Climbing up the narrow stairs that cross the four floors of the The Cocochine, brand new place to eat in Londonyou immediately have the feeling of not being anywhere. We are in Mayfair, in the heart of London, in a neighborhood that has always been that of the British aristocracy, so much so that it is here that Queen Elizabeth II was born and lived for the first years of her life.
Behind this door which manages to be red and out of the way at the same time, as if it didn’t want to attract too much attention while underlining its personality, lies The Cocochine, trendy restaurant in an increasingly contemporary British capitalwhich anticipates trends across Europe. Here, haute cuisine becomes an increasingly personal experience, increasing in exclusivity floor after floor, speaking different languages and addressing different audiences. Dialogue with each of them is Larry Jayasekara, young chef from Sri Lanka. In another life, he was a surfing teacher. In the first one, the son of a very poor family, whom a child Larry helped by working already at the age when one should play. While surfing he met the woman who would become his wife, an English tourist with whom, some time later, he would move to the United Kingdom, demonstrating an extraordinary aptitude for cooking.
La Cucina di Larry Jayasekara
The chef has kept his surfer soul in that ability to look far into the horizon, looking for the arrival of the highest wave to ride. Thus, by nature and training, Larry Jayasekar builds at The Cocochine a menu that draws inspiration from distant countriesfrom flavors and atmospheres from all over the world. He does it, however, remaining with his feet firmly in England, in a cuisine that speaks of distant things but at the same time of proximitythat of local ingredients, coming from small artisan producers, from English fishermen, or from the regenerative farming lands of the Rowler Estate in Northamptonshire, to which the chef has constant access.
