At Home With London Chef and Former Rakes Drummer Lasse Petersen

It’s a bright day in the mid-morning at Lasse Petersen‘s home on the edge of Wanstead Flats, near Forest Gate in east London. He lives here with his wife and two young children but today he’s alone: wearing a long-sleeve, off-white waffle tee and ripped skinny jeans, he’s drinking a cup of filter coffee he brewed a little earlier. Petersen’s in a reflective mood as we move between his memories of different objects in different rooms — the kitchen, the hallway and the living room.

He has questions as well as answers. Holding a rock he picked up on a beach, he asks: “Why do we collect things?” “What will make us content?” “What is it we are looking for — are we just waiting for things to get better?” Later, he quotes a song by the band Bauhaus: “All we ever wanted was everything.”

Between 2003–2009, Petersen was the drummer for the post punk revival / art rock band The Rakes, and toured with bands like Franz Ferdinand at the height of the indie moment during the second half of the 2000s. He later joined Wolf Gang, a symphonic rock band before they split up in 2015. Since then, he has worked as a chef, mainly in London — firstly at Claude’s Kitchen in Parson’s Green, then at Moro, cooking Middle eastern and Spanish food, before a spell at Western’s Laundry, Primeur and Jolene learning the ways of the casual European leaning, British ingredient-led trend that took hold in the late 2010s. In between, he spent time in his native Denmark, working at Amass and 108, run by Noma alumni, which gave him a taste of the New Nordic fine-dining scene. By that point he knew what he wanted to cook and in 2017 became executive head chef at Llewelyn’s, a modern European bistro in Herne Hill. Then, at the end of 2022, that role extended to a sister site, the wine bar and deli called Lulus, close by.

Petersen says that even when he was in a band, he always knew he wanted to work with food, something he has always been interested in — both at home and on the road. He invited Something Curated into his home to discuss that passion and to share seven objects that offer an insight into his life — almost four decades as a musician, chef, expat, collector and father.

This interview was edited for clarity.

Rocks

Lasse Petersen: For some reason, I collect rocks. Whenever I’m on holiday, I always seem to pick up random rocks.

When I was a kid we lived close to the sea and I always collected rocks, probably much to the annoyance of my parents. But they’re kind of fun and it’s fun to reminisce about a particular holiday and be reminded of it by these natural objects.

For example, I have some from Puglia when we first found out my wife was pregnant.

They’re beautiful, free, natural souvenirs.

Masks

LP: Masks are something I really love, particularly the texture of these wooden ones. I’m fascinated by them — so began collecting them a couple of years ago.

Art is a funny thing – unless you have a fortune, it’s a very difficult thing to collect, but I am building slowly.

Photographs

LP: This is the “Wilder Mann” by Charles Fréger — a French photographer who travelled to 18 countries around Europe, publishing his work as a series in a book. This is a Bulgarian harvest costume… I like the idea that people still have their traditional customs; I’m interested in supernatural things.

It also makes me wonder: why do we collect things?

Mid-century furniture

LP: This is a nostalgic thing. I’ve found this love of mid-century furniture. I like the idea of stuff that feels pre-lived. It’s also maybe a reaction to the few bits my parents had. The funny thing is, they were trying to get rid of their mid-century furniture because it was what their parents had. But, for me, it’s nostalgic — and when you have your own kids, you want to recreate the best of your childhood.

Records

LP: I’ve tried for years to start a record collection … but I’ve given up. I think because I’m completionist. Still, I love listening to music even if I don’t have as many records as I used to. I have a Talk Talk record, that I really love.

Spices

LP: At the restaurant, the way we cook is what we call ‘larder cooking’. There are plenty of places where I’ve been, kitchens that are completely recipe-based, but I don’t think that anyone learns to cook that way.

I find that lot of cooking is how to fix things; it’s important people work out how to season the food. And recipes don’t always allow for that sort of learning. I think you can feel your way through cooking — I learnt that at Moro, to know what it means when you’re cooking — it’s that, not recipes, that has made me a much better cook.

Read more Something Curated profiles here. All photography by Michaël Protin. Header photograph: ceramic bowls collected in Morocco and Romania.