Local Flavours – Estonia and the White Guide
Flavours of Estonia celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Included for the second year in a row in the White Guide, we’ve come a long way.
At the beginning of December, the 2017 edition of the web-based Flavours of Estonia was launched in Tallinn’s Kultuurikatel. This year’s guide includes 102 restaurants over Estonia, and as Aivar Hanson, director of the guide proudly stated in his presentation: “Estonia’s best restaurant scores higher than Finland’s best”.
The comparison comes from this year’s rankings of the best restaurants of Scandinavia and the Baltics in the 2017 edition of the White Guide Nordic. The White Guide Nordic is like the Michelin Guide of the north and Estonia’s restaurants have managed to do quite well.
The restaurant Hanson speaks of is NOA Chef’s Side, which scored higher than Ask in Finland. Of the 60 restaurants listed from the Baltic States, half are in Estonia, though the best in the Baltics is Vincents in Latvia. It goes without saying that you can eat quite well in Estonia.
Ten years ago, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list was published for the first time. Finland wasn’t too far behind in compiling a similar list and wanted to include Estonia. Hanson was introduced to the idea and so the 50 Best Restaurants of Estonia began. “The restaurant critics’ circle is pretty tight”, continues Hanson. The start of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants brought the top players from different regions together. While there wasn’t much point in making individual guides for each country – Estonia is too small, for example, like other Scandinavian countries. One good restaurant guide that covers the entire area was the solution, and so began the cooperation between Estonia and the White Guide”.
“Ten years ago, no one was really talking about local ingredients. The more exotic the flavour, the better. Foie gras, exotic seafood, and other similar ingredients made the mouths of chefs water. Today, it’s local farm produce that gets them excited”, explains Hanson, discussing the most notable changes over the last decade.
Estonia has been included in the White Guide for two years now. In this short a time it’s already possible to see changes, including two worrisome areas for our restaurants, according to Hanson. “#1 Rankings can fluctuate significantly. Two people can have entirely different experiences at the same restaurant, even at the same table at the same time. #2 Individual style is lacking. Among Estonian restaurants, there is an unnecessary overlap of the same kinds of dishes using the same ingredients with the same wine pairings”.
As with every year, there are noticeable trends that emerge during the testing period. This year, uber-local is slowly being replaced by local and exotic flavour fusion. The pairing of Nordic and Asian cuisines is very trendy at the moment.
This year’s White Guide has expanded to include Latvia and Lithuania. According to Hanson, the restaurant scenes in each country are in different stages of development. Estonia is still in the lead and this can be seen on the Baltic Top 30 list. The Latvians and Lithuanians want to catch up and eventually surpass Estonia, especially in Lithuania, where the scene is worth keeping an eye on.
When asked what his favourite restaurants in Estonia were, Hanson answered: “I look at restaurants in a slightly different way. I don’t have any favourites. I certainly have some favourite dishes (especially those that show the development of our gastronomy), as well as tasting menus.
Flavours of Estonia 2017 can be read online at www.flavoursofestonia.com
Read more about the White Guide Nordic at www.whiteguide-nordic.com
TEXT KRISTINA LUPP, PHOTOS LAURI LAAN
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