Arts
From Hikkaduwa to London
Perhaps too little is spoken of Sri Lanka’s own Lahiru ‘Larry’ Jayasekara, whose dream of becoming a chef led him to earn a Michelin star and also work at some of the best restaurants in the world.
Enjoying the beach and the breeze: Larry Jayasekara in Sri Lanka. Pic by Priyantha Wickramaarachchi
In an exclusive interview, we spoke to Larry, who visited Sri Lanka for just a few days to train underprivileged children as well as run a series of master classes training local chefs for the Bocuse d’Or world chef championship, as part of Dilmah’s charity initiative.
34-year-old Larry’s remarkable journey in the kitchen began at a simple ‘Roti kade’ in Hikkaduwa, where he used to earn Rs. 200 daily making hoppers and roti. He was 15 at the time.
“I come from a pretty poor family,” he tells us, whilst recalling the days where they’d only have a bowl of rice to eat. His firm belief is that each person gets one opportunity in life. Larry’s came when he was around 17 years old, when he met an English girl and moved to England.
At the time you had to have references to get a job, and Larry didn’t have any, since he was from a simple roti shop. “So I did council bin cleaning for about 2-3 months and they realised I was under 18,” he recalls.
He lost that job, but later joined a Thai restaurant to chop vegetables, which gave him the foundation he needed. While studying in college, he won the Student of the Year award twice in a row. This gave him a taste of what he could achieve through sheer hard work.
As he came to the end of his second year, he recalls being a fan of Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares show. This was when he decided he wanted to work for the celebrity chef. “I didn’t realize, this was going to change my whole life,” he tells us with a laugh.
The Gordon Ramsey Group was the only one to get back to him, even though he had also applied to several others. Larry approached Gordon’s restaurant Angela Hartnett at The Connaught where he worked for a day. They told him he wasn’t ready to work at a Michelin star restaurant.
“I didn’t even know what a Michelin star meant. So I went back feeling demoralised and scared of failing again.”
That didn’t stop him though, and after winning the title of Student of the Year once again, he thought he’d give the industry another shot. He got the chance to fill a vacancy at Marcus Wareing’s, then a two Michelin star restaurant at The Berkeley (previously known as Pétrus). Excited at the thought of getting the job, he opted to start the next day, without stopping to think about the salary or the distance he’d have to travel (which was four and a half hours from his home for an 18 hour shift). But, this was where he needed to be, no matter what.
Despite the long hours and the lack of sleep from an overcrowded hostel and the fear of the unknown, Larry completed 18 months at Marcus where he reached the position of Junior Sous Chef – great progress from his start there chopping vegetables.
Hungry for more, Larry moved on to work a year at Restaurant Gordon Ramsey under Clare Smyth, and then joined Waterside Inn, a 3 star Michelin restaurant known as the ‘godfather of gastronomy of England’, where renowned chefs like Marco Pierre White, Pierre Koffman, and even Gordon Ramsey himself came from.
The catch, however, was that he had to start from the bottom at the Waterside Inn. “I took it. For me, it’s not the title, it’s not the money. Working in that kitchen, where all these big legendary chefs came from, it’s for a reason,” he explains.
“Anybody could have a position but if you can’t deliver, you’re a nobody.”
Larry’s next big step was to work for Michel Bras at Laguiole near Lyons, France, where he learnt important lessons that stuck with him.
“What they taught me was to respect and love the ingredients more than you love your family. In a nice way!” he tells us. “Why? Because this is your job, you need to do this properly to look after your family. If you don’t respect your ingredients, you can’t put something delicious on the plate.
And also to respect each other, because without the team you are nobody.”
Back in the UK, it was going well for Larry, as senior sous chef at two star Michelin restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, the title of Craft Guild of Chefs’ Young Chef of the Year 2007 and the chance to lead Marcus Wehring’s kitchen.
Two years on and Larry soon found himself in crisis when his wife got bowel cancer. He also had a three-year-old son at the time. “I thought that was the end of my career.” He couldn’t work away from home because he had a responsibility towards his family.
Luckily, she recovered and nine months later Larry got a call from Clare Smyth, who was the head chef at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. She told him they were looking for a head chef at Pétrus, one of Gordon’s finest restaurants.
To balance his time, Larry first took the role of sous chef, before Gordon told him “I want you to take the restaurant. I think you can make a difference to it,” he recalls. At the time Larry was competing for the National Chef of the Year Award (he was a finalist in 2013 and 2014, finally winning in 2016) so he asked for time to focus on the competition, because this is the most prestigious in the UK.
Larry was competing in front of 20 Michelin star chefs and for “the first time in 54 years they awarded 30 out of 30 points to me,” he recalls proudly.
This was a huge achievement. All those years of experience, the pain and sacrifice of barely seeing his family, missing birthdays and anniversaries had paid off.The following week, he took the job as Head Chef at Pétrus.
In 2015 he was also awarded a Michelin star by the Michelin Guide in UK and Ireland. This was the ultimate goal at the time, but now Larry is hungry for his second star. He adds that you never know how far you can go unless you try. “You have to push yourself to the limit because as a human being, anything is possible. “You just got to have a plan.”
Back here in Sri Lanka, Larry shares this sentiment with all young aspiring chefs. Larry has observed the talent the country has to offer and stresses that “it is very important to recognise the talent and give opportunities.”
Larry is looking to open his own restaurant in Mayfair early next year, which will incorporate everything he’s learnt over the years while bringing in a little touch of home. He also wishes to cook for the homeless once a week. Because, “where I came from, how I grew up, I felt the hunger. I know the feeling of it. It’s very important to me that I can give something, a plate of food to someone who doesn’t have it.”
Larry has been in the island for 11 days now, and he tells us he’s had so many hoppers. In fact, he looks to create a dish for his restaurant that includes a small hopper with a little bit of truffle butter and fresh truffle shavings. Combining the taste of home with the complexity of his culinary knowledge, the dish would relate the journey of a young Larry who started out making hoppers in a little shop in Hikkaduwa, who just needed an opportunity to shine.
Catch him on Netflix’s upcoming season of ‘Chef’s Table’.