Irina Smit’s strong passion for plant-based food has resulted in two cookbooks and the café Happy Foods, where she inspires others to enjoy colorful, healthy and tasty dishes. Visit Happy Foods in Oslo: Colorful And refreshing.
“I want to live a life where I do what makes me happy, is meaningful to me and others, and gives me the quality of life I want,” says Irina in her latest book, Irina’s Happy Food, which was released in the summer of 2024 in collaboration with Skappel Books. Here, she spreads the joy of food with 90 dishes over 304 pages. The first cookbook she created was published by Gyldendal in 2020. This time, she has managed much of the book process herself. Line Dammen has been the stylist and photographer.
The publication is bursting with joy for food based on clean and organic products. The same clean ingredients are used in the café she started in Majorstuen, near Vestkanttorget, in 2019. Most of the suppliers are based on sustainable production. The 38-year-old Irina, who is a trained chef, started small by delivering snacks to various shops and cafes in 2014. That same year, she quit her job as maître d’ at Nodee in Oslo.
Irina grew up in Nesodden and attended Steiner-School. In her younger years, she was mostly interested in baking cakes, but since then, her interest in food has expanded to making all kinds of dishes. As an adult, she has mostly experimented with dishes based on fruits and vegetables. Her parents taught her early on the value of plant-based food during her upbringing. The family of six often visited farms during their free time, something she continues to do as an adult. One of her favorites is the biodynamic Bergsmyrende farm in Hurum. Here, Irina picks the best of the season’s vegetables and fruits. They produce plant-based products all year round, including in greenhouses, and deliver vegetables every week to Happy Foods.
“I pick all the salad used in the café from this farm, as well as herbs, chives, and cucumbers, among other things. I lived in Hurum for a few years and first got to know the farm in Asker, which has since become a favorite.”
During farm visits, she often brings her two daughters, aged nine and six, and her husband, who wholeheartedly supports Irina’s Happy Foods project.
“Eating outdoors, bringing the family on a picnic, rarely goes wrong; my family loves it, and we do it as often as we can,” says Irina. To make plant-based food even more appealing, she decorates the dishes with edible flowers from Fioriblomster farm in Vollen.
“I prefer organic food because it gives me more energy. I steer clear of ultra-processed food. This type of food triggers me, and I end up wanting more. It often leads to me losing control. I have therefore made a conscious choice to live a balanced life where I eat and make as much clean and colorful food as possible based on whole ingredients that promote health.” Irina’s daily diet mainly consists of a bit of healthy fat, in the form of nuts, olive oil, and avocados, as well as proteins from eggs, fish, and legumes, in addition to carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables, grains, and a little dark chocolate.
Popular with Healthy Cakes
Some of the dishes, including healthy waffles and bread without flour, soups and salads, as well as raw food cakes and other sweets based on vegetables, served in the café, are also featured in her latest cookbook. Refined sugar and wheat flour are never used in her recipes. She has been running the café in Majorstuen for five years now. The Happy Foods concept has also recently been expanded with various evening events, including collaborations with mental coach Anniken Binz and ceramicist Caroline Sagafos.
“Meeting new people, making colorful and healthy food for enjoyable and inspiring events, setting tables brimming with various colorful and delicious dishes is one of the most rewarding things I do,” says Irina.
Irina updates her Instagram account weekly with new recipes. She makes videos herself, hoping they will inspire more people to cook based on healthy, plant-based products.
“I love inspiring joy in food all year round, taking advantage of seasonal ingredients, and picking vegetables and fruits directly from producers. I often get ideas based on what is available in season and am conscious of combining different flavors and textures.”
One of the bestsellers at the café is waffles made with carrots, among other ingredients, topped with almond butter and seasonal berries. They are garnished with edible flowers from Fiori, organic flowers. Every day, a dedicated baker makes raw food cakes for the café. The cakes are incredibly popular, and fortunately based on vegetables. She believes that one of the reasons she stays healthy is the use of clean, ingredient-based products and homemade food.
The joyful food message—to include as much greenery and fruit as possible in the daily diet—is something she never gets tired of spreading to readers and guests. Seeing others enjoy the dishes she creates never ceases to excite her.
For more information, see www.happyfoods.no
Happy Foods in Oslo: Colorful & Refreshing, written by Anne Marit Muri. Muri is a former editor of, among others, Magasinet Kunst, and has written reports on art and culture for a number of years.
She is the author and initiator of the book, Kunstnerliv, portraits of 19 contemporary artists, which was published in 2018, voted the year’s most beautiful art book in 2019 by Grafill. She is also the author of the book, Det gåtefulle lyset, Svalbard, which was published in autumn 2022, by the publisher Utenfor Allfarvei in Harstad.
Muri is educated at the University of Oslo and Bergen. She is currently working on a master’s degree in media development, under the auspices of Oslo Met, in addition to developing new book projects and is a writer for several magazines. She is a regular writer on fine arts, culture and lifestyle for Daily Scandinavian.
All images © happyfoods.no
Other articles written by Anne Marit Muri you might like to read:
Norwegian Photographer’s Eternals Studies with Nature
A Norwegian Artist’s Fusion of Old and New Times