World’s Only Chef With 3 Michelin 3-Star Restaurants

Björn Frantzén, born in 1977, originally wanted to be a football player but has become one of the most influential chefs of his generation.

Credit: Frantzen

The 49-year-old Swede is the only chef to helm a trio of the world’s 157 Michelin three-star restaurants: Frantzén, in Stockholm, received three stars in 2018; Zén, in Singapore, followed in 2021; and Dubai’s FZN was awarded the guide’s highest honour last year.

However, life could have looked very different for Björn Frantzén. Originally, he had a promising professional football career ahead of him, signed with one of the country’s top teams, AIK, but a congenital heart condition at the age of 20 cut that dream short.

But football’s loss became the culinary world’s gain, says CNTraveller. And it all started with one perfect meal he ate as a young boy. “I was always very picky with food,” he says. “When I was 12, my best friend’s parents owned a French brasserie in Stockholm, and there I had the perfect grilled ribeye with a homemade béarnaise sauce, the most perfect French fries, and a tomato and red onion salad. It was my first ‘hallelujah’ moment with food.”

So, when a life on the pitch became impossible, he switched to the kitchen. After studying at a culinary school in Stockholm where he trained in the classical French tradition, he worked at a handful of Michelin-starred spots including Pied à Terre in London and L’Arpège in Paris. In 2008, he teamed up with chef Daniel Lindeberg to open Frantzén/Lindeberg, which became one of the few restaurants in the Nordic region to hold two Michelin stars at the time.

Though Lindeberg left in 2013, the restaurant didn’t drop his name until it moved locations in 2017 and became, simply, Frantzén - marking its proprietor’s debut as a solo restaurateur. Nearly two decades later, the Frantzén Group operates nine establishments from Bangkok to Marbella, all of them uniting Swedish heritage with French technique and Asian influences, especially Japanese cuisine.

Outside of the kitchen, Frantzén keeps himself busy looking after his two teenage daughters and their golden retriever. At home, he mostly cooks simple, quick meals, relying on local classics like Swedish meatballs.

“My main objective when I started my first restaurant was to try to achieve two Michelin stars,” he tells Robb Report. “I would never have thought I would have three restaurants with three Michelin stars. So, I would say that’s pretty well played from a lad from the suburbs without rich parents.”