Niklas Ekstedt

Coming Up

Scandinavian cooking, in Niklas Ekstedt’s hands, is framed through fire and landscape rather than through ornament. Born in 1978 in Järpen, Sweden, he has built a practice that stays close to the country where he was raised while testing how far its traditions can be pushed without losing their grounding. As the Swedish chef and owner of Ekstedt in Stockholm, Sweden, the restaurant he opened in 2011, he has made that address the clearest statement of his approach. Technical formation started at Racklöfska gastronomic high school, then moved to Charlie Trotter in Chicago, where he worked for Charlie Trotter at Charlie Trotter. That sequence set up an early exchange between Swedish training and a different kitchen culture before he returned home to build his own name through a series of openings and posts. He opened first restaurant Niklas in Helsingborg, Sweden, then opened second restaurant Niklas i Viken at Niklas i Viken, Sweden (from 2003), and later managed restaurant 1900 at Restaurant 1900 in Stockholm, Sweden (from 2008). Read together, those rooms show accumulation as a method: each stop adding another layer to the same body of work. From 2020, he appeared as a judge on Crazy Delicious at Channel 4, bringing his point of view into television without shifting away from the kitchen work that defines him. The through line remains the same: Niklas Ekstedt as an operator of rooms, a reader of tradition, and a chef whose public profile still rests on the discipline of the restaurant floor.

Where They Are Now

At Ekstedt in Stockholm, Sweden, the role is chef and owner, and the restaurant opened in 2011 remains the most direct expression of his practice. The work there is tied to a clear set of priorities: elemental cooking, deliberate handling, and a close reading of Scandinavian tradition. As a chef and restaurateur, Niklas Ekstedt has centered the kitchen around those terms rather than around trend or display. He has described the craft plainly: "My culinary style is deeply rooted in nature and Scandinavian tradition, especially the art of cooking with fire." That is less a slogan than a working frame, putting technique inside a larger relationship to place and heritage. He has also connected oak trees to that framework: "Absolutely. The connection to oak trees feels symbolic of my cooking philosophy – rooted, strong, and deeply connected to nature. It’s a reminder of where I come from and the traditions that inspire my work." In that reading, landscape becomes a structural idea for the cooking itself: rootedness, strength, and continuity held in one line. The result is a practice that keeps returning to the same fundamentals while staying alive to the demands of the room in front of it. At Ekstedt, those fundamentals have a permanent address in Stockholm, Sweden.

Signature

Niklas's signature dishes include Oysters flambadou, Swedish Ärtsoppa with Pork & Pancakes, Gäddqueneller with White Wine Sauce, Flambéed Lobster Soup with Kalles Kaviar, and Swedish Kroppkakor. The list tracks a kitchen that moves between heritage formats and more overt theatricality, using fire as part of the vocabulary rather than as decoration. These dishes sit comfortably inside Scandinavian memory while still carrying the sharper edge that has become part of his language.

In Their Words “Absolutely. The connection to oak trees feels symbolic of my cooking philosophy – rooted, strong, and deeply connected to nature. It’s a reminder of where I come from and the traditions that inspire my work.” “My culinary style is deeply rooted in nature and Scandinavian tradition, especially the art of cooking with fire.”