Festive Menus: Spanish Royal Couple visits Estonia

Photo © Õhtuleht

Almost two years ago, President of Estonia went on a State Visit to Spain, where they were treated to a festive Spanish meal. This week, the King and Queen of Spain, Juan Carlos I & Sofia, are on a return visit to Estonia. The festive state dinner took place last night atthe Estonia Concert Hall. Eighty local dignitaries were treated to a meal designed by Jevgeni Jermoshkin. Here's what they ate:

Official dinner at Estonia Concert Hall
on May 4, 2009

Tallinn sprats with rye bread, quail's egg and tomato vinaigrette

Cream of beetroot soup with potato-barley ball and sour cream mousse

Halibut with basil and cauliflower risotto and sparkling wine jus

Warm rhubarb tart with chocolate-covered ice cream and Vana Tallinn liqueur sauce

Sounds all rather delicious, IMHO. Too bad I wasn't invited :D

PS Curious to know what the Queen of England or the Emperor of Japan and other foreign dignitaries were served on their official visits to Estonia? Click on the Festive Menus label on the right hand side to find out.

Back from Spain, plenty to blog about

Well, K. and I got back from our ten-day Spanish trip late last night. We've almost unpacked everything, and are in the middle of sorting out our photos (ca 900 of them!). There's lots to do at work at the moment, so it will be a few more days before I'm blogging properly again. But I'll leave you with a taste of what's to come :)


Click on the photo to enlarge!

Hõbelusikas - Silverspoon: Estonian Gastronomy Awards 2007

Me (on the left:) and the winner of the Chef of the Year Award, Tõnis Siigur from Restaurant Stenhus, Tallinn at the Estonian Gastronomy Awards ceremony yesterday. Photo by K.

Just like last year, I had a chance to attend the Silver Spoon 2007 Gala Dinner last night. The Estonian Gastronomy Awards were handed over at the ceremony attended by many of the food-loving bold and beautiful in Estonia, including me and my dear K :) There were small ballet dancers, singing by Chalice, lots of good food, and plenty of food-related chatting, of course.

The festive dinner menu was created by the winner of the Chef of the Year award of 2006, Dimitri Demjanov, the grand old man of Estonian haute cuisine, and it was full of surprising local ingredients like Baltic herring, my beloved kama, sea-buckthorn, black pudding/blood sausage, to name just a few. I'll reprint the menu with my musings below, but first, the award winners.

There are ten categories at the Estonian Gastronomy Awards, and I list them in no particular order:

Estonian Gastronomy Awards, 2007

BEST GOURMET RESTAURANT
Bonaparte, Tallinn - nominee
Stenhus, Tallinn - winner
Ö, Tallinn - nominee

BEST RESTAURANT
Vertigo, Tallinn - nominee
Vinoteque In Studio Vinum, Tallinn - winner
Karl Friedrich, Tallinn - nominee

BEST CAFE
Cafe Truffe, Tartu - nominee
Lounge UpUp, Tallinn - winner
Cést La Vie, Tallinn - nominee

BEST PUB
Restaurant-Brewery Beer House, Tallinn - nominee
Suure Tõllu Körts, Saaremaa - winner
Altja Kõrts, Lahemaa - nominee

BEST CHEF
Tõnis Siigur, Restaurant Stenhus, Tallinn

BEST WINE & FOOD MATCHING
Vinoteque-Restaurant In Studio Vinum, Tallinn

FAMILY RESTAURANT
Suure Töllu Körts, Saaremaa

BEST BEER SERVICE
Restaurant-Brewery Beer House, Tallinn

MOST REPRESENTATIVE RESTAURANT OF MODERN TALLINN
Restaurant Ö

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Restaurant Tchaikovsky, Tallinn

Now. First let me tell you that I'm extremely pleased that Tõnis Siigur, the young and talented chef of Restaurant Stenhus in Tallinn won the Chef of the Year award. You see, I love his restaurant, and more importantly, I also had a chance to work in his restaurant for 10 full days in December (what? you mean I've still not told you about the Cookery Diploma I successfully did last autumn and which included an 80-hour internship in a restaurant? Well, I did, and I did my internship at the best gourmet restaurant in Tallinn, and Tõnis Siigur taught me a lot. The fact that I ended up sitting next to him at the ceremony was pure coincidence, however:)

Stenhus won the best gourmet restaurant award for the fourth time, and if that's not a sign of quality, I don't know what is :) But K. and I also had a wonderful meal at Restaurant Ö just recently, and I would have been happy for either one to win. I'm a bit unsure about the café category, however, as none of my current favourite cafés (Chocolats de Pierre, Anneli Viik Chocolate Café, Café´Park) made it to the shortlist. Next year, hopefully. K. and I are really not pub persons, so neither one of us has personal preferences for the best pub, but apparently the winner of the category - the Tavern Suur Töll on the island of Saaremaa - serves excellent home-made pub snacks (while also being the most family friendly establishment!!), so we'll make sure to check the place out this summer.

And now to the menu:



Dimitri Demjanov is known for his respect for local, traditional ingredients and dishes, and this was clearly evident in the menu. Whereas I didn't think that all dishes worked so well (sea-buckthorn coulis was way too sweet to do any justice to the excellent berry), there were some real inventive and delightful gems. The creamy black pudding soup was both delicious and intriguing; the pork lard with herbs and goat cheese butter accompanying the breads were definitely different; the decision to serve caraway infusion as an alternative to coffee with petit fours was brave, but justified, and chosen by many. K. and I were unsure about the food and alcohol pairings - there was beer, mead, vodka, sherry, calvados, champagne and white wine, and although I only took a sip of each, I could feel it this morning :)

Silver Spoon Gala Dinner 25.1.2008
Hortes Palm Hall, Tallinn

Dimitri Demjanov
Cuisiner

Amuse bouche: Traditional Setu pie and mead drink

Citrus marinated Baltic herring with capers, almond potatoes and frisee salad

Creamy black pudding soup with apple and cinnamon wafer

Gooseberry sorbet with caraway seed liquour and Veuve Cliquot champagne

Suckling pig belly confit with sauerkraut and pearl barley

Fruitcake slice with goat cheese mousse and blackberry confiture

Kama parfait with sea-buckthorn coulis and spun sugar

Coffee or chamomile-caraway infusion

Petit fours
***

It was a great and enjoyable night, and we'll be looking forward to the 2008 awards next January. Tõnis Siigur will be in charge of the menu, you see, and knowing what he's capable of, the meal is worth waiting for :)

The King of Spain and the President of Estonia do dinner

The President of Estonia went on a state visit to Spain earlier this month, where he discussed the establishment of a cyber centre in Tallinn, energy policies and the the strength of Europe. And of course, ate a lot and well. Below is the menu served at the official dinner hosted by the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, and Queen Sophia.

Let me just tell you that I've only got hold of the menu thanks to my 'best contact in Spain', Ximena. She had to mobilise her extended Spanish family and engage in 'espionage worthy of cold war days' in the process!

But here's the menu, for your perusal. Enjoy! Sounds pretty good, don't you think?


Photo by Erik Peinar, courtesy of the Office of the President.

Official dinner at Palacio de Real Madrid on July 9, 2007

Cold melon and raisin cream soup

Confit of sea bass with dill and summer vegetables

Poularde chicken, roasted with thyme and roast potatoes

Cold chocolate soufflé with caramel threads

Wines:

Old Sherry

Martín Codax 2006

Grans Muralles 2000

Cava Freixenet

Here's the menu in Spanish for those of you preferring to read the menu in original:

Cena de honor que ofrecen Sus Majestades los Reyes al Presidente de la República de Estonia y Sra. de Ilves

Crema fría de melón y uvas pasas

Lubina confitada al eneldo con verduras de temporada

Pularda asada al tomillo con patatas al horno

Soufflé frío de chocolate con hilos de caramelo

Fino de Jerez en crianza

Martín Códax. 2006

Grans Muralles. Cosecha 2000

Freixenet. Gran reserva

Palacio Real, 9 Julio 2007

PS Curious to know what the Queen of England or the Emperor of Japan and other foreign dignitaries were served on their official visits to Estonia? Click on the Festive Menus label on the right hand side to find out.

Presidents who lunch: Toomas Hendrik Ilves & George Bush's luncheon menu at the White House

Klõpsa siia, kui soovid lugeda eestikeelset menüüd.


Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and US President George Bush shaking hands in the White House, June 25, 2007.
Photo: Mike Theiler, courtesy of the Office of the President of Estonia.

Well, if George Bush had lunch with Toomas Hendrik Ilves in Estonia (that was in November 2006), it was only a matter of time that Toomas Hendrik Ilves would fly to the US to have lunch with George Bush in return (as he did early this week). Ilves and Bush actually met over two days, which was quite amazing considering that the first leds a country of barely 1.4 million people and the other a country of more than 300 million.

Anyway, here's what they had for lunch:


Click on the photo to enlarge. Photo courtesy of Eesti Ekspress.

I'd be interested to hear what American foodbloggers think about this menu. Was it seasonal? Was it representative of 'American cuisine'? And if yes, was it representative of modern or new or traditional or particularly regional American cuisine?

PS Curious to know what the Queen of England or the Emperor of Japan were served on their official visits to Estonia? Click on the Festive Menus label on the right hand side to find out.

Festive Menus: the Emperor of Japan in Tallinn

Photo courtesy of Office of the President of Estonia

I'm always curious to know what some high-ranking foreign dignitaries get to eat in Estonia. How does Estonia want to represent itself to visitors through the food? Is it Estonian, international, fusion, simple, rustic, fussy, modern, traditional? The choice is endless. Therefore I've shared with you what President Bush had for lunch back in November, and what Queen Elizabeth II had for dinner in October.

The Emperor of Japan, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Akihito, and his wife, Empress Michiko of Japan, visited Tallinn last week, and they had an official lunch at our new art museum, KUMU.

According to the PR of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the festive lunch consisted of the following:

Starter:
Pike-Perch & Snow Crab Tortellini with Pureed Black Salsify and Wood Sorrel Salad
Muscadet Sevre et Maine Sur Lie, 2005 (France)

Main course:
Fillet of Veal with Porcini Sauce, Young Asparagus and Beetroot
Irancy, 2005 (Burgundy, France)

Dessert:
Rhubarb Carpaccio, Strawberry Bavaroise, Mascarpone Ice Cream
Põltsamaa Kuldne, 1992 (Estonia)

Food by Roman Zashtsherinski (the winner of 2006 best chef award, and the chef who was in charge of the menu for this year's SilverSpoon Gala Dinner), catering by Carmen Catering.

Sounds pretty good to me, especially as pike-perch (Sander lucioperca, also known as Zander) recently _almost_ won the title of our national fish (yep, we've got one - I'll tell you more soon), so that's quite representative of our cuisine. Wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella, known as jänesekapsas or rabbit's cabbage in Estonian) is a typical wild salad leaf (and apparently foraged by Roman, the Chef, himself), and beetroot a popular root vegetable, so assuming the rhubarb and asparagus were local, I'm happy with the menu. The only 'outsider' is the snow crab, which was caught in Kamtchatka. Notice that they serve a local dessert wine, too.

The Emperor began his tour in Sweden (where they had a luncheon with the Swedish government hosted by PM Reinfeldt), then visited Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and ended their tour in the United Kingdom.

I wonder what they were served on official occasions in these countries?