Two Stars For The Greenhouse

In 2019 the Michelin Guide gave The Greenhouse a second star^[1][2]. The Staff Canteen also lists it as the guide for 2020^[2].

This was big news for Dublin. According to The Staff Canteen, The Greenhouse was the first restaurant in the capital to gain a second star since 2000^[1]. Nearly two decades had passed without a new two-star kitchen in the city.

Into Rare Company

Two stars put Viljanen in a very small club. A chef who had arrived from Finland in 2000 was now one of them^[1].

The awards that year piled up. He also won Chef of the Year in Georgina Campbell's Ireland Guide and Food & Wine Magazine's Chef of the Year in 2019^[1]. It was, by any measure, the best year of his career so far.

Then The World Stopped

Within months, the pandemic closed restaurants across Ireland. Viljanen spoke about how hard the lockdowns were for the trade. When we go back, he said in 2020, we will push even harder^[2].

But The Greenhouse would not go back. In May 2021 Viljanen resigned to take on a new project^[2]. When the 2022 guide came out, every Irish starred restaurant kept its stars, except The Greenhouse, which was not open^[4].

Taking The Stars With Him

Stars belong to restaurants, not chefs. Yet the skill behind them belongs to the chef. Hospitality Ireland later described Viljanen as a chef who had held two Michelin stars since 2019^[3]. Wherever he went next, people expected the same level.

Looking Back

The Greenhouse years made his name. He arrived in 2012 as part of a new team, won Restaurant of the Year in the first year, a star a few years later and then a second one^[1][2]. It was a rapid rise for a restaurant that had started from nothing.

His next kitchen would soon prove them right. Within months he would earn two stars all over again, in a different dining room^[3][4].