He has earned two Michelin stars in three years for his Jordnær**, a restaurant he has managed to elevate as a leader of today's Nordic cooking. “But if you'd asked someone in early 2017 where I'd be in 2022, they'd have told you I'd have been dead. It's been an incredible change to my life in these last few years, and all thanks to love”. It was Eric Vildgaard's first time on stage at Madrid Fusión, and he was nervous. His story, however, won his audience over.

As a young man he got into juvenile gangs, and was arrested on several occasions for taking part in hold-ups and street fights. His parents banished him. It seemed that nothing good could come of all this, except the discovery of his passion for cooking when he was put in charge of the refectory on a cruise for young people with problems. But things were not so easy. He continued to spend his time between cooking and darker occupations. The final change was brought about by his girlfriend at the time and now his wife, Tina Kragh, with whom he set up a restaurant in a lowly hotel in Copenhagen in 2017, "which we began by pawning jewellery because we didn't have any money".

“I had always chosen the wrong path before I met Tina. Now my inspiration is love, my family, the restaurant and the produce”. He admits that his change in lifestyle was brought about by his wife, but the change in his cooking was brought about by Noma. “My brother was there, and I went to work there. Rene showed me a different kind of cooking”, says the man who now offers simple cuisine, "kind of", and almost exclusively sea food ("we have the best sea produce").

Vildgaard told us that, in his opinion, "the most difficult part is to stop. Stop adding in more and more flavours. Not adding for the sake of adding, because "if you have the best ingredients, there's no need. You just need to show it”. The "more is less" concept strutted at the Redzepi temple, emphasised here "with no elimination of the essence of the product". The chef has demonstrated this with skewered scallops (“Pureza”), a recipe of langostino heads cooked with vanilla and tomato pulp, and another with caviar. “I was totally unaware of caviar as a kid, and I was so keen to make it up”. He served it up with a nut and oil milk "to bring out the taste of the caviar”. 

The Dane finally took a selfie with the full auditorium in the background. “I'm really pleased to be here, and if it isn't on Instagram, then it never happened”.