Mikko Kosonen

Mikko Kosonen
Birthplace	Finland
Nationality	Finnish
Occupation	Chef, restaurateur
Known for	Nordic cuisine restaurant Mikko in Washington, D.C.

Mikko Kosonen is a Finnish chef and restaurateur based in Washington, D.C., who gained attention in the American capital's dining scene for opening Mikko, a Nordic-themed café and restaurant in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. The establishment, which bears his name, introduced D.C. diners to Scandinavian and Finnish culinary traditions — from house-made cinnamon rolls and Nordic pastries to gravlax and smoked fish — at a time when the city had few restaurants dedicated to the cuisine of Northern Europe. Kosonen's approach combined personal culinary heritage with an awareness of American dining preferences, resulting in a menu that was both authentic to Nordic food culture and accessible to a broader audience. His restaurant was covered by major Washington-area publications including The Washington Post, Washingtonian, Eater DC, and DCist upon its opening in 2018.

Note: Mikko Kosonen the chef should not be confused with other notable individuals of the same name, including a Finnish guitarist and television personality, or a Finnish business strategist and author.

Early Life

Mikko Kosonen was born and raised in Finland, where Nordic food traditions formed the foundation of his culinary sensibility. Details about his upbringing and early years remain limited in published English-language sources, though his deep familiarity with Finnish cuisine — including rye bread baking, gravlax preparation, and Scandinavian pastry-making — suggests a formative connection to the food culture of his homeland. In a 2018 interview with Eater DC, Kosonen noted that he regularly baked rye bread at home for himself, a practice rooted in Finnish domestic cooking traditions, though he expressed uncertainty about whether American diners would embrace the dense, tangy style of bread common in Finland.

This tension between personal food identity and commercial viability in a foreign market would become a defining theme in Kosonen's professional approach in Washington. His willingness to adapt certain elements of Nordic cuisine for American palates, while retaining the essential character of Scandinavian and Finnish cooking, distinguished his restaurant from more rigid interpretations of regional cuisine.

Career

Concept and Opening of Mikko

Kosonen opened Mikko, his eponymous Nordic restaurant and café, in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the spring of 2018. The establishment was situated on a tree-shaded street lined with red brick buildings, and its bright blue exterior immediately set it apart from neighboring businesses. The restaurant served as one of the few dedicated Nordic dining destinations in the Washington metropolitan area, offering a menu that drew from Finnish, Danish, and Swedish culinary traditions.

In preparing to open the restaurant, Kosonen made deliberate choices about which aspects of Nordic cuisine to emphasize and which to hold back. As reported by The Washington Post in July 2018, Kosonen was conscious that certain staples of Northern European eating might not translate directly to American expectations. The resulting menu reflected a balance between authenticity and accessibility, presenting traditional Nordic preparations in a format that could appeal to D.C.'s diverse and cosmopolitan dining public.

The Post review's headline — "D.C. gets a welcome taste of Nordic food that has nothing to do with Ikea" — captured a recurring theme in the restaurant's media coverage: the effort to distinguish genuine Nordic culinary culture from the mass-market Scandinavian aesthetic that many Americans associated primarily with the Swedish furniture retailer.

Menu and Culinary Approach

Mikko's menu featured a range of dishes rooted in the Nordic culinary canon. Pastries occupied a central place in the restaurant's offerings, with cinnamon rolls receiving particular attention in press coverage. Eater DC described the restaurant as "giving Dupont Circle a cinnamon roll fix," highlighting the popularity of these baked goods among the café's customer base. The pastry program also included other traditional Scandinavian baked items, contributing to the café's appeal as both a daytime destination and a casual dining establishment.

Smoked fish and cured preparations were another cornerstone of the menu. Washingtonian specifically highlighted the Nordic pastries and smoked fish as signature offerings when the restaurant opened. Among the most acclaimed dishes was the gravlax, a traditional Nordic preparation of cured salmon. In June 2018, DCist named the gravlax at Mikko its "Dish of the Week," describing it as an alternative to the more familiar smoked salmon and lox preparations common in the D.C. brunch scene. The publication framed the dish as a way to "mix up your brunch smorgasbord," suggesting that Kosonen's interpretation of the classic Nordic cure was both faithful to tradition and suited to the American weekend dining context.

Kosonen's personal culinary practice extended beyond the restaurant's public menu. As noted in his Eater DC interview, he baked traditional Finnish rye bread at home — a denser, more sour variety than the rye breads typically available in American bakeries. His hesitation about offering this bread commercially reflected an awareness of the gap between Nordic food traditions and American taste preferences, as well as a pragmatic approach to menu development that prioritized items more likely to gain broad acceptance while still representing the spirit of Nordic cooking.

Media Reception

The opening of Mikko generated substantial coverage in Washington-area food media during the spring and summer of 2018. The restaurant's novelty factor — as a rare Nordic dining establishment in a city with extensive representation of many other global cuisines but relatively few Scandinavian options — contributed to the level of press interest.

Washingtonian, one of Washington's prominent city magazines, covered the opening in May 2018, directing readers to try the Nordic pastries and smoked fish and noting the restaurant's distinctive blue exterior in the Dupont Circle streetscape. The following month, DCist singled out the gravlax for its "Dish of the Week" feature, placing Kosonen's cured salmon in the context of the broader D.C. brunch culture.

The most prominent coverage came from The Washington Post in July 2018, which published a feature-length piece on the restaurant. The article positioned Mikko as a welcome addition to the city's dining landscape, emphasizing the restaurant's distance from mass-market conceptions of Scandinavian culture and food. The review acknowledged Kosonen's careful calibration of his menu for an American audience while maintaining Nordic culinary integrity.

In September 2018, Eater DC published an extended profile of both the restaurant and its namesake chef. The piece explored Kosonen's personal relationship with Finnish food traditions, including the rye bread he baked at home, and framed the restaurant as a "Scandinavian sweetheart" in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. The article provided insight into Kosonen's thinking about the challenges and opportunities of presenting Nordic cuisine in an American context.

Nordic Cuisine in Washington, D.C.

Kosonen's restaurant arrived at a moment when Nordic cuisine had gained international stature — driven in part by the global influence of restaurants like Noma in Copenhagen — but remained underrepresented in Washington's restaurant landscape. While D.C. had long boasted diverse dining options spanning cuisines from around the world, dedicated Scandinavian and Nordic restaurants were uncommon. Mikko filled a specific niche, offering a casual yet authentic entry point into Nordic food for diners who may have had limited exposure to the cuisine beyond mass-market Swedish meatballs or smoked salmon.

The restaurant's approach was notably unpretentious compared to the fine-dining Nordic establishments that had drawn international food media attention in Scandinavia. By operating as a café and casual restaurant rather than a tasting-menu destination, Kosonen made Nordic food accessible in a format that suited the Dupont Circle neighborhood's mix of residents, office workers, and visitors. This positioning was reflected in the menu's emphasis on pastries, open-faced sandwiches, and cured fish — everyday foods in Scandinavian countries rather than the elaborate, foraged preparations associated with New Nordic haute cuisine.

Personal Life

Mikko Kosonen is Finnish by nationality and has been based in Washington, D.C. His personal food practices, as described in press interviews, reflect a continuing connection to Finnish culinary traditions. He has spoken publicly about baking Finnish rye bread at home, maintaining domestic cooking habits rooted in his upbringing even as he adapted his professional menu for American tastes. Beyond these details shared in the context of media coverage of his restaurant, limited information about Kosonen's private life has been published in English-language sources.

Recognition

Mikko received coverage from several of Washington, D.C.'s most prominent food and lifestyle publications within months of its opening in 2018. The Washington Post, the city's newspaper of record, published a feature on the restaurant in July 2018, lending it significant visibility in the local dining scene. Washingtonian, a widely read city magazine, highlighted the restaurant's pastries and smoked fish offerings upon its debut. DCist honored the restaurant's gravlax with its "Dish of the Week" designation in June 2018. Eater DC, part of the national Eater food media network, profiled both the restaurant and its chef in September 2018, describing the establishment as a neighborhood favorite for its cinnamon rolls and broader Nordic menu.

The concentration of positive media attention in the restaurant's first several months of operation reflected both the novelty of a Nordic-focused establishment in Washington and the quality of Kosonen's culinary output. The Washington Post coverage, in particular, represented a significant form of recognition in a city where the newspaper's food section plays an outsized role in shaping dining trends and public awareness of new restaurants.

Disambiguation

The name Mikko Kosonen is shared by several notable Finnish individuals. In addition to the chef and restaurateur profiled in this article, the name is associated with:

• Mikko Kosonen (born c. 1977), a Finnish guitarist and television personality who has appeared as a judge on the Finnish television program Levyraati. In January 2025, Finnish media outlet Ilta-Sanomat reported on social media discussion regarding his outfit on the program. In November 2024, he commented publicly on a concert-related controversy in Finland. In May 2025, Helsingin Sanomat published a feature on his sandwich-making skills, noting his fondness for preparing elaborate sandwiches for his family, including a broccoli sandwich incorporating Asian flavors.

• Mikko Kosonen, a Finnish business strategist and former executive who co-authored the book Fast Strategy: How Strategic Agility Will Help You Stay Ahead of the Game with INSEAD professor Yves Doz. The book was discussed in a January 2008 article on INSEAD Knowledge, which described Kosonen as a former executive who collaborated with Doz on concepts related to strategic agility in business.