Andrus Talvari

 When Andrus Talvari, took a temporay job at Ungru Resto, in Hiiumaa, 10 years ago, little did he think he would still be there a decade later.

“A couple of friends and I decided to go from Tallinn to the city life to try island life, and 10 years later I’m still on the island, running the same restaurant. Temporary things can be permanent,’’ he says. 

Like a great number of successful chefs, Andrus was set on a different career path when he discovered his love of cooking and, in his case, it was advertising and imageology, which he studied at Tallinn University.

And having later decided to enrol at cookery school, he has since found both disciplines important.

“Although my love for restaurant work grew bigger than my desire to sit in an office and deal with advertising every day,” he says, “as a side hobby I have always tried to do computer graphics and design for my restaurants to a large extent myself.

“Also at the beginning of my cooking career, in addition to kitchen work, I did outdoor

advertisements, layouts, event advertisements and such like and I’m still interested in marketing; how to differentiate from others through a visual concept.’’

Andrus started experimenting with cooking as a small child, coming from a family where pots and pans were always bubbling away in the kitchen.

And given that in the 1930s his grandmother worked as a cook in Du Nord, one of Tallinn’s top restaurants at the time, it is not surprising her passion for cookery – and her skills – passed down through the generations.

“When I was four or five years old, I had worriedly asked my mother that, if she died, who would continue to cook,” Andrus recalls. “And she replied, ‘you have to do it yourself.’”

So, Andrus learned to cook – under the watchful eyes of his mother. And he still puts his heart and soul into his food, which is how the menu of Ungru Resto, in the old customs house under heritage protection in Hiiumaa Suursadama, has been created.

It is food made with soul for a restaurant with a big soul – and no one who eats there is in any doubt that their food is prepared by people who really enjoy cooking.

“Using the foundations of French cuisine and as many raw materials as possible from Hiiumaa, we create simple dishes made with soul,” he says.

“We keep the menu short so that it can be changed more often and play with it. The principle is not to get bored,’’ he adds.

Although the recognition and praise he has received are encouraging, Andrus considers this part of the job to be a consequence rather than a goal.

“A great achievement is 10 years of leading Ungru Resto,” he says. “Sustainably offering both employees and customers a place where they will always be happy to return to has been my main goal and greatest achievement.”