Niklas Ekstedt on the Swedish cuisine, his biggest cookery confession and IKEA meatballs

In this episode, we sit down with Michelin-starred chef Nicholas, who takes us on a journey from his childhood in rural northern Sweden — raised near the country's largest ski resort on the Norwegian border — to running a fire-only restaurant in Stockholm.

Nicholas shares how growing up among the Sami indigenous community shaped his cooking philosophy, why he refuses to use chocolate, lemon, or olive oil in his Stockholm kitchen, and how his mother's approach to buying 50 kilos of plums at the right price still influences his restaurant today.

We dig into the art of Swedish preservation — pickling, fermenting, and jamming everything from asparagus to cloudberries — and why Nicholas believes our obsession with "fresh at all costs" is a little bit mad.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices