Märgilise tähtsusega sügis Eesti gastronoomiamaastikul

Käesolev aasta on meid õnnistanud tõeliselt kuldse ja viljaka sügisega. Eesti vanarahvaski teadis, et just sügis on kõige sobilikum aeg tibude lugemiseks. Seda plaanin ka täna ise teha.

Sel sügisel sai kodumaine gastronoomiamaastik olla kahe olulise sündmuse tunnistajaks – Eesti restoranid on esimest korda esindatud mainekas White Guide restode giidis ning märgiliselt sugugi mitte vähem oluline oli restorahvale mõeldud konverentsi Sauce toimumine, millel oma kirjutises ka vähe pikemalt peatun.

Ajaloolise korrektsuse huvides pean meenutama seda, et päris esimene tippnimede osavõtul peetud toidukonverents toimus juba kuus aastat tagasi, mil oma maailmavaadet ja ideid käisid laval esitlemas sellised kaalukad tegelased nagu Fergus Henderson, Claus Meyer ja Albert Adria.

Toidu –ja restoraniärile keskendunud konverentsi korraldamine pole kindlasti mitte kergete killast, rääkimata eristumisest. Arvestades, et üle maailma on toimumas sadu ja sadu toiduga seotud sündmusi, seminare, konverentse, mille formaat on laias laastus üpris sarnane.

Võimalik, et olen ebaõiglane, kuid aegajalt tundub, et mõne koka jaoks on olulisem säärastel üritustel populaarsust võita, kui oma restoranis läbi oma kunsti külaliste eest hoolt kanda. Eks restorani mahu küll ainult käputäis inimesi, samas, kui tippkonverentsid meelitavad kokku sadu kordi rohkem vaatajaid-kuulajaid. Lisaks annab reputatsioonile tõhusa tõuke ka sotsiaalmeedia. Mine sa võta kinni, mis see õigem on. Inimestel on mõlemat vaja – nii tsirkust kui leiba. Kui tippkokk suudab laval elavalt ja kaasakiskuvalt esineda ning oma rida ajada, tehes seda sealjuures ka veenvalt, siis miks ka mitte! Tänulikku publikut jagub nii esinejatele, kes mõnikord kokkavad kui ka kokkadele, kes mõnikord leiavad aega esinemisteks.

Sauce’i toimumine teeb loomulikult rõõmu. Seesuguse profiiliga konverents oli Eestis senini olemata. Märkimisväärne on see, et juba esimesel aastal õnnestus saada kokku muljetavaldav esinejate-kõnelejate nimekiri. Mainides seda ka meie multikultuurses Fävikeni köögis, pööritas Singapurist pärit tüdruk  silmi ja nentis, et neil Singapuris pole sellisel tasemel esinejate komplekti mitte kunagi õnnestunud kokku saada. Eestil on kahtlemata selles plaanis omad trumbid. Üheks selliseks on meie riik kui selline, mis hoolimata vastavatest jõupingutustest, on paljude jaoks siiski üks avastamata intrigeeriv kants. Meie toidukultuur ja selle ajalugu. Just sellepärast oli Tallinnasse nõus esinema tulema ka Fävikeni peakokk, kelle resümee on täis osalemisi kõikvõimalikel säärastel üritustel, mistõttu oli ka suhteliselt loomulik tema küsimus – kas see on üks järjekordne tüüpiline toidukonverents?

Aga kas siis oli järjekordne konverents? Ühtepidi võiks vist öelda, et pigem nagu oli. Laval võis näha häid kõnemehi ja kõnemehi, kes ehk oma oraatorlike võimete poolest nii väga ei hiilanud. Programm oli iseenesest tihe ja asjalik – sai kuulda suurepäraseid mõtteid restoraniärist ja sellega seonduvast. Tore oli taas trehvata kolleege, kuulda kodumaiste kokkade arvamusi ja vaatenurki erinevatel teemadel.  Mis aga minu hinnangul Sauce’i puhul kõige olulisem – tänu konverentsile väisas meie väikest turgu seltskond põnevaid toiduga seotud inimesi, kelle sõnal ja arvamusel on ka maailmamastaabis kaalu.

Minu kõrvu jäi igaljuhul palju positiivseid noote ja emotsioone, mistõttu võib uskuda, et see tore kamp inimesi naaseb tagasi koju ning jagab siin saadud häid kogemusi – rohkem polegi vaja, et pall veerema lükata.

Kui nüüd hetkeks mälestada tänaseks kadunud, kuid meeletut populaarsust kogenud MAD Foodcampi, siis selle toimumise viimasel aastal jäi kõlama lause: “aitab rääkimisest – aeg on tegutsema hakata!” Täpselt nii ka juhtus – näiteks kavad laste taimeteadlikuse tõstmiseks, et vältida olukordi, kus noored tegelased teavad ja tunnevad küll kõike uhkeid automarke tänaval, kuid metsas on vastused keerulised tulema. Samuti väärib märkimist koostöö Yale’i ülikooliga.

Liikudes edasi sama kiiresti nagu seda on teinud meie toiduskene, saaksime vältida liigseid heietamisi lavalaudadel ning asuda tegudele. Toidukonverentsidel on kahtlemata oma koht kogemuste ja nägemuste jagajana, kuid need ei suuda iialgi asendada päris tegusid, tõelisi initsiatiive!

• Fotode autor Johannes Hõimoja

Copy paste

Kõik me oleme uhked Eesti kulinaaria kiire arengu üle – kriitikud käivad ja kiidavad, uusi toidukohti tekib juurde nagu seeni peale vihma ja hea toidu sõbrad aina mõnulevad.

Külastades mõni aeg tagasi Moskvas Omnivore toidufestivali, avastasin end mõtlemas ühele pisut piinlikkust tekitavale asjaolule – me pole veel ikka päris täielikult vabanenud nõukaaegsest kopeerimise probleemist. Oli ju ka meie kodumaal tooteid, mis olid laenatud vabast maailmast, aga tulem oli tihtilugu paraku mingi nihkes konstruktsioon – näts, pepsikoola, rääkimata 90-ndate alguses möllanud täiesti avalikust piraatlusest, mis meile igast nurgapealsest putkast vastu vahtis. Omnivore festivali ajal ilmus kohalikus toiduajakirjas EDA artikkel ühest taanlasest peakokast Moskvas, kellelt küsiti, mis talle Moskva söögikohtade menüüde juures silma hakkab? Vastus oli kiire ja lihtne – menüüdes hakkavad silma samalaadsed kombinatsioonid, mida mujal maailmas on juba tehtud ja esitletud. Kas tuleb tuttav ette olukord, kus istud mõnes meie kohalikus restoranis ja tundub justkui oleksid üht või teist rooga kusagil maitsnud või sellest lugenud? Nüüd aga istud siin kodumaises toidukohas ja näed, kuidas menüüd esitletakse kui kohaliku koka loomingut…

Siinkohal pean ka endale tuhka pähe raputama ja tõdema, et päris prii pole sellest süüst ka mina. Tunnistan, et olin kunagi kokaraamatute “sõltlane”, et mingi mõttega liikuma saada, vajasin mõnikord hakatust ja inspiratsiooni, mida just need raamatud pakkuda suutsid. Küllap võib siin teatavaid paralleele tõmmata muusikaga, kus tahes tahtmata “lastakse” end inspireerida… Ajad, traditsioonid ja stiilid taldrikutel muutusid ning muutusid ka raamatud minu riiulil. Mingil hetkel selgus karm, aga samas ka meelitav tõde – toidunautlejad laiast maailmast ei tule sööma mitte minu poolt valmistatud rooga mõne maailmakuulsa chefi repertuaarist, vaid tulevad kohale hoopis minu enda loomingu pärast. Kahtlemata on tõde selles, et meile kõigile meeldib ju eelkõige originaallooming, olgu selleks muusikas Arvo Pärt või kunstis Picasso.

Need read sellest intervjuust jäid paraku rohkem meelde kui Omnivori festival ise. Millal Eesti toidukohtade menüüd saavad vabaks copy paste meetodil üle võetud toitudest? Kui üks asi on kopeerimine kokandusmaailma suurmeistritelt, siis esineb drastilisi juhtumeid, kus ei peeta paljuks üpris jämedalt ka kohalikus “liivakastis” päris üks-ühele samasuguseid roogasid valmistada. Loomulikult saab siinkohal väita, et kulinaarias on vähe mänguruumi ja paganama prantsalsed on selle juba aegade hämarusest niivõrd hästi kaardistanud, jättes ülejäänutele vaid laualt pudeneva puru. Siinkohal räägime me aga tehnikast ja töövõtetest, mille baasilt on siiski võimalik endiselt uusi ja isikupäraseid kooslusi luua. Kellele konnasööjate tehnikad pole meelepärased, tasub läbi lugeda Aliise Moora raamat “Eesti talurahva vanem toit”, kus on näiteks väga hästi seletatud lahti vanad kohalikud tehnikad.

Pea igal toidufestivalil siin või sealpool merd tulevad jutuks tooraine, tehnikad ja traditsioonid. Järgneb küsimus – mis on teie maale iseloomulik tooraine või mõni huvitav tehnika, mida toiduvalmistamisel kasutate? Mida on teil nii head pakkuda, et inimestel tasuks maailma teisest otsast kohale tulla? Just see, head kolleegid, on see küsimus, mis peaks meid tiivustama ja mõtlema panema ja mitte haarama abi järele mõne teise chefi raamatust, ehkki see võib teinekord nii lihtne ja ahvatlev tunduda. Kas me tõesti siis tahamegi omaenda kohalikku kulinaariat maailmale näidata läbi odavate koopiate? Usun siiralt, et mitte. Siinkohal on hea laenata maailmakuulsa chefi Ferran Adriani kuldseid sõnu – ‘creativity means not copying!’

Omnivore toidufestivalil Moskvas

My 5 favourites from 2012

2012 is now in the past. Although we did not witness the world ending – and thank God we didn’t, it was a fine year for cuisine all around the world – a lot of new and exciting places and flavours.

By no means will I propose any kind of ranking here in this posting – just letting you guys know about my 5 favourite flavours from the last year. Hope you’ll find some of them either familiar or something worthwhile trying out yourselves if you let this posting guide you. Anyways – hope you have enjoyed the world full of flavours in 2012 and will continue to do so and discover a whole lot of new tastes out there in 2013. Salute!

One of my favourites from 2012 comes from my trip to Singapore. Restaurant Andre and his Octaphilosophy is truely one of the loveliest discoveries from the past year. I must say however, that as a chef I would feel somewhat without true roots in Singapore – there’s now forrest, no local farmers, just imported produce.

My favourite from that visit was: Eggplant, cockscomb; duck tongue terrine with smoked eggplant caviar and sesame salt

Eggplant, cockscomb; duck tongue terrine with smoked eggplant caviar and sesame salt

Septime had been in my list for ages – there’s a good reason for that. Nice and simple combinations – the things that rule the culinary world more and more each day.

Chefs Bertrand Grébaut’s  beautiful, seasonal cooking, pristine ingredients, and a fine list of natural wines to match. Septime chefs  are actually cooking, not just coming up with tricks and trends to obscure the fact that they don’t know what they’re doing, or that their ingredients aren’t good enough to be presented on their own without some sort of fuss and fanfare.

My favourite from that visit was: Panfried pike-perch with lightly pickled cabbages and seaweed cream

Panfried pike-perch with lightly pickled cabbages and seaweed cream

As we all know – all islands are connected under the sea 🙂 So it happened that in September we were on our way to a little island of France called Il de Yeu – the pictures you can see from Kitchencrunch blog as well. But before arriving to Il de Yeul we visited a small neighbouring island and its small fishing village where you can find restaurant La Marine run by Alexandre Couillon.

The definitely have one of the best degustation menus and the wine selection is just splendid. There were quite a few real lovely combinations, but my favorite one was:

Aged duck, perfectly cooked, served with tarragon foam and pickled cucumber.  Yet again a very simple but adorable combination!

Aged duck, perfectly cooked, served with tarragon foam and pickled cucumber

It was a midsummer in the foodie heaven Copenhagen and this salad was a brilliant showstopper!

As Chef Bo Bech describes the food of restaurant Geist:

Food made with pure ingredients and pure enthusiasm. Served with joy alongside good pours. In surroundings that inspire gleeful seduction and free thought. 

And I must agree with him – this is how it’s done in Geist. Lightly tossed wild herbs, salicornes and marinated gooseberries add a pleasant acidity. Just brilliant!

Lightly tossed wild herbs, salicornes and marinated gooseberries

Friends from island of Bornholm, Nicolai Norregaard and Rasmus Kofoed opened their restaurant in Copenhagen in the beginning of 2012. Its called Kadeau. Both of their restaurants in Bornholm and now in Copenhagen are excellent!

Not a very wide but always changing menu of simple combinations that are made from produce from Bornholm island are defining Kadeau and the quality they bring on the table.  This is what they have to say about it themselves:

The philosophy behind kadeau Bornholm and now also kadeau København is simple: To produce and serve food from Bornholm and the nordic regions and wines that, as far as possible, come from sustainable wine farmers that love their wines as much as we love food. We love food, and we love Bornholm.

Greetings to Copenhagen and while visiting the city go and check out their brand new spot called Pony.

My favourite from Kadeau’s degustation menu in July: Sweatbread with aspargus and extra rich beef sauce. 

Sweatbread with aspargus and extra rich beef sauce

 

We are going RAW

20by8

For quite some time now we have been organizing special events for all the foodies out there, we call it 20by8 – first at Neh and now at Alexander Restaurant. This forthcoming event is going to be something special as it is somewhat a test for our young Estonian chefs – all on  route to perfection in their home-kitchens, now coming together as a team (going to represent Estonia in Culinary Olympics in 2014)  to take on a task of foraging the woods, finding wild plants and a cooking at a temperature that may not exceed 37° C…. Yes, we are going RAW this time around in our 20by8 culinary happening! I will give you a brief overview how it all went down probably in the next week – so stay tuned to Kitchencrunch!

An exclusive ‘20 by 8’ Culinary Event at Alexander Restaurant – Pädaste Manor on 26 May

This time we have invited five talented Estonian chefs to join the Pädaste culinary team and rise to the occasion. With our guidance these young chefs are set to create a fabulous five-course dinner.

The five promising young talents are members of the Estonian Young Chefs Team which will participate in the 2014 Culinary Olympics in Germany. Pädaste Manor – as a leading restaurant in Estonia – takes this initiative to encourage the team, pass on knowledge and motivate the “future generation” of Estonian gastronomy.

Diners participating in ‘Raw’ are also invited to join in with some of the day-time fun! Under the guidance of our horticulturist Anna–Liisa Piiroja, our clients and chefs are heading for the woods and meadows to gather wild produce. The foraging trip departs from Pädaste on Saturday at noon.

Click here for further info about Raw
* 20 by 8 is as much about discovery of food as about meeting with fellow members of the foodie tribe, hence a certain culinary curiosity is a pre-requisite – however, the true joy of 20 by 8 is very much about socializing at table.

** Any tips left on this evening will go towards the travel budget of the 2014 Estonian Culinary Olympic Team. Your generosity in support of these fine young chefs is very much appreciated!

‘20 by 8’ arrangement includes accommodation on Saturday night and prices start at €192 per person, based on double occupancy and subject to the chosen room category. Naturally this all inclusive arrangement comprises the dinner event with a sumptuous selection of dishes, wines and after dinner drinks on 26 May.

Please note the foraging trip starts at noon and we welcome guests for dinner at 8pm

For reservations contact info@padaste.ee

Women should stay in the kitchen!

As we celebrated International Women’s Day (at least in this side of the world) just a week ago, I found myself thinking, how come an old and worn-out expression like ‘women should stay in kitchen’ is in some occasions still in use. Although home-cooking has been and still is very much women’s domain.

If we take a look at how are things in the professional kitchens here in Estonia, we see a whole different world. Only 10% – 13% of people working in kitchen are women and even that number is mostly generated by the cooks working in school canteens. Going even further we see that we pretty much don’t have any female chefs in Estonia comparison to men working in the best restaurants here and abroad. But not to give Estonia a bad name, it’s not much different around the world as well.

Looking at the last years ”The World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ we only find Elena Arzak with her father in the TOP 10. It’s worth to mention that the competition also gives out an award for Best Female Chef. I reckon that our local culinary awards by Flavours of Estonia and Silverspoon should also take notice and show their appreciation and praise to female chefs of Estonia. Culinary world is tough and sometimes even ruthless – that’s why I definitely give accolades to women who make it. We should all do that!

By the way – research has pointed out that the companies that embrace women in their boards show better business results. It’s clear that the times of running the kitchen with Gordon Ramsey-like vulgarity and abusive language should be over for good!

 

My first teacher and mentor Angelica Udeküll - thank you for your endless trust and support

You’ve got to learn to succeed

By the time I arrived to The Tallinn School of Service, the young chefs had already been bustling in the kitchen for nearly a whole day. The food happening created in a form of a pop-up restaurant was called N 11 – the future prospects of Estonian gastronomy demonstrating their skills. One can never be sure, but I expect at least half of them to be determined to continue in their path of becoming a full time chef. One of the goals for this event was also to pick a team out of those young Estonian chefs to represent Estonia in the 2014 Culinary Olympics. I wish them the best of luck!

During the dinner I found myself thinking about those young folks who have chosen to become chefs and the more I thought about it the more I realized that they would really benefit from improving their skills abroad. Maybe not escaping straight away, but in it’s good time – why not. And not aiming for some second rate corner restaurants, but for renowned spots around the world. So we welcome talents coming back home, but we need to let them go and spread their wings a little. Having said that, I must admit that there are very few examples of Estonian chefs working and gaining experience in worlds top-notch restaurants. Dima Mägi who is working in one of the NYCs finest restaurants Eleven Madison Park is probably the best example. So if you know any other good examples of Estonian chefs working in restaurants like that, I’d appreciate you letting me know.

Estonian chefs working abroad have surely a positive influence on Estonian culinary scene – bringing back the knowledge, experience and skills from a top restaurant abroad is worth a lot and is well needed in the restaurant kitchens over here. Because, let’s be honest – a lot of the so called original ideas from our top chefs have been borrowed from elsewhere. Cooking is a lot like making music – you can go on forever playing covers in a tribute band and fool everybody, but you don’t do that stuff in a good rock’n’roll band, especially if you are determined enough to make it someday.

I’m glad that the food buzz, blogging and media are very positive, evolving and active. Food related topics get a lot more attention these days than they used to, but the soup is getting cold in the pots of our chefs. It took a long long time to realize, that the best produce is local – the one we are familiar with and know how to use without seeming unnatural.

Bringing back the experience is nothing unusual – that is one of the aspects that has in fact brought fame and success to Scandinavian restaurants. Bringing back loads of experience, different vibes and mindset to ones homeland and mixing it with local ingredients is one of the simple formulas to success. So, my young colleagues – do not satisfy with making it to a culinary spotlight here on the fast track. I think we have probably moved too fast already and thus we’re missing out quite a few chapters in truly understanding the world of gastronomy. Gaining the knowledge, making that our own and building a true local culinary scene takes time, as it takes time to achieve a Michelin star. But I feel positive about it – we’ll finally get there – we just shouldn’t hurry.

The future of Estonian gastronomy scene

Main course- Slow cooked duck breast, parsnip cream & pearl onions

Restaurant Neh was represented by a promising talent Johannes Hõimoja

Celebrating signature cuisine at Identità Golose

For the first time I was honored with an invitation to participate in ‘The International Chef Congress – Identità Golose’  held in Milan, among the great chefs from all around the world. Although in a lot of ways concentrated mostly on the Italian culinary scene, I met familiar faces from the northern side of the world. Scandinavian culinary scene was represented by René Redzepi – who has shifted the way of thought in the gastronomy world today, having led his restaurant Noma to thrive and to a worldwide success; also Daniel Berlin a culinary mastermind behind the ever so popular Krog and Björn Frantzén – one half of the new up and comer Frantzén/Lindeberg, a two Michelin star restaurant extraordinaire in Stockholm. So as you can imagine – I found myself in a well respected company.

The congress ran smoothly and everybody seemed to enjoy the presentations and the overall atmosphere, all despite the legendary Italian confusion. One could see very clearly the passion that italians have in everything that concerns food – they can talk about it for hours and one who’s not local, might lose quite a bit in the translation, although their articulation and attitude makes up plenty. You hardly find anyone in the world who has more pride in their cuisine and kitchen traditions than the italians – no wonder the congress held different theme days for pizza, vegetarian dishes and needless to say – pasta.

The veterans of the congress knew to say that the event has become more Italy-oriented. And I must confirm that notion – but after all, it is one of the Meccas of European cuisine. Italian chefs are highly respected and enjoy their superstar status. I definitely gathered a lot of good emotions and was yet again confirmed that we are on the right path – our efforts in Pädaste have been noticed, and it surely makes me glad that younger generation from Europe finds great interest in wanting to come and practice in our kitchen, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see young chefs from Spain, Austria and Italy slicing and chopping in our kitchens pretty soon.