
Building on History: The Spark of a New Venture
In 2023 and 2024, I executed the dinner ceremony for the Nordic Michelin Guide Gala two years in a row—to this day, the only Finnish chef to have done so. In early 2025, I also launched Finland’s first-ever immersive dining restaurant concept.
With these achievements behind me, I set out to build a premium catering and event production company merging culinary art with experiential production. In Finland, demand for ultra-high-end catering is niche, so internationalization wasn’t just an option—it was essential.
When Opportunity Calls: The Abu Dhabi Leap
In March 2025, my lawyer called with a question that changed everything:
"How would you feel about executing catering at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi this December?"
It didn’t take much convincing. Had I known the chaos, regulatory mazes and sleepless nights ahead, I might have hesitated! Launching two companies in one year, funded purely through cash flow, is arguably the craziest startup strategy out there. But Cash is King, and fortune favors the bold.
In August 2025, I flew to Dubai to scout the region and tour the Yas Marina circuit, debriefing our team in Finland every evening from my hotel room.
We soon realized we couldn’t run the project through our Finnish entity and had to set up a local UAE company—fast. What followed was a trial by fire of bureaucracy, false promises and dishonest operators. It wasn’t until November, dangerously close to the event, that a mutual friend connected us with the right partner to finalize our setup.
Cooking for Royalty and Presidents
In August 2025, I met the Finnish Ambassador to the UAE, Tuula Yrjölä, over coffee at Pasila station in Helsinki, and we began planning a major milestone: the 50th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between the UAE and Finland.
Right after the F1 race, we hosted a cocktail reception for the occasion. Serving handcrafted Nordic bites to high-ranking dignitaries, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride. Every sacrifice had been worth it.
Shortly before F1, I also had the honor of cooking for the President of Finland, Alexander Stubb, and his guests at an official State Visit dinner at the Embassy—my culinary debut in the UAE.
The Ultimate Pressure Test: 750 Covers a Day
Just two weeks later, the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix was underway, with 750 guests per day. We cooked every dish from scratch in the kitchen aboard our F1 event yacht—a space smaller than the bathroom of my rented apartment in Al Barari.
It was the hardest physical and mental race of my life. I slept a total of four hours across the entire four-day event.
By 11:30 PM on Sunday, our team was running on empty. But we pulled it off, proving that Nordic precision, grit and passion have a place in the UAE’s luxury catering market.
I’ve never taken shortcuts. I cook with my heart, never compromise on quality, and will bend over backwards to make a client's wildest event dreams come true.
Navigating Startup Storms & Looking to the Future
I chose to bootstrap everything through cash flow because I refused to let outside investors dictate our culinary identity. But the Middle East taught us hard lessons about volatility: when regional geopolitical tensions froze the event market almost overnight, our dependence on the UAE nearly wiped us out.
Instead of backing down, we pivoted and built a profitable foundation in Finland over the summer. With our core stabilized, the timing is now right to welcome strategic investors who can help us scale across the Middle East.
Why We are in the UAE: Bringing Nordic Philosophy to the Desert
Our mission is to bring authentic Nordic culinary philosophy, world-class Scandinavian ingredients and sophisticated event design to a market hungry for genuine innovation.
We are also preparing to premiere Wyrd, our unique immersive dining concept. Once funding is secured, it will set a new benchmark for experiential dining in the region.
In April 2026, I had the privilege of catering the launch of Sheikha Bodour’s fashion brand, Inanna, in the Sharjah desert.
From a yacht kitchen under extreme pressure to luxury events in the desert, our story is just getting started. Whether it’s an intimate private chef experience or a high-profile gala, Nordic Hospitality Experience is built on passion, relentless execution and an unwavering commitment to excellence.
Kristian Karnell
Founder of Nordic Hospitality
