A day in the life of a Solein® chef

Blog

18/6/2025

Interview with: Miikka Manninen, Head Chef at Solar Foods

Inside the Solein Kitchen, where tomorrow’s food is on the menu.

In the heart of Solar Foods’ headquarters, behind a discreet door and a haze of steam, lies the nerve centre of the company’s culinary innovation: the Solein Kitchen. This is no ordinary test kitchen. It is a space where science meets creativity, where first-time flavours are imagined, and where one chef is quietly redefining what food could be in a world shaped by climate urgency and dietary change. “I think I might be one of the people who eats the most Solein in the world,” he laughs.

That chef is Miikka Manninen, and this is his day.

The day begins with questions

By 8 AM, the kitchen is alive. The coffee is brewing, black with a splash of water, just how Manninen likes it. “It’s how I start thinking,” he says. But there’s little time for reflection. He’s already preparing for the day’s visitors: potential customers from a global FMCG company. There will be tastings, briefings, and inevitably, another round of answering the question he hears most often: What does Solein actually taste like?

“I keep a little glass of Solein mixed with water just for that question. It helps people understand. It’s mild, it’s umami, it’s something completely new. And that’s what makes it so surprising. I want them to taste what Solein can become.”

Solein®, a microbial protein cultivated using carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and electricity, is often described as being “made from air.” Nutritionally exceptional and neutral in flavour, it is created with just a fraction of the land and water needed for conventional protein production because it’s made without traditional agriculture altogether.

“In a world where most food tech stops at formulation, my job is to help people experience Solein as food,” he says. “That means taste, texture, aroma, basically everything.”

“You can’t just put Solein on a spoon and call it food innovation. It has to taste like something people will love.”

–Miikka Manninen, Head Chef at Solar Foods

“Everyone wants to be here”

At mid-afternoon, roughly 70% of Manninen’s time is spent hosting visitors, organising product demonstrations, experimenting with Solein and discovering its potential, and cooking tailored menus that reflect not just what Solein can do, but what food can be in the future. Lately, he has been experimenting with protein snacks, something customers are increasingly interested in. Asian snacking culture calls for precision and lightness. American customers often want bold textures and nutrition-forward concepts.

“I want every customer to feel seen,” he says. “That means understanding their culture, their market, and sometimes replicating their favourite comfort food with Solein. This also helps people understand what Solein is all about.”

The Solein Kitchen is less a lab and more a proving ground. For most visitors, the experience is a turning point. “Everyone wants to be here. We can explain Solein in slides and data sheets,” Manninen says, “but the moment people wait for is when they get to eat a Solein-based dish and realise, ‘this tastes just like the food I know.’”

He recalls one visitor who arrived adamantly uninterested in vegan food. “Don’t bother,” he reportedly said. “I’m a meat guy.” After a full Solein meal, he leaned back and admitted, “If vegan food always tasted like this, I wouldn’t mind switching.”

“Changing minds is part of the job,” Manninen admits. “But it’s not about winning arguments. It’s about creating an experience.”

Between whisk and whiteboard

When the kitchen isn’t a stage, it’s a workshop. Manninen’s creative process often begins with a constraint: a request, a functional claim, a flavour target. “Can we make a sugar-free protein dessert with four ingredients? Can Solein work as a binder in gluten-free dough? Can you turn a technical product concept into a delicious and memorable experience?” A recipe might begin with a conversation about amino acid profiles and end with a sugar-free Solein muffin that holds its moisture for days.

Inspiration also comes from further afield. He tracks food trends and movements, reads about cutting-edge culinary techniques, and draws from his fine-dining background. “I have notebooks full of flavour ideas. Things I taste in my head before I even try them. With Solein, there are endless possibilities – Solein’s unique, never-before-seen flavour makes it a very exciting playground.”

His job, as he sees it, is not to invent the impossible, but to make the new familiar. “You can’t just put Solein on a spoon and call it food innovation. It has to taste like something people will love.”

He’s especially excited about Solein’s performance in dairy alternatives: from cream cheese -like applications to sauces and stable emulsions. Its unique ability to bind moisture and provide texture has opened new doors in both sweet and savoury formats. “Sugar-free ice creams have been my obsession lately. I finally cracked a recipe that’s creamy, flavorful, and stupidly easy to make. Just mix and freeze. That’s where Solein’s beauty lies – you don’t have to add anything to mimic something like the traditional ice cream, you can achieve it with a short and clean ingredient list.”

“People ask me if I can make everything out of Solein,” Manninen laughs. “I tell them that’s like asking if you can make a whole macaroni casserole out of just eggs.”

Learning to lead a new kitchen culture

Manninen’s journey from fine-dining restaurants like Helsinki-based Olo and Palace to the experimental world of Solar Foods has reshaped his culinary lens. As a younger Commis chef, his experience as a Bocuse d’Or finalist and Global Chef Challenge winner taught him the art of precision. But in the Solein Kitchen, experimentation is equally vital. “Sometimes I get old-school chefs here. They arrive skeptical, leave silent, thinking. That’s my favorite kind of feedback.”

He now mentors other chefs, documents recipes he has created, and collaborates closely with R&D, the commercial team, and customers, helping inspire product development and turn ideas into real-world consumer products. “My role is also to reflect the company’s mission and tell the story through experiencing food.”

A kitchen with a mission

Solein is a new ingredient. But in Manninen’s hands, it becomes food. Recognisable, desirable, and meaningful. The Solein Kitchen bridges the gap between scientific innovation and everyday eating, translating microbial protein into beloved foods like pancakes, muffins, sauces, snacks, risotto, and ice cream.

“This work is about taking something that seems abstract – protein out of thin air – and turning it into something everyone craves.”

Combining Manninen’s and the company’s R&D team’s expertise, Solar Foods has developed a fast, collaborative process for turning inspiring concepts into product-ready formats. Whether it’s a bagel spread or a high-protein dessert, these concepts serve as trial dishes for customers, who are developing Solein-powered products for consumers.

And with every bite, every tasting, every conversation in the Solein Kitchen, a different future for food becomes a little easier to imagine.

“At some point,” Manninen says, “they stop asking what Solein is, and just ask for seconds.”