A standard-bearer of open-flame cooking, Niklas Ekstedt turns embers into precision tools at Ekstedt Restaurant (Michelin star since 2013). With the opening of Ekstedt at The Yard in London and international TV programs, he spreads the ethos of Scandinavian produce cooked exclusively over fire.
Born in Järpen, Sweden, in 1978, Ekstedt spent his childhood in the woods and snowboarding slopes; an injury diverted him to cooking. After hotel school in Åre, he flew to Chicago to intern at Charlie Trotter's and then to Catalonia at el Bulli's, experiences that taught him technical rigor and creative freedom. In 1999, at just 21 years old, he opened Niklas in Helsingborg, immediately celebrated by the Swedish business press as the country's best business restaurant. 2003 saw the birth of the summer pop-up Niklas i Viken, a laboratory for experimenting with cold-water fish, while television established him with the program Mat on SVT.
He landed in Stockholm with Restaurant 1900 in 2008, but the turning point came in 2011, when he opened Ekstedt: a kitchen without electricity and gas, where birch wood, pine cones, and rye straw modulate temperatures and smoking. The oyster roasted in the hay cone and the elk fillet with juniper-spiked butter became signature; in 2013 came the Michelin star, reconfirmed continuously.
True to the grilling-fermentation-seasonality triad, Ekstedt divides the menu into micro-seasons to enhance the boreal cycles: in spring, sprouts marinated in buttermilk emerge; in fall, the “kolgrillad” of trumpet mushrooms and moss dominates. In 2021 he exports the concept to London with Ekstedt at The Yard inside the Great Scotland Yard Hotel; a custom wood-burning oven and a suspended smoker replicate the flame-smoke dialectic of the Swedish eatery.
Fire research extends to media: he leads Nordic Cookery and the Netflix format Food & Fire, illustrating techniques such as cooking “ember bake” directly under ash. In 2020 she participated as a judge on Crazy Delicious on Channel 4, helping to popularize Scandinavian sensitivity to nature. Alongside his work in the kitchen, he chairs the Ekstedt Foundation, which funds outdoor cooking classes for teenagers in the forests of Lapland.
Recognized by Gault & Millau as “Fire Innovator” 2022, Ekstedt continues to experiment: he is investigating the use of kelp seaweed charcoal to reduce CO2 emissions without altering flavor profiles.
