Kaire Rajaver, who studied at foreign universities and worked in several leading positions at Rimi, started producing foreign tempeh with which she also intends to break out of Estonia. She recently participated in the EWA Estonia program for female entrepreneurs organized by the Tartu Biotechnology Park, where she emerged as the winner.
What is Tempeh?
Tempeh is a healthy product originally from Indonesia, obtained by fermenting and pressing soybeans. Its benefits for the body are that the legume becomes more easily digestible and the protein is better absorbed by the body, and tempeh is also a good source of fiber.
Exciting world of food.
Although Kaire Rajaver studied business administration at Stockholm University, the topic of food has haunted her for a long time. Between her studies, she ended up working at Rimi, and when she returned to Stockholm for her master's studies, she went to work at Rimi's parent company, ICA. While working there, among the rich selection, she realized that food and food culture were a very fascinating topic. Customers in the store would ask her how to cook fish, for example. This forced her to learn more about cooking, and eventually he discovered that she enjoyed the role. “I really value this experience of working in a store,” Rajaver admitted.
Returning to Estonia, he worked in several positions at Rimi, including being responsible for the central kitchen. There, she came into contact with product development and recipes, and met with nutritionists and food technologists. At that time, she still had a dream of opening her own restaurant, but when she stayed home with her first child, the first product development projects emerged. “Food has to be tasty and innovative. I realized this already in Stockholm, because there were exciting food products available there that had not yet reached us,” said Rajaver.
There is one more aspect to food for her. It has to be healthy and also environmentally sustainable. After that, she went to the Academy of Public Health to study nutrition counseling. There was also a training course on food fermentation, which was given by Rain Kuldjärv. “That’s where I got into fermentation. I tried a few recipes and it was so cool how the taste changes during fermentation, and I started fermenting completely. I experimented with a lot of different things,” Rajaver recalled. She has been fascinated by things that are a little different than, for example, sauerkraut or cucumber. When he was looking for a starter culture for water kefir in a Swedish online store, she stumbled upon a starter kit for making tempeh. There, she got a starter culture, lupin seeds, and also kombuchawine vinegar. The kit allowed her to make tempeh five times, a couple of which turned out very well.
