Pétrus head chef Neil Snowball departs

Neil Snowball has left his role as head chef of Gordon Ramsay's Michelin-starred Pétrus restaurant in London's Knightsbridge.

Snowball made the move after he decided he needed to spend some time with his family, and also hopes to pursue his dream of working in France.

Between 2008 and 2011, he was senior sous chef at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's, working alongside the head chef and managing a brigade of 35.

Later he worked under Clare Smyth in Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, assisting with dish development. He joined Pétrus from the Fat Duck, where he was senior development chef. He was promoted to head chef of Pétrus in June 2014 after Sean Burbidge left Gordon Ramsay Group to take up a role at Caprice Holdings' Ivy Café.

A spokesman for Gordon Ramsay Group confirmed that Snowball had left and that the business was looking at a "shortlist of exceptional candidates" to fill the head chef role.

Pétrus first opened in March 1999 as a joint venture between Ramsay and his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson and it was his second restaurant after Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea.

The restaurant, now at 1 Kinnerton Street in Belgravia, is in its third location. Originally it opened at 33 St James's Street before moving to the Berkeley hotel where Marcus Wareing ran it and where it gained two Michelin stars (Wareing now runs the two-Michelin-starred Marcus at the same site).

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