Be careful man.

I'm not kidding. Stop, you're scaring me.

Munchies Guide to Sweden.

New Nordic Cuisine.

Back in 2004, Claus Meyer,

chef and co-founder of Copenhagen's Noma

restaurant.

Together with top chefs form the Nordic region,

came together to write the new

Nordic Kitchen Manifesto.

And the food revolution was born.

The main focus of the new Nordic is fresh,

seasonal, simple, and

most importantly, local ingredients.

This approach has

encouraged chefs to explore new flavors.

And Sweden's food scene has exploded in

recent years.

It's quickly becoming Europe's culinary star.

Exciting new restaurants are opening

across Stockholm,

inspired by the new Nordic philosophy.

At Restaurant Ekstedt, Chef Niklas is employing

traditional Nordic cooking techniques.

Restaurant Ekstedt.

Stockholm, Sweden.

So, Niklas. Ivar Berglin, Munchies.

Yeah. Where are we?

Well, you're at my place.

Niklas Ekstedt. Owner, Ekstedt.

Yeah.

This is my restaurant.

Yeah. And this is like,

kind of like, if you you say flagship restaurant.

How many restaurants do you have now?

Three But

this is your little baby, right?

This is my baby, yeah.

But this one is a little different,

because this one focus on the open fire and

the old Scandinavian cooking techniques.

So tell me about the,

the basics of the new Nordic cuisine.

The new Nordic cuisine is basically

if you'd like explain it simply,

it's like flipping the map upside down.

The European map.

I mean originally every-.

What do you mean by that?

Originally, the chefs in, in the Nordic countries

used to look south for inspiration.

You looked into the like, like French gastronomy,

Italian gastronomy, Spanish gastronomy.

And then you kind mixed it up a little bit with

the Nordic ingredients, and

then that was fine dining high-end cuisine.

Mm-hm. But in the like,

in the mid-90s and the end, end of 90s,

there were a few chefs in the Nordic countries that

got together and said like,

why don't we work 100% with the Nordic products.

So they started sourcing ingredients and

products only from the Nordic countries, Norway,

Sweden, Denmark.

So in terms of like the new Nordic Cuisine,

we're, we're like, we're more focused on the

technical aspect of it than the product aspect.

What you wanna do? What do you like,

fish, meats?

What's your favorite?

That's what I want to do.

Turbot and lobster.

Fish, fish and lobster,.

Fish and lobster.

Great.

We get you an apron.

Great.

There we go.

That felt better.

Oh, my god.

We don't have a size for you.

Oh, you're so-.

Oh, well, you didn't do it the proper way.

You're so skinny.

Is this like the beginning of the show?

Isn't that really hot?

No, it's not actually.

Okay, you wanna compete?

Okay.

Okay. One, two, three.

I think you'll have a heart attack.

Ouch. Ahh.

You are mad.

Oh, yeah.

What's that?

I think you add about that much, right?

Boom, in with you.

This is basically how all our cooking starts.

Just a cast iron pan.

Boom. Into the fire and

then we just put in some lobster into the cast

iron pan.

I just like to move things around like this

because it makes me feel like a pro.

It's really, oh.

See? Try and flip it.

Oh, watch out.

Let, let, yeah.

Ivan, let, you put that up.

Hang it up on top of the fire.

And now the fish is all yours.

Oh, they're in? There?

Yeah. When you fry shellfish,

it's really, really quick.

So you just sear it a bit.

And then we hang it up here to give a little

flavor from the birch wood.

The birch is like the, the original way of

cooking in the Nordic cuisine.

I wanted the restaurant to be very old style,

technically wise.

But I wanted the plate to be contemporary.

Mm-hm. I wanted the,

the plating and the food to compete with the best

restaurants in the city.

This is the, this is the flambadou.

Seriously?

Yeah, no joke, this is extremely hot.

Oh, it was extremely hot in there.

No, no, no, no, no.

It's extremely hot in here. No, no, no.

This is really. Don't, I mean,

I'm not kidding.

Okay. Don't burn yourself.

Safety first kids.

Yeah. Okay.

So what we're doing is like we're taking the,

the, the tool out of the fire.

Mm-hm. And

then we adding fat into the, to the,

to the glowing metal.

All right, sounds yummy.

And that, the, the fat will burn and

then land on the hay.

And the hay will burn down

in this meat in the bottom of the hay.

Was that a butter?

Oh, that's cool.

Is there any butter coming out of there?

Whoa.

Blow it out? It's really warm here,

Niklas, come on.

This is totally medieval.

Oh, I missed the flame.

Blow it out.

Oh, I've got smoke in my eyes.

Don't burn yourself.

Oh, blow that one out.

I was blowing on this thing.

I might have burnt it just slightly there,

huh, Niklas?

I think it looks delicious.

Oh, you cut it.

No, you cut it.

You do the honors.

No, you cut it. Oh, that looks so nice.

It's perfect.

It's like Swedish sashimi.

The flambodou, it's my new thing.

I'm getting one for home.

So what's different about this restaurant compared

to your other restaurants?

Well, my other restaurants I tried to

make money.

Oh.

There you go.