Front of House to Chef
Front of House to Chef – Gordon Clarkson
Before Gordon joined the Argyll Holidays team in January 2018, he had never worked in a kitchen before. While based within the hospitality industry, his career had primarily focused on front of house roles such as Assistant Food & Beverage Manager. This meant that Gordon was involved with audits, stock take and menus instead of being hands-on in the kitchen. Nevertheless, Gordon started his Argyll Holidays journey as a Commis Chef at Hunters Bar & Grill at Hunters Quay Holiday Village – taking the plunge as he searched for his next big career move.
Gordon took to the kitchen like a fish to water, and within one year he had gone from prepping salad, to being trained on all aspects of the kitchen including fryers, grills and making our signature pizzas. Gordon really enjoyed his time at Hunters Quay, working with then Head Chef Radek Jankowski, who has since been promoted to Group Head Chef. When Gordon began preparing specials he started to make strides within the role and triggered his newfound love of cooking.
Gordon recalls really enjoying catering for various events hosted by the company, in particular he fondly remembers the weekend where he served a group of bikers visiting during the Hoggs Weekend. After about two and a half years discussions began about the possibility of promoting Gordon to Chef De Partie at Hunters Quay, but before anything could come of this, Gordon moved from Hunters Quay to Drimsynie Estate to support our Head Chef at the View Bar and Restaurant.
He faced this new challenge head on and when the Chef moved on to new opportunities, Gordon took on the role of acting Chef. He improved the stock and audit results while maintaining outstanding service during an extremely busy period of the government “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme. Gordon had well and truly taken a huge leap from Commis chef to Chef in an unusually challenging period where coronavirus restrictions massively impacted the hospitality industry. Gordon loved the challenge and excelled during his time.
“My approach to every single work task was to ask myself ‘would Radek approve of this?’ and holding myself to his standards is how I really stepped up to the plate.”
Gordon then found himself at a crossroads in his career with two choices. He could return to Hunters Bar & Grill with a promotion of Chef De Partie waiting for him or he could remain at Drimsynie and take on a new position as Sous Chef. He followed his heart and has been whipping up delicious meals at The View Bar and Restaurant under new Head Chef Andrew Kerr ever since.
As much as Gordon enjoys working up at Drimsynie alongside Head Chef Andy, from 17th May, he will be starting his next big adventure as he takes on the title of Chef at our Goil Inn in Lochgoilhead Village.
When The Goil Inn reopens, Gordon will be teaming up with manager Neil Patterson to provide quality dining for our customers. When asked what he was looking forward to the most in his new endeavour – Gordon expressed that he was keen to start building relationships with his team and new clientele. He is looking to the future and hopes to continue using local produce as restrictions continue to ease.
The Argyll Holidays team wishes Gordon all the best in his new role, we have a feeling you are going to smash it!
Fancy a career with us at Argyll Holidays? Check out our job page today!
