Delicious food is always served with a side of passion.
Chef Laurent Petit is the Executive Chef at The H Hotel and is known for serving amazing dishes to diners.
Made with finesse and talent, Chef Laurent is a great example of a chef that serves every dish with a side of passion and dedication to food.
With decades of experience and honing all the skills learnt in the culinary industry, Chef Laurent shares his journey in the ever-changing culinary world.
How did you get started in the food industry?
I discovered the kitchen universe at a young age of 13 during a wedding! I fell in love with the hustle of the kitchen and realised my true calling when my family was cooking for the wedding guests. From then on, I spent every Sunday for a year in the kitchen of a small restaurant in Rouen (my hometown in Normandy, France) to learn how to become a true chef. Throughout the year, the restaurant owner selected the best candidates to help them develop a stronger career in the food and beverage industry and I was thrilled to be among the few.
In 1984, I did my apprenticeship in that same restaurant for 4 years. It was a warm family-owned business, where the husband managed the service, and the wife was the head chef. The kitchen staff was small and there were only three cooks including two trainees. This apprenticeship was the perfect opportunity that shaped my career.
After this experience, my tutor and mentor Mr Carbonie helped me find a job in the heart of Paris as a commis at La Grande Cascade Restaurant, a high-end restaurant and a short three hour drive from Rouen. I trained there for one and a half years in 1986.
I then continued cooking alongside great Chefs. I spent one and a half years at Hotel Le Bristol, a Parisian palace, which had 2 Michelin-Star at the time. After 3 years in Paris, I met a few people who were travelling from Switzerland and convinced me to move to Geneva. It was then that I became a globetrotting chef.
What is your earliest cooking memory?
When I was an apprentice in Rouen, my tutor sent me to Paris to participate in a competition called the Concours de la Cuisine Normande. After a training with three Chefs in three different restaurants, I submitted a recipe I learned along the way called Duck à la rouennaise which is unique and popular to my city, Rouen. The Jury instantly fell in love and I won my first ever competition. This was a truly amazing experience and one of my fondest memories as I was only 16 at the time!
What is your favourite dish from your country?
I would say the Duck à la rouennaise which is linked to the first cooking competition I won at the age of 16.
What is the one go-to and easy snack you love making for midnight cravings?
I do not really eat late at night at all, but the go-to snack that I love preparing for kids is cheese quiche. In France, quiche is a famous dish, easy to bake with cream and eggs as a base.
What is the one raw ingredient you cannot cook without from your country?
It has to be butter from Normandy! It is quite different from the butter out here.
What is the best dish to try at your restaurant?
Our newest à la carte dish, the Pan Seared Duck Foie Gras Périgueux Sauce, is the best one to try. Duck liver is a popular delicacy in French cuisine and its rich with buttery flavour, enhanced with a glaze of caramelised apples and cider vinegar. We do not use alcohol in the sauce, the recipe is Halal and accompanied by salad and mushrooms.
Chef Laurent Petit
Executive Chef
The H Hotel
04-5018888