No dream is ever too big. Ask Sri Lankan Chef Larry Jayasekera, who began his culinary journey working in a hopper stall in Hikkaduwa earning just Rs. 200 to a Chef with considerable experience in England with a Michelin star to his name. Chef Larry has led numerous top tier restaurants in the UK and is all set to open his own restaurant in March 2020 in Mayfair. In addition, he’s also set to feature in season 9 of popular Netflix show Chef’s Table. Sri Lanka’s first ever Michelin starred Chef Larry recently sat down with Daily Mirror Life for a tête-à-tête about his journey, his achievements and his trip to Sri Lanka.

“My father was working at the Tangalle Bay Hotel as a chef and then he eventually quit because he had diabetes and then we moved back to Hikkaduwa” Chef Larry recounted. “When we moved there, we didn't have much money to live. I was around 8 or 9 eating one bowl of rice a day, at times. Things were difficult; my father was selling fish and my mother was making hats and bedsheets to earn a living. So at the age of 12-13 I was working in a roadside shop making hoppers and rotis from 4 in the afternoon to 5 in the morning. At times, I used to get about Rs 200. Even though my family and I didn't have anything, we were happy. I remember we slept on the floor, there was no bed, there was no shower, we used a well. When it rained, the roof leaked. That's how we used to live, and I have no shame in talking about it because you never ever forget your beginnings and the people who support you along the way. Then when I was 15 I met an English girl and I went to England. This is where I want to add that we all get one opportunity in life" he interjects. "Every human being. No matter where you come from. No matter what you have got or haven't got. We all get one opportunity. You just need to realise when that opportunity comes and you've gotta grab it with both hands”. 

Life in England was no cake walk. For one, Chef Larry was underage making finding a job almost impossible, and two, “working in a Hopper shop in Sri Lanka making rotis wasn't a valid reference”. Unable to even pay his half of the rent, Chef Larry was supported by his wife. As luck would have it, his wife’s sister had a friend who had a Thai restaurant, “so I started chopping vegetables 4 hours a day. I got about £80-85 a week. With that money my wife brought the clothes, the food, everything. She has always been very supportive of me and I absolutely owe everything to her and have immense respect for her”. Although Larry didn’t see his own potential at the time, the owner of the Thai restaurant prodded him, 'Larry, you have better talent. You can do better than this'. “I didn't really believe it. I'm just a kid. I've got no skills, no education. There's no way I'm going to get a good job”.

Eventually, Chef Larry got the opportunity to follow a basic cookery foundation. “Here, I won Student of the Year 2 years running, only because I followed the instructions exactly. When I was in my third year, I saw Gordon Ramsey's ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ and I said to my wife, I want to go and work for this guy. She said 'you're crazy'. Coming from Hikkaduwa and going to work in London - I mean, I had never seen London, I had only seen Colombo 2 times! So it was a big scary thing, but I went for it. 

Angela Hartnett of the Gordon Ramsey group, after a full day of working, said to me 'you're not ready'. That sort of demotivated me and I went back thinking 'failure, again!'. But one thing I always say is that I will never give up. Because if I can't get something, I will try again until I get it. It's not an option to give up. Absolutely not”

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Demotivated but persistent, Chef Larry fell back on his education once again, did his level 3 and won Student of the Year for the 3rd time consecutively. “This win means nothing when you want to work in a restaurant. It gave me basic knowledge - I learned what julienne was, what dicing was, which I had no clue about working in a Hopper shop. I had never seen a cauliflower before. Asparagus - I had never seen it in my life. Strawberry - never tasted it. It gave me a passport into a new world”. 

He applied again, and finally got a job. “I went to Marcus Wareing, Pétrus and he said to me, 'When do you want to start?' and I said 'tomorrow'. Didn't think of the fact that we lived four and a half hours away, I'm married and I got nowhere to live. I hadn't even thought about my salary, but I took the job. This was the beginning of my life that led me to where I am now. I worked 18 hours a day, I was living in a hostel sharing with 6 people. What drove me was that I learnt something new; the quality of the ingredients and how they were handled with respect and love. I did 19 months there and I got to number 3 in the kitchen; we had 16 guys. Earning respect in the kitchen is the most difficult thing. If you're cocky and arrogant and have a big ego, you will not get anything. You have to keep your head down and be humble about it”.

“Michelin is a huge honour for any chef and only 10% ever get that honour” Chef Larry noted. “I always say to myself, ‘I want to get one’. I didn't know how, but I knew that working in some of these places would give me a chance”. He set his sights on Alain Roux’s three Michelin starred Waterside Inn. Chef Larry earned £26,000 a year before he accepted the post, but was told he would start off as a comme chef and earn a meagre  £14,000 a year. His wife was perplexed about the decision, considering he was taking on a job with a lower position and bigger paycut. “But for me, it wasn't about the position, it wasn't about the money. Working in this kitchen from which two legendary chefs came out would pave my path to the top”. He worked there for 2 years living as frugally as possible to be able to afford even his basic expenses. 

In order to broaden his horizons, Chef Larry once again decided to take a risk and move to France where he worked for noted French chef Michel Bras at this three-star restaurant in Laguiole. “This is one of the best kitchens I had ever worked in” Chef Larry recounted of his time there. “Massive respect to them in terms of how they mentor you, how they guide you, how they teach you to respect each other, the quality of the ingredients and simplicity. In the kitchen, there is no shouting. You only hear the sound of food being cooked and prepared. That's the sign of a great kitchen; people are focused and they know what they are doing. So I spent 2 years not knowing one word of French and using dictionaries to understand the menu”.

Having gained sufficient knowledge, Chef Larry moved to Oxford where he and his wife bought a home together. “Here I worked at Le Manoir, a 2 Michelin star restaurant by Chef Raymond Blanc. This gave me another layer of understanding and experience because all of the vegetables they used came from their garden. We inform the gardeners about the specifics of what we require the produce to be, so we go into detail even in procuring what ingredients will be used”. He left Le Manoir to Marcus Wareing where he ran the kitchen, and it was also the first time a non European led his kitchen. “At this time, my wife got bowel cancer and had to remove ⅔ of her bowel, and I thought to myself that this was the end of my Michelin star dreams. I didn't work for 9 months and thankfully, she got better. It was then that Claire Smith, who was a chef at one of Gordon Ramsey's restaurants called me up and asked me to work 3 days a week at Pétrus as a Head Chef. This is the restaurant I started at, so it was an honour and privilege to go back and lead the restaurant, but I joined as sous chef. After 4 months, there was a National Chef of the Year competition where in 1992 Gordon Ramsey won. Against my better judgement I took part and for the first time in 54 years, a contestant scored 30/30 marks, which I managed!. This made all my sacrifices worth it. What was even more special was that my wife managed to come halfway through her chemo to watch it. That same week Gordon asked me to take the restaurant as head chef”.

“In 2017, one of my dishes was listed among ‘7 best dishes to eat in London’ and my scallop dish placed number 1”. Chef Larry is especially proud of this honour considering that this dish paid homage to his roots in Sri Lanka. “This dish was related to me and my identity as a Sri Lankan; I made a curry with a component akin to ‘lunudehi’ and it made a statement in the restaurant - it wasn't Gordon Ramsey's food. It was my food. In 2015, I received a Michelin star to my name”. This was when his next opportunity came knocking - an investor wanted him to open a restaurant of his own. “This was a huge opportunity, so I left. My restaurant will open early March next year in Mayfair. It will have international cuisine and we will be utilising seasonal produce. I want my restaurant to be flexible and accessible for diners but with fine ingredients”.

Chef Larry was recently in Sri Lanka as part of a charitable initiative to work with the underprivileged with the Dilmah Foundation as he is passionate about giving back to the country and the people, and was also involved in preparing the Sri Lankan team for ‘Bocuse d’Or’.

“When I was 15-16 years, I was making hoppers for Rs 200. Today I'm tasting some of the finest foods on the planet” he reiterated as parting words. “What I want to say to people is, if you want to go to Mars, you can. You gotta want it, you've gotta have a drive and you've gotta have a plan on making it happen. Nothing is impossible”. And from someone who certainly did defy the impossible, wise words indeed!

Pics: Waruna Wanniarachchi