A local chef has spoken to the Chronicle about his rise in the culinary world to hosting a cooking demonstration at the world-famous Harrods department store in London.

Jon launched his business, Gastronomy by Jon, during lockdown and it has continued to grow since he first had the idea.

Jon explained: “I left school at 16 and went to college, but it wasn’t catering college. When I got an apprenticeship in a whole other career, I discovered that cooking was what I loved to do in my downtime.”

Gastronomy by Jon is centred around private dining experiences, catering for dinner parties and larger events such as weddings.

The former outdoor activity instructor says he took the opportunity to scale up his business when he saw it.

“I had time on my hands and thought I would never get this opportunity in my life again to put all my resources into something that could be great in the future,” he said.

There was purpose to Jon’s cooking in the early days of his work, as he explains his service became very useful to people who couldn’t get out during lockdown.

“I didn’t want to waste the time I had, and thought about vulnerable people who might not have good food,” he said.

“The business was really a by-product of that and wanting to make sure people were eating good food at a difficult time.”

The call to host a demo at Harrods came out of the blue for Jon, who was asked to demo cookware from Scanpan, a company of which he is a fan.

“I am a genuine fan of Scanpan, who contacted me about this opportunity,” he said.

“They have taken over the Harrods kitchen for two weeks and asked me if I would like to be a part of it and demo some of their pans.

“I cooked a flatbread pizza and a steak with béarnaise sauce so I could show off how diverse the pan was.”

Jon says he was able to cook what he wanted and appreciated having a creative license to decide what ingredients he was going to use.

“It was quite surreal really,” he said.

“They take you through to set up, after going through the staff entrance and security, you have some prep time and then your demo begins.”

Jon’s roots in Abergavenny led him to discover Scanpan cookware. His first encounter with the brand came a lot closer to home than you might think.

“I bought my first Scanpan in Cooks Galley, in Nevill Street, because they had a sale on,” he said.

“Who would have thought that would have led to me cooking in Harrods?”

The local chef’s homecoming after his London demo is fast approaching and anyone wishing to taste some of Jon’s cooking for themselves is welcome to book on to his pop up at the Crown and Sceptre at 6:30pm on Saturday, March 29.

To book, contact Jon on 07860 649321 or email [email protected].