Kerti Vissel & Triin Rätsep, Kolm Sõsarat

Kerti Vissel, co-owner and head chef, and Triin Rätsep, co-owner and hostess, at Kolm Sõsarat, Lüllemäe, Estonia, can you tell us why the meeting with your guests is so important to you?

• We want to tell a story to all our guests. We want them to picture the worlds of our producers, and our world too. It’s about allowing them to gain a connection to the produce. We tell all our guests about our connection to the old times and how we apply those emotions and lessons to the future. We recognize the way our ancestors lived and apply those learnings to what we do today. As children, we always had to do fieldwork, and we didn’t love it to say the least. But later, we realized that the best ways to make things are often the ways our ancestors did it.

Does this philosophy apply for other than just the food you serve?

– Absolutely. We source beer from a small producer in Estonia, and our mocktails are made with ingredients we grow or forage ourselves. The wine we serve comes from smaller, often family-run wineries. For instance, we feature wine from an Estonian winemaker in Luxembourg, which adds both a story and a purpose to our menu. Beyond that, we follow traditional practices by minimizing food waste—anything leftover goes to the chickens or becomes compost, just like in the past.

Photo: Lauri Laan