When Luxury Goes Wild: How Sirly Ylläsjärvi Is Feeding the World’s Elite

In a region with more reindeer than people, Sirly Ylläsjärvi is building something the world has never seen — a global luxury brand born in the stillness of Lapland and scaled to the stratosphere.

Her company, LUMI Sky Catering, has become one of Finland’s fastest-growing hospitality ventures, redefining what private-jet dining can be: Michelin-level precision, Nordic authenticity, and Arctic storytelling served 40,000 feet above the ground.

The Arctic as a Brand Platform

Most luxury founders build from capitals; Ylläsjärvi builds from contrasts — snow and steel, silence and jet fuel, wilderness and wealth.

Lapland, her home, has fewer than 200,000 inhabitants but attracts millions of travelers each year. From that improbable base, she has constructed a supply chain, creative vision, and operational model that now covers every airport in Finnish Lapland — Kittilä, Rovaniemi, Ivalo, Kemi, and Enontekiö — plus Oulu and Helsinki.

What was once a local fine-dining kitchen in the village of Hannukainen has evolved into an international network of private-jet catering operations serving elite clients who demand discretion, design, and the taste of the North.

From a Single Hangar to a National Footprint

Only five months after its founding, LUMI Sky Catering moved from a small Lapland hangar to a nationwide operation. Ylläsjärvi personally designed the menus, packaging, logistics, and brand visuals — a complete ecosystem executed in record time.

Her strategic vision is clear: build a scalable Arctic luxury brand that exports Lapland’s purity and craftsmanship to the world’s most exclusive environments.

“Lapland has always been seen as remote,” says Ylläsjärvi. “I want to prove it’s the new center of Nordic luxury — not because of what we have, but because of what we preserve.”

What Makes LUMI Sky Catering a Category of Its Own

1. A New Definition of Arctic Luxury
LUMI isn’t just catering. It’s sensory storytelling — dishes built on Lapland ingredients and design aesthetics. Reindeer tartar on Lapland potato crisps, king crab soup engineered for aircraft ovens, and hand-foraged forest herbs arranged like jewelry. Each element speaks of precision and provenance.

2. Emotional Engineering at Altitude
Menus are created for both flavor and physics — designed to taste perfect at cabin pressure while maintaining the emotional charge of fine dining. Every tray and box is built to evoke the calm, clean minimalism of the North.

3. Founder-Driven Brand Building
Ylläsjärvi leads everything from creative direction to strategic expansion. She owns the majority of her company and runs it with the efficiency of a luxury startup. Her goal is unapologetically ambitious: to capture 80 % of Finland’s private-jet catering market by 2026 and position LUMI as a global Arctic icon.

Beyond Food: Building Lapland’s Global Identity

LUMI Sky Catering is part of a broader mission. For Ylläsjärvi, the company is not only about meals in the sky — it’s a statement about how high-quality entrepreneurship can thrive far from capital cities.

She sees Lapland as Europe’s most underused luxury resource: authentic, safe, sustainable, and emotionally powerful. Through her work, Lapland’s story travels with every jet that departs.

Her long-term vision is to expand the Arctic brand ecosystem — from villa catering and fine dining to global partnerships connecting Lapland to luxury travel networks in London, Dubai, and beyond.

the LUMI Doggy Bag - From the same Arctic kitchens that serve private jets comes something delightfully unexpected

This exclusive pet treat collection turns local wilderness into five-star nutrition. Each bag celebrates the purity and strength of northern nature, made entirely from responsibly sourced ingredients:

• Reindeer bone – rich in minerals, slow-dried for hours to preserve natural flavor and structure.
• Reindeer liver – protein-dense, vitamin-packed, and freeze-dried for maximum nutrition.
• Moose hide – a wild, chewy delicacy that strengthens teeth and keeps dogs occupied naturally.
• Arctic fish – high in omega-3s, sourced from crystal-clear northern waters.

Every product is handcrafted in small batches and packed in LUMI’s signature minimalist packaging — elegant enough to match the brand’s aviation clientele, sustainable enough to honor Lapland’s ecosystem.

“Our clients travel with their dogs on private jets. I wanted to give their pets the same quality experience as their owners — pure, local, and luxurious,” says Ylläsjärvi.

The LUMI Doggy Bag can be ordered and shipped anywhere in the world, bringing a bite of the Arctic to cosmopolitan kennels from Monaco to Manhattan.

Because even the world’s most privileged pets deserve a taste of Lapland.

About Sirly Ylläsjärvi

Sirly Ylläsjärvi is a Finnish chef, entrepreneur, and founder of Restaurant Elsa and LUMI Sky Catering. She has become one of Northern Europe’s most influential culinary visionaries by merging world-class execution with Arctic authenticity.

Her ventures celebrate the balance of elegance and endurance — proof that global luxury can be born where there are more reindeer than people, and where success is built not on abundance, but on imagination.