MY HOme IS MY STAGE: RestAurAnt EXPerienCes in TWO EstOniAN LIFestYle EnterPrises Ester VÕSU MA, Researcher Department of Ethnology Institute for Cultural Research and the Fine Arts University of Tartu Ülikooli 18, 50090, Tartu, Estonia e-mail:
[email protected] Anu KANNIKE PhD, Researcher Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies Estonian Institute of Humanities University of Tallinn Uus-Sadama 5, 10120 Tallinn, Estonia
[email protected] ABstrACT This article* discusses recent developments in the home-based lifestyle business featuring the example of two cases: Tammuri farm restaurant near Otepää in South Estonia, and home restaurant MerMer in Kolga-Aabla in North Estonia. We study the restaurants from a Goffmanian performance perspective, focusing on the lifestyle entrepreneur’s viewpoint of creating a restaurant experience in their homes. Accordingly, the home and its surroundings are considered a setting in which food has an important role as a performance medium and multiple roles are enacted by a single entrepreneur as a performer. Freshness, quality and locality of food, homeliness and personalised service are used for creating a special home restaurant meal experience. The two cases also shed light on the dynamics of the concepts of home and lifestyle entrepreneurship in contemporary Estonia, chal- lenging the understanding of restaurant cuisine and home cooking as oppositional practices of food preparation and consumption. KEYWORDS: restaurant • home • performance • lifestyle enterprise • Estonia IntrOduCtiON Traditionally the restaurant and eating out belong to the public space whereas home cooking and domestic dining belong to the private sphere. In between these is a bor- * This study has been supported by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory CECT) .