About us
We set out to build the perfect oasis in North Iceland — the place we call home. We wanted the space, the tranquillity, the wonder of the hot springs, and to cook amazing food to share with our friends and family. And for a few months each year we welcome guests from around the globe to share our dream with us.
Our Story
For Chef Völundarson, Aurora Farm is a homecoming. He grew up in the valley next to Reykjadalur, where the farm stands, and his great-great-great-great-grandfather Þorgrímur was born on this very land. After 30 years away — cooking, filming and building a career that took him far from the North — he has returned with his family to the place where it all began. Reconnecting with his roots, with the landscape that shaped him, and with a way of life he never quite left behind.
Who we are
Chef Völundarson is one of Iceland's best-known chefs — an award-winning cook whose television series have aired in more than fifty countries, and the author of award-winning cookbooks. His wife Thora is a former television personality in Iceland, a journalist, author and designer.
Together they have collaborated on numerous projects: their company UMAMI SEA SALT, cookbooks, TV shows and now Aurora Farm Hotel and Þorgrímur Restaurant.
He makes the food; she makes the world around it.
Along with their two children, Baldvin and Moey, they continue to develop Aurora Farm — for themselves, and for the guests they proudly welcome. Completing the family are two Labradors, Morgan and Dixon, who bring endless excitement to life on the farm and love nothing more than meeting new people.
The Restaurant
The restaurant is built on two things: fire and Icelandic ingredients. Honest food, cooked over flame, from the land and waters around the farm. There is only one rule — everyone gets dessert. Every dessert recipe comes from Chef Völundarson's mother, Halla Loftsdóttir, a legend in the area, and each one gives guests a small taste of the Icelandic home kitchen.
Named Þorgrímur after Chef Völundarson's great-great-great-great-grandfather, who was born at the farm in 1843, the restaurant honours a man remembered in the area as a fly-fisherman, a poet, a wrestler and a pillar of his community. He later settled in the next valley, by the Laxá river, where the family took root — and now, six generations on, his name is back on the farm where he was born.
Only just begun
The project has been a labour of love, and the family is extremely proud of what they have created. And they've only just begun. A ceramic studio is currently being added to the farm, so that the tableware for the restaurant and the espresso cups for the rooms can be made by hand, right here — because every detail matters. Aurora Farm is constantly evolving, and for the 2027 season it will offer fewer rooms and more exclusivity for its valued guests.
Welcome to Aurora Farm.
