Secret Feasts: Baladin

Gerasimos Gkogkas, known as Jerry, is the restaurant’s sous chef. He came to the UK when he was 17, beginning as a kitchen porter before being promoted to a waiter, and then graduating onwards to become a chef. He is adamant that cooking has changed his life.

“I wanted to be a footballer originally, but I had issues with my lungs,” he tells us. “Now, cooking is one of the most important things in my life.”

For Jerry, preparing food is all about energy: “I love it when people are satisfied and happy after eating a meal. It’s wonderful to see customers enjoying the food and the time spent eating it. It’s an amazing feeling.”

One of his favourite meals of all was the carbonara he cooked for the first time in the kitchen at Baladin. Is his carbonara the best? “Of course! If you put that energy into it, and you say this is the best carbonara, then it really will become your best carbonara,” he says.

Jerry’s favourite dish on the Baladin menu is gnocchi with sausage ragú or the ravioli. “I enjoy making the ravioli because I like taking my time with it. The taste is obviously very important, but the customer’s first experience of the food is usually eye contact with the plate. If the food looks good, this translates into how it tastes.”

Now, with the restaurant back to serving guests and his role in the kitchen growing further, what would he say to his 17-year-old-self looking back? “Just work. Work your ass off, be focused and go for it. Whatever you have in mind, do it. Everything is possible, even with challenges like a pandemic. A lot of people have done a lot of things, so why can’t that be you?”