A surprisingly intimate Stockholm sojourn with Niklas Ekstedt
good news,” beams the chef Nicklas Ekstedt, bounding excitedly down an icy slope to the edge of Källtorpssjön, a lake in the forested suburbs of Stockholm. It is a bright, quick morning in mid-February and winter still has its grip on the water. “We can get into the sauna straight away!”
Ekstedt, 44, is a Swedish national treasure, in part for his championing of Nordic cuisine, his growing restaurant empire, and his mastery of open-fire cookery. But also, surely, for his easy charm, rugged good looks, and embodiment of a very Scandinavian vein of gung-ho. He feeds and he forages; he hosts TV shows, takes business calls while ice-skating and drives a Volvo SUV.
While he was learning to cook, he wanted to get as far away from Järpen as soon as possible, and as he diversified his experience in kitchens across Europe, including El Bulli in Spain and The Fat Duck in the UK, that sentiment was reflected back at him. “People showed little interest in learning about my home country, its cuisine, or the ingredients I was familiar with,” he remembers. “It seemed as though Sweden held no interest to them.
From there it is but a few steps to Ekstedt and the seven-course tasting menu. Ekstedt in baggy cords and Etnies trainers, talks us through the menu. Squid is “hay-flamed”; reindeer “juniper-fired”, and wild oysters flambéed with a “flambadou”.
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