Burnaby goes hand-in-hand with my family history. I went to the same elementary school as my dad a few minutes’ walk from our Metrotown duplex, where multiple generations have lived for almost six decades.
Even though I live in Vancouver at the moment, I still like to stay connected with what’s going on in Burnaby. I visit my family most weekends, going to my favourite stores, parks, and restaurants.
I also like to read newsletters to keep up with what’s new. One day in 2025 I saw an interesting advert: the Burnaby Village Museum was developing a cookbook.
On a whim, I submitted one of my grandmother’s Finnish recipes, as she lived in Burnaby for over 50 years. My sister and I have a relationship with the museum as well, having attended their day camps as kids, and Meredith leading those camps later on.
After a few weeks, I was elated to learn that our recipe submission was accepted!
Over the next few months, I had the pleasure of getting to know the talented museum curators, putting together some photos, writing, and of course the recipe.
Mimi’s Lanttu
Lanttu is the Finnish word for rutabaga or turnip. My family uses this word to describe what the Finns call Lanttulaatikko, or rutabaga casserole. It is a sweet dish traditionally made at Christmas, and my grandma Hilkka (“Mimi”) made it every year.
As a kid, I was put off by the smell of the dish, but I wish I opened my mind earlier; it’s a sugar-packed delight! I thought it would be a unique yet easy to make dish for the Burnaby cookbook.
Photo credit: Burnaby Village Museum
While in the process of developing our materials for the book last September, Mimi’s husband, our “Papa” Karl, died suddenly. Our family was thrust into an extremely difficult period of grief and work, including cleaning out their side of the duplex.
Despite the pain and exhaustion of this time for our family, it presented a unique opportunity for me to use some photographs that I had never seen before.
It’s an immense privilege that we got to share a bit of our story and Finnish-Canadian culture in the book. The Burnaby Village team were extremely kind, caring, and gracious.
One of the best parts was being in a professional photoshoot at the museum. I invited my sister Meredith to join, because it’s just as much her story to tell.
We gathered a few items from the half-cleaned house and attempted to re-create Mimi’s dazzling table setups on a smaller scale. The resulting photos are ones I will treasure forever.
Photo credit: Burnaby Village Museum
From Burnaby to Texas
A slight tangent on the topic of table settings and interior design: One part of the many many things we needed to deal with in Mimi and Papa’s house was a massive collection of Architectural Digest magazines.
Mimi always had the latest issue out to peruse. One of her favourite things was to collect and use an array of dinnerware and decor.
She instilled in me the art of the dinner party, so you can imagine my frustration living in an East Van basement suite with no dining table. One day…
I sent one of the magazines to a YouTuber I love named Jeannie, who lives in Texas. She makes relaxing ASMR videos, including “flip-throughs” where she looks at magazines and catalogs. I mailed it to her with no expectation for it to be included in a video, so I was shocked and emotional when it was.
A gathering to taste
It took several months of hard work for the Burnaby Village team to create “One City, Many Kitchens: Burnaby’s Global Cookbook”. The result is so thoughtful and well-designed.
When my parents and I pulled up to the book launch on a sunny July evening, I expected to find a few people in a small room. Instead, we were met with an outdoor gala, tables spread on the village’s main street. Local beer (Burnabarian, of course) and several dishes directly from the cookbook were served to at least 50-75 people.
City councillors, village staff, and even the Mayor spoke at length about the importance of this project to the city’s arts and culture. It was such a beautiful evening of connecting with old friends, meeting new ones, and learning about various cultures in the city I love most.
It was great to see one of my high school teachers at the event, city councillor Daniel Tetrault.
To my surprise, Lanttu was one of the dishes served at the launch. I was emotional watching so many people try my grandmother‘s dish. If she was there, I know her her big smile and laughs would light up the event. She would be so proud to see her culture shared with the community.
My friends joke that being involved in a project like this is “very me,” because I’m known to be a Burnaby girl. If you’ve read my blog before, that’s pretty clear.
I’m fascinated by how Burnaby has grown and changed over time, and hope to help make it a great place in the future somehow. Burnaby is part of why I studied urban planning for the past year.
Contributing to this cookbook showed me how food fits into the cultural mosaic of our community.
If you’re ever at the Burnaby Village Museum, grab a copy of “One City, Many Kitchens” at the gift shop. And at your next holiday meal, give Lanttu a try!
A huge shoutout to the BVM team and United Way for creating such a cool project.
Thank you to my family for being an amazing support system. We’ve had a difficult year, but experiences like this prove that we are able to reflect and heal.
marina miller 