Five Minutes with Noora Heiska, Pilot

Who are you?

Noora Heiska, I’m the sous chef at Pilot. I trained as a chef over 10 years ago in Finland before backpacking through Asia and I ended up in Australia. I’ve been here for eight years now!

Tell me about Pilot

We are a fine dining restaurant serving modern Australian food, but I like to say it’s as vaguely modern Australian as you can get. We use influences from all over the place. We like to work with local farmers, cook what’s in season and use that produce as the starting point for the menu. It’s very fluid, which is why I like it.

How did you get involved in the hospitality industry?

It started out baking sweets, and then I often cooked for my siblings because my parents worked full time. I did work experience at my aunt’s restaurant when I was about 15. I mostly did dishes, cut salad, and polished cutlery, but I really enjoyed the vibe and the experience. It felt like something I could put my creativity into and also it scratched that part of my brain that is really precise and wants things to be perfect.

If you weren’t in hospitality, what would you be doing instead?

I also really wanted to study psychology when I was younger. I still find it very interesting, but now having more experience in the world, I probably wouldn’t want to do it as a job.

What is your food philosophy?

Food should be enjoyed. Obviously, there’s nutrition and other elements of why we need to eat, but it can be so much more; it’s a form of caretaking, it’s social connection, and it adds so much joy to my life, so I want to be able to give that to other people.

What is your current food obsession?

I’m working on a mango dessert right now, and it is sending me down a rabbit hole. The thing with mangos is that the more you try to manipulate them, the worse they get. There’s nothing better than fresh, ripe mango, so it’s a challenge.

What’s an underrated Canberra venue that you love?

Paranormal Wines. People know it as a bottle shop but the food there is also really good. Reece is a great chef and he runs the kitchen by himself.

Who do you admire in the Canberra food scene?

Ben and Mork from Minima. They were constrained with Morks because it was a Thai restaurant. I can tell that they’re so happy with Minima and third culture cooking, it’s allowed them to use ingredients outside of the Thai palate. Now Mork isn’t constrained, he can use anchovies from Spain instead of Thai fish sauce.

It’s hard in hospitality because there’s always this battle between what we want to cook and what the customers want to eat: you have to be able to balance it. I really admire the fact that they’ve taken the leap to close Morks and open this new place to express themselves fully and freely. It takes courage.

Where’s the best place for a summer drink in Canberra?

Capital Brewing out at Dairy Road. Whenever I go, they have something new on tap, and they have low alcohol options, which is great, so you can stay for a while and still drive. I love their outdoor area during summer.

Who is your dream dinner party guest, and what would you make them?

My dream dinner party would be my parents and my partner’s parents, but they’re not very adventurous eaters so I would make a rule that they would need to eat what we cook for them. I feel like they’re missing out, so I would love to give them the experience of broadening their palate a little bit and trying something they wouldn’t have normally.

It would have to be a lot of seafood – it’s so much better in Australia than in Finland. Oysters for sure, octopus, and maybe bugs or lobsters, which they usually wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole!

What’s the best thing you ate this week?

I get a shallot pancake from the Soom Soom Kitchen food truck at Dairy Road every week. She makes really good sandwiches, too, but I always get the shallot pancake with egg, cheese and corn and I add pickles and chilli sauce. It just hits the spot. I climb at Blochaus quite a bit but the food truck is definitely a big part of why I go there so often!

What’s a food that reminds you of your childhood?

Rye bread. The only place that makes a good one in Canberra is Under Bakery – it’s close to what we’d get at home. It’s one of the things I miss most about home. It’s such a big part of the culture in Finland, and we usually have it multiple times a day. I want to work it into a dish at Pilot!

When you can’t be bothered to cook for yourself, where do you go and what do you eat?

Thai Chiang Rai in Kingston. Our standard order is spicy Phuket prawns, macadamia scallops, roti, sticky rice and rice paper rolls.

Where are you travelling next?

My partner and I are going to Finland for Christmas this year to see my family. We haven’t been for a couple of years, and I usually go during summer, so it’s been a long time since I’ve been back for Christmas.

In my family, we have lots of traditions, and most of them are on Christmas Eve.

We have rice porridge and cinnamon sugar for breakfast, which we only eat at Christmas, and it usually goes with a kind of sweet soup made with dried fruit. It has a kind of Christmas cake vibe but in a soup. Then we have a sauna in the afternoon. Dinner usually consists of ham, some casseroles, beetroot salad, gravlax, or another cured fish. It’s all about Winter produce and a lot of root vegetables.

We also have some gingerbread and Christmas chocolates and open our presents after dinner. It’s a very family-oriented day.

Tell me something you love about living in Canberra

The community in hospitality. It’s so nice. It’s fairly small, but I think hospo always feels small, even in bigger cities, because everyone gossips so much! But it’s really wholesome here. Everyone supports each other.

What books have you been reading?

I’m very curious to read Ben Shewry’s book Uses for Obsession. He’s been very vocal about lots of things in the industry recently so I’m looking forward to finding some time for that. But I usually just read cookbooks.

An easy one to finish – what’s your go-to coffee order?

A long black.

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