Peter Yankov is the owner and chef of the restaurant „Petrus“, located in Sofia. Just over a year ago, the restaurant opened for customers, so that every visitor can enjoy his original recipes, which Peter cooks with a lot of love and attention. This is the place for people who likes good food and nice atmosphere.
„Petrus“ has a winter and summer garden as well as several themed halls, each carrying its own spirit and feeling: „Show cooking hall“, „Sushi bar“, „Musical hall“, „VIP hall“, „Home hall with children’s playground“ and „Children’s hall“.
Creating the restaurant „Petrus” – the dream of Chief Petar Yankov came true.
Petur Yankov: They always ask me what inspired me to create my own restaurant? The truth is, every chef has a “dream” and sooner or later they open their own restaurant, so this was my dream when I became a chef at the age of 22. Restaurateurs are chefs. If the restaurateur is out of the range (this means) he is not a chef, necessarily his chef starts with a 1% to 15% participation, which over time grows to a 50% shareholder of the job done. The chef then buys the shares from the owner, who originally developed this business and in any case, the chef becomes the owner of the restaurant – this is a worldwide practice. Things happen this way because only the chef knows how to properly manage a restaurant. The center of a restaurant is the kitchen!
How to become a good restaurateur?
Peter Yankov: Quality, that’s the only thing! There are a lot of people who want quality, not quantity. Unfortunately, the Bulgarian is not yet ready for it Michelin – this is the highest quality, with a maximum of three stars. We in Bulgaria are not ready for this. Certainly, there are cooks in here who could deal with Michelin, but the audience in Bulgaria is not like that. Therefore, a successful restaurant must have excellent quality, confidence, and honesty with the customers.
There are three things we put on a pedestal because I keep an extremely high quality of products and the overall quality of the kitchen in my restaurant. We cannot afford to compromise on all of that because we are not interested in profit. We care very much about our staff and their attitude towards the consumer because it is not wrong to do something wrong – you make mistakes, you apologize, and you tell the truth.
What cuisines do you offer to your customers and which ones do you enjoy cooking the most?
P.Y.: Our kitchen is built on our familiar products from our experience in „Petrus”. It is very original. Here every dish brings the spirit of our restaurant. During the winter, we usually prepare the forgotten Bulgarian dishes in our kitchen, using the well-known spices of the Bulgarian kitchen, combined to our taste – the result is impressive. I am pleased to prepare meals for the guests of the restaurant, as all recipes have been edited to suit our taste and to reflect our vision of delicious food.
What are your views and how do you plan to be more successful in time?
P.Y.: I dare not to say, that „Petrus” is the best place, of the best kitchen or, the best service or whatever is best. We are currently writing our own story. On 14.11.2015 we became one year old, so we strive for our name „Petrus” to associate with our work and to be an emblem of something, we created. It is important for us that people can tell themselves what “Petrus” is for them and why they want to eat here. This is very important. Having 100% satisfied customers is ridiculous, sounds divine, but not real, and we are realists, we know what we can do and we offer it, from here on now, customers are the ones who will value our work.
You are very good in the kitchen, we are good at advertising, the common thing between us is that we are peddlers in our work. What are your impressions from working with the advertising agency Media Design?
Peter Yankov.: Advertising agency Media Design is the company, which deals with overall adverts of our restaurant and I would never change them unless they change my mind eventually. I am mostly satisfied with the deadlines and the quality of the developed advertisements. Media Design is everything, which I can wish from an advertising agency and the price, for what I’ll pay – they deserve it!
I recommend the advert agency to everyone, who is interested in creating outdoor advertising. For me, this is the company that we’ll cooperate with developing our future advertising projects.
Would you share any delicious recipes for our readers?
P.Y.: Of course, I will give my recipe for carp fish, which I prepare for my family and friends, it’s really tasty, here’s what you need:
- 1 carp (bare or flaked)
For the filling:
- beef mince; 100g butter; 30g onions; 20g garlic; 20g celery; 300 g of peeled tomato; 1 carrot; bouquet of 2/4 parsley, 1/4 dill and 1/4 mint; 1 pinch of sugar; 3 pinches of salt; black pepper; 150ml. White Wine; 200g yellow cheese; 100g crushed roasted nuts; 1/2 lemon
Cooking Method:
The carp is cleared from the outside, then cut from the back (this is important as this opens more space for stuffing in). Flavored with salt and pepper.
The carrots, onions, and garlic are cut very precisely and fried in the butter, and the minced meat needs to be added 2 minutes later. We begin to fry lightly and add the grated celery. We add the parsley, dill, and mint bouquet, also
the peeled tomatoes, cut into small cubes, a pinch of sugar and about 3 pinches of salt, some black pepper, and about 150 ml. White wine. Leave it to simmer until most of the liquid has boiled and the homogeneous sauce remains. When the mixture is ready, remove it from the hotplate and grate 200gr. butter, after that, add 100gr. crushed roasted nuts (optional), everything is mixed well and the filling is ready. We fill the carp and put one slice of lemon between the fillings, we carefully sew the carp and wrap it all in foil and then put it in a pan with two fingers of water. Bake at 220 ° for about 50 minutes and you’re ready.
