Born in 1978, Chef Niklas Ekstedt partly grew up in Järpen, a small village outside the famous Swedish ski resort of Åre. Originally heading towards a career as a professional snowboarder, a serious injury led him to pursue his other passion in life, food, for which he has never looked back.
Chef Ekstedt began his culinary career working for a number of world renowned chefs, including Charlie Trotter in Chicago, Alain Ducasse in Paris, in the UK and carried out a brief internship ats elBulli in Spain.
Soon after, Chef Ekstedt received legendary culinary status, when he opened his first restaurant, Restaurang Ekstedt, at the age of just 21 in Helsingborg, a town in the south of Sweden. An echo of his characteristic energy in the kitchen, Chef Ekstedt celebrated the immediate success of Restaurang Niklas by opening his second restaurant, Niklas i Viken in nearby Viken, that following summer.
Chef Ekstedt also opened 1900, a restaurant set in Stockholm which previously focused on Swedish ingredients and local traditional cuisine with a modern twist. It recently changed both its name to “Niklas” and the direction of its cuisine to a more varied and international outlook.
Most recently, Chef Ekstedt has created concept EKSTEDT. Situated in the heart of Stockholm, restaurant EKSTEDT was conceived from the bold idea of creating a cuisine using no electricity at all, only flames. Since opening in November 2011, Restaurant EKSTEDT has received numerous awards for its way of presenting and preparing food, including one Michelin star.
Chef Ekstedt has also hosted a popular cooking show on national Swedish television and has written four cookbooks, one of them published in English; “Scandinavian Classics” (Skyhorse Publishing).
- 1 Michelin Star