At the age of 21, he opened his first restaurant in Helsingborg, a port city in southern Sweden. In 2003, his cookery programme Mat began airing on Swedish national television.

By the age of 33, he wanted to return to his roots and make his mark on the new Nordic cuisine. The idea for a new type of haute cuisine restaurant began to take shape: a place where everything would be cooked over an open fire, 'like in the old days'. He decided that his restaurant would be a tribute to that era, as well as to his childhood and heritage. Ekstedt opened in central Stockholm in November 2011, complete with a fire pit, wood-fired oven and wood-burning stove.

In 2018, he opened another restaurant in Stockholm called Hillenburg, where 'southern European food flirts with Scandinavian influences'. Then, in 2022, he opened Ekstedt at The Yard in London, where the focus is on 'Nordic cooking techniques using the finest seasonal British produce'.