FIREWORK

The lost art of Nordic cooking

Plain and simple impatience was at the root of a great idea. Niklas Ekstedt wanted to grill on a wood fire but was not prepared to wait for the embers to develop, so he put a heavy cast iron frying pan directly into the flames. The fire, crackling and popping, its sparks spraying, surrounded the pan. The aroma of the food mixed seductively with the spicy smoke of the burning birch wood. This sparked off the idea for a revolutionary fine dining restaurant in Stockholm. “Ekstedt” cooks without electricity, old-fashioned on an open fire, and does so with such success that it has been awarded a Michelin Star.