Christmas at Pétrus: dine at the chef’s table
Enjoy a festive take on the kitchen dining experience
Pétrus, Gordon Ramsay’s Michelin-starred restaurant in Knightsbridge, is inviting guests into the kitchen for a Christmas meal at the chef’s table.
Seating up to eight people, the horseshoe-shaped banquette opens directly onto the kitchen, where diners can see the preparation of an opulently French festive feast.
It gets underway with a generous platter of canapes, including moreish truffled croque-monsieur and smokey, salty-sweet chestnuts. Highlights of the seven courses that follow include a ballotine of foie gras served with brioche and mint jelly, and a boisterously seasoned steak tartare.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The set-piece, however, is roast capon, once a British Christmas staple and still enjoyed in France. The bird - a castrated cockerel, more tender and flavoursome than a chicken - is carved at the table and presented with Dauphinoise potato, an elegant sausage roll of stuffing baked in thin pastry, and carrots lovingly steeped in carrot juice at 85C for two hours to preserve and enhance their flavour as they cook.
The dishes are presented and introduced by the chefs responsible for creating them, under the guidance of head chef Larry Jayasekara. They vie for attention with Stephen Nisbet, the head sommelier, who returns before each course to explain his pick of the 2,000 wines in the Pétrus cellar.
His goal, he says, is to show off a lesser-known side of French viticulture, and he fulfils it with a series of delicious wines from just beyond the beaten track.
For the cheese course, for example - an oozing baked vacherin with grilled sourdough - he picks a dry, light 2008 Jurancon Sec from grapes grown on old Pyrenean vines, which counters the creaminess of the cheese with a minerally rigour. A late-picked pinot gris from Alsace has the concentration and sweetness to confront foie gras, and a substantial 2014 Givry premier cru from Le Clos Salomon harnesses the piquancy of the steak tartare, restraining its spicy notes rather than drawing them out.
Puddings, by contrast, are best kept traditional, and both kitchen and cellar fall into line, delivering prune and armagnac souffle with a 2007 Rousset Peyraguey sauternes. It’s a classic combination, and a suitably rich and boozy end to a decadent evening.
The Pétrus Christmas chef’s table is available for eight guests, between 1 and 23 December, for £185 per person or £300 including paired wines
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Holden Frith is The Week’s digital director. He also makes regular appearances on “The Week Unwrapped”, speaking about subjects as diverse as vaccine development and bionic bomb-sniffing locusts. He joined The Week in 2013, spending five years editing the magazine’s website. Before that, he was deputy digital editor at The Sunday Times. He has also been TheTimes.co.uk’s technology editor and the launch editor of Wired magazine’s UK website. Holden has worked in journalism for nearly two decades, having started his professional career while completing an English literature degree at Cambridge University. He followed that with a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago. A keen photographer, he also writes travel features whenever he gets the chance.
-
5 carefully selected cartoons about the Trump-Daniels jury selection process
Cartoons Artists take on a stress-free life, rare peers, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Loire Valley Lodges review: sleep, feast and revive in treetop luxury
The Week Recommends Forest hideaway offers chance to relax and reset in Michelin key-winning comfort
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published
-
Myanmar: the Spring Revolution and the downfall of the generals
Talking Point An armed protest movement has swept across the country since the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi was overthrown in 2021
By The Week Staff Published
-
Three Chimneys restaurant and The House Over-By review: Skye's sumptuous rural hideaway
The Week Recommends The award-winning restaurant with rooms is well worth battling the elements to reach
By Jamie Timson, The Week UK Published
-
The Westbury Hotel review: stunning suites in charming Dublin
The Week Recommends This hotel is the perfect spot to while away a weekend in Ireland's capital
By Kaye O'Doherty Published
-
Drama movies 2024: new films out this year
In Depth Latest reviews include The Boys in the Boat, One Life and Tchaikovsky's Wife
By The Week UK Last updated
-
Best new hotels and places to stay in 2024
The Week Recommends Featuring stylish island resorts, historical properties and wilderness retreats
By The Week UK Last updated
-
Albums of the year: best music of 2023
The Week Recommends A look back at the best pop, rap, jazz, dance, classical and rock releases
By The Week UK Published
-
Savoy Grill by Gordon Ramsay review: an institution reinvented
The Week Recommends Traditions are maintained and the tweaks are clever and modern
By Neil Davey Published
-
Tulum: a Mexican beach town of 'two halves'
The Week Recommends With the 'pueblo' and 'Zona Hotelera', Tulum is home to great hotels, restaurants and beach clubs
By William Leigh Published
-
La Zebra review: beach chic, perfect tacos and secret cenotes
The Week Recommends Enjoy a stylish stay in Mexico at this family-friendly beach hotel and restaurant
By William Leigh Published