Magnus Ek

Coming Up

On Oaxen in the Stockholm archipelago, the kitchen sits in direct conversation with its surroundings. For Magnus Ek, that meant working in a place where forest, water, nearby farmers, and a vegetable garden were all part of the same working radius. The result is a cooking practice built on proximity: ingredients are met at source, read in season, and used with the landscape still visible in the dish. That grounding shows up in the way the food is described. The emphasis is on what has been found, picked, and brought in, not on decorative handling. For an artisan kitchen, that matters: it keeps the work tied to observation, timing, and the materials the place can actually provide. Today, Magnus is chef and owner of Oaxen Krog and Oaxen Slip.

Where They Are Now

At Oaxen Krog and Oaxen Slip, the cooking still follows the same logic of proximity that shaped Magnus Ek on Oaxen. The work remains tied to the forest, the water, seasonal growth, and ingredients that arrive with little need for forcing. It is a kitchen organized around what the site gives, and what can be used without losing that connection. What stays consistent is the attention to small, daily signals: what has been picked, what can be served as it is, what the landscape has brought forward. In that sense, the plate functions as a record of place and practice rather than a display of technique for its own sake.

In Their Words “Uh, here's some of the stuff we picked ourselves and some we buy. Almost everything here is not farmed, it's just grown wildly.” “Here is some wild pea. Uh, we use it like pea sprouts.”