{"id":25090,"date":"2016-12-06T09:00:22","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T07:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/?p=25090"},"modified":"2016-12-01T13:24:07","modified_gmt":"2016-12-01T11:24:07","slug":"finding-our-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/finding-our-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding our roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chatting with Dmitri Rooz and Dimitri Demjanov about the upcoming Bocuse d\u2019Or culinary competition, the changing face of Estonian gastronomy, and food as tourism.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dmitri Rooz,<\/b><\/span> Chef de cuisine at Farm restaurant (M\u00fc\u00fcrivahe 27 \/Viru 11, Tallinn Old Town<\/a>) is Estonia\u2019s finalist in the prestigious Bocuse d\u2019Or culinary competition. Rooz placed among the top 12 in the European semi-finals back in the spring in Budapest and will now go on to compete with 24 chefs representing 24 countries from around the world. It\u2019s not Rooz\u2019s first attempt at Bocuse d\u2019Or glory. In 2010 he missed the finals, but since then has worked hard at his second chance. Practicing for this competition is not unlike training for the Olympics. Hours upon hours go into cooking. I asked Rooz if he was tired of cooking Bresse chicken and crayfish, the main ingredients for the platter he has to prepare in Lyon. He replied with a smile: \u201cwe\u2019re almost nearing the end of training\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rooz went off to the kitchen to prepare his take on some classic Estonian and Christmas dishes, while I continued to talk with Estonia\u2019s best-known chef and promoter of Estonian gastronomy, Dimitri Demjanov. Estonia has been competing at Bocuse d\u2019Or since 2008, when they received their first invitation and every year Demjanov has been coaching Estonia\u2019s culinary talents through training and the final competitions.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Bocuse d\u2019Or and to celebrate the occasion, Bresse chicken and crayfish will be the theme of the platter to be presented to the judges. \u201cIt\u2019s both a tribute to the origins of the contest and to see the development of culinary innovation over the past 30 years\u201d, explains Demjanov. While the theme is a play on the famous recipe \u201cChicken and crayfish\u201d from Lyon where the finals take place every two years in January, chefs can choose other shellfish like lobster or langoustine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning, Bocuse d\u2019Or was very French centric. It wasn\u2019t until 2006 when Nordic countries started winning, setting the stage for the development of New Nordic cuisine. To start a new cuisine, it begins with new ideas, to take what\u2019s old and reconstruct it. New cuisine is not improv, it starts with a solid foundation, the right combination of flavours and the search for the best ingredients\u201d, continues Demjanov.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we have many talented young chefs here in Estonia, food culture starts at home, something that hasn\u2019t quite developed here in Estonia. In 2010 the conference Food is Future, was held in Estonia and this is where we learned that Estonian cuisine belongs to Nordic cuisine and less to Baltic cuisine. There is a strong seasonal influence in our food and the short summers boast preservation of the what\u2019s grown in summer\u201d. The next step, according to Demjanov is to find the ingredients that reflect each season, as well as different regions, much like AOC does in France, or DOCG in Italy. This will not only promote food domestically, but will promote culinary tourism to Estonia as well. The question remains, how do we choose which food or ingredients?<\/span><\/p>\n

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Gastronomy is constantly evolving,<\/b><\/span> from molecular gastronomy seen at El Bulli to New Nordic cuisine at Noma. Estonia is not France, nor will it ever be, but it can adopt some of the same philosophies, teaching proper, healthy, seasonal eating from an early age at home and at school, according to Demjanov. While we can\u2019t all be top chefs, the Bocuse d\u2019Or gives young chefs something to work towards, a place to showcase their talents on an international stage. Estonia\u2019s improved rankings each year at the competition show that Demjanov\u2019s hard work is paying off.<\/p>\n\"screen-shot-2016-12-01-at-11-32-10\"<\/a>\n

Click on the address to see the location.<\/span><\/p>\n

TEXT KRISTINA LUPP, PHOTOS ANDREI CHERTKOV, PRESS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chatting with Dmitri Rooz and Dimitri Demjanov about the upcoming Bocuse d\u2019Or culinary competition, the changing face of Estonian gastronomy, … Read more<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":25096,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-restaurants"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}