No Small Talk in Pädaste

The three men, just as tough as the stone wall of Pädaste Manor that they are leaning on, are (starting from left): Kristo Malm, Martin Meikas and Peeter Pihel. What makes them tough is the fact that together they won the award for the best restaurant in Estonia as early as in their first year of cooperation – the time that was actually meant for them to get used to each other. 

Now that they have indeed gotten a bit used to each other, they seem to have enough motivation for future achievements at least until Estonia’s finest becomes the world’s finest. 

The most recent world’s best (restaurant Noma in Copenhagen) is not that far from Pädaste. The Pädaste Nordic Islands’ Cuisine is quite the soul mate for the New Nordic Cuisine. But the men themselves remain as calm as the sea behind them in the shallow bay. 

Modesty is a virtue. Unlike some “talk show” chefs, they introduce their dishes with an air of simple level-headedness. They praise the traditions and the techniques, the knowledge of others and the environment, but never themselves. 

In Pädaste, the more basic dishes are eaten during the day in the back corner of the manor yard in the Sea House. First, the food entices with its looks, then its aroma, and lastly, caresses with its taste – it is textbook material! 

In fact, your curiosity awakens some time prior to that, while reading the menu. Very few menus manage to make dishes look so intriguing on paper. Pädaste’s does. 

The title of this dish is “Lomad lihad”, which in the dialect of Muhu people means crumbly-soft meat. A homely casserole of local wild boar and vegetables. Stewing even the toughest of meats until it becomes so tender that it almost falls apart is an ancient skill, as old as the Estonian expression “so delicious I could swallow my tongue". 

However, everything that goes on during the day serves merely as foreplay to the dinner at Alexander Restaurant in the Manor House. Sometimes, the content of the menu varies every day. How is that possible? Week by week, each member of the kitchen staff of ten people has to come up with an idea for a new dish. Every idea that gets picked out undergoes a long period of improvement before the dish is ready to be served to the clients of the restaurant.  

For example, this pike perch smoked with hay was first experimentally smoked with various wood chippings, but hay was the one that delivered best result. And what could be more characteristic of Muhu than hay.  

Another interesting find is the cauliflower “risotto”. If you chop cauliflower to its tiny floral meristems, food made from these miniature pieces looks like it was made using rice. And to top it all off, the food is served on stones from the local beach! Dishes prepared and displayed in a manner like this can only be called Art! 

Beef cheek is not that striking to look at, but the taste combinations are magnificent. Compote of sour wild apples alongside cream made with rooted celery is as native to Muhu as hay smoke. Add bone marrow salad, beetroot, chanterelles and onions. 

The chefs come to the waiters’ aid in introducing the dishes. It is a pleasant surprise to note that this is not the domain of the head chef alone, as is the wont. The whole kitchen staff interacts with the clients and personally gets the feedback necessary for their job. 

The wine served as a side to the beef cheek, however, leads to the observation that dishes native to the island are accompanied by drinks very much not native to the island! Pädaste is not intent on serving only wine, but the situation with local beverages is much more complicated than that of local foods. Not just in Pädaste, but all over Estonia. Work not, eat not! This is my message to the officials in an array of ministries currently responsible for the hold-up in the matter. 

Whipped bilberry semolina has a familiar taste, but its consistency is much lighter than we have been accustomed to. The dessert is made using a siphon. The cardamom milk served with the semolina is also a far cry from the conventional.  

The menu of Alexander Restaurant is like picking up an absorbing book. Once a chapter is finished, you cannot wait to find out what happens next. When the dinner is over, you sit down at your calendar to look for the next available time to come and dine at Pädaste yet again.