This is the sixth in a series of regular blogs by head chef of Petrus and winner of the National Chef of the Year 2016, Larry Jayasekara.

In an earlier blog post I revealed the new masterclasses we would be holding throughout the summer. Despite the last one having to be cancelled we finally held our first one at the beginning of the month and I’m pleased to report that is was a great success.

We had 10 guests and one of them enjoyed it so much they even decided to share their experience on Tripadvisor giving us a glowing 5 star review! It’s always good to receive feedback and to hear its positive really helps motivate the team and makes our jobs even more pleasurable.

Due to the great response we’ve received for the beef wellington masterclass we’re now looking at doing a game and truffle one hopefully at the end of the year. It’ll be great to do one that’s seasonal so that our guests can learn from their experience and get the chance to recreate the dishes in the comfort of their own home. After all, that’s the whole reason for doing the classes, so they can take what they learn home with them.

I’m even thinking of doing a kids one hopefully next year sometime. We could show them how to make ice-cream or perhaps little magnums. A masterclass teaching them to bake cookies and gingerbread men, that sort of stuff which I think the little ones would enjoy. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while now. I have a son who is 5 and a half and he loves doing all that sort of stuff and helping to bake cookies and cakes. I think it would be such a good idea for the school holidays as well because nowhere in London does anything like that, they just don’t have the time. So the plan is to hold them on Sunday mornings so the parents can drop them off and get to spend a little time by themselves, being a parent myself I know how hard it can be! And I’m happy to do it for the kids and to give the parents a little private time.

If you remember, last month I discussed devising two new separate menus, one for game and another for truffles. Well they’re coming along pretty well and obviously as you all know we’ve just entered grouse season but I don’t want to include that on the menu just yet. The flavour right now just won’t be good enough, it needs at least 10 days to be hung before I can use it really so we’re going to wait a couple of weeks first. We’re looking at including grouse, pheasant, venison, maybe even hare, and we’ll have the truffle menu too throughout the whole of autumn and winter. It’s going to be very flexible, guests will have the chance to order from both menus if they want, so they could order a grouse course and a little from the truffle one too if they like, there won’t be a set amount so if they just want two grouse courses with no truffle that won’t be a problem either. I think we’re going to do a photoshoot with some of the dishes and a taste testing at the beginning of September so I’m really looking forward to that and getting the menus out there for our guests to enjoy.

Aside from the new menus we’ll also be starting our Sunday Sittings next month. Basically, starting Sunday, 4 September we’ll be open for lunch and dinner which is something we haven’t done before at Petrus. Although we haven’t taken as many bookings for dinner we have around 30-35 covers set for lunch. I think it’s a little quieter for dinner at the moment because word hasn’t got around yet, normally we’re only open on Sundays for special occasions but I know it’ll pick up the more people hear about it. I reckon after the first couple of Sundays we’ll start taking a lot more bookings for our dinner service. We’ll also be serving the beef wellington for Sunday lunch. As that’s Gordon’s signature dish I’m sure that will entice people in because it’ll be the only chance they get to try it as it’s not on the menu.

Some other exciting news, I finally got the date confirmed for my trip to Denmark as part of winning the National Chef of the Year contest! I will be going over on 17 October for three days with the sponsors, Lockhart Catering Equipment. The itinerary is to go see Gram, a refrigeration company, first and then we’ll get to enjoy a meal at Noma and Geranium. It’s going to be such a great experience for me to witness how they cook and what ingredients they use. In the UK we use the same ingredients and everyone has a similar cooking style to each other so to see what they do and what ingredients they use is going to be such an inspirational experience! I’m really looking forward to it.

That’s why more people should enter competitions like National Chef of the Year, there are just so many great opportunities the winner can take advantage of. I mean, you just don’t get to see two of the most world famous restaurants like Noma and Geranium without entering. It’s a great experience to go and speak with them and see what they have in their kitchens to find out how they got to that level of success.

For me Petrus is one of the world’s most famous restaurants and is run by one of the world’s most famous chefs, Gordon Ramsay but it’s great to see what other systems are in place in other kitchens. At the end of the day it’s all to do with sharing your knowledge with others and that’s how you build relationships within this industry. Through those connections you can send your team on work placements to experience those kitchens and that’s how you motivate them. That’s what I always say, you have to motivate your team, I need to know what they are getting out of working with me and Petrus. For me Petrus is about giving people as much knowledge as possible and creating great cooks, that’s Gordon’s philosophy and that’s the philosophy I want to follow.

>>> Read more blogs from Larry Jayasekara here

Larry Jayasekara is the National Chef of the Year, having won the competition at the Restaurant Show in October. He is head chef of Gordon Ramsay's Michelin Star restaurant Pétrus and previously worked as executive chef for the Manor at Weston-on-the-Green, sous chef at Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley, senior sous chef at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, and spent two years at the Waterside Inn in Bray. Larry joins a long line of great chefs to have won the prestigious award including Gordon Ramsay, David Everitt-Matthias, Simon Hulstone, Mark Sargeant, Steve Love, Alyn Williams and many more.