Following the announcement, Travkin admitted the recognition hasn't even fully sunk in yet.

"I think I'll need about a week just to get through this workweek and then sleep a bit, and then it'll probably hit me on my next day off," she said.

The 33-year-old chef said she only began cooking professionally during the first year of the pandemic.

"I started working as a cook completely from scratch," she recalled, adding that she still considers herself a beginner, relatively speaking.

Michelin inspectors are anonymous, and Travkin said she can only guess when they may have visited her busy restaurant.

"There's talk that they always drop towels, plates and forks and knives on purpose, or use strange email addresses and come alone," she said. "But they may also be sitting among a table full of diners — you just never know."

World flavors, Estonian staples

The young head chef said her cooking style draws on global influences while using Estonian ingredients, with a growing interest in North African flavors.

"Right now I'm really loving Morocco," she said.

She added that tartare remains a "100 percent" customer favorite at Fotografiska. "We just put it back on the menu; it has to be there," Travkin said.

One of her own favorite ingredients is buckwheat, which she pairs with spicy nduja pork sausage, fried egg and chives. She said the key is always to toast the buckwheat first.

"When I boil it, I always start by frying it in oil first," she said. "It opens it up and toasts it through, giving it a nuttier, deeper, slightly caramelized flavor."

Click here for a full list of this year's winners in the Michelin Guide Estonia.

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