A few years ago Shayne Trott was using an iron to cook his food.

His stovetop was broken and he was a hungry student. The iron seemed the obvious solution.

“We had a small stove but it broke, so we used a clothes iron to make grill cheese sandwiches and hamburgers,” he said. “We never ironed our clothes anyway, so it didn’t matter.”

It’s likely something that wouldn’t go down well in his current role as chef de partie at Marcus’ Bermuda. Staff there have a sophisticated $30,000 oven at their disposal.

The restaurant at the Hamilton Princess and Beach Club opened last week.

“It is definitely exciting to work here, and to be part of the opening crew,” said the 21-year-old. “It is definitely an honour to be one of the ones to get it up and running.”

He prepares food for grilling at Marcus Samuelsson’s restaurant. He’s using skills honed in the week he spent at Red Rooster Harlem Restaurant, one of several eateries owned by the celebrity chef in New York.

“I felt like everything at the restaurant was moving very quickly,” said Mr Trott. “I didn’t do a headcount, but the restaurant was definitely serving more people than I was used to. It was humbling. I had to learn not to dilly-dally.”

Mr Trott was one of five trainee chefs who worked at Mr Samuelsson’s pop-up restaurant at the Hamilton Princess and Beach Club last summer. He alone was invited to Red Rooster Harlem.

There, he worked on the cold food line making dishes such as gravlax and a kale Caesar salad. He also did some prep work and helped out at restaurant functions.

“The kitchen was much busier than anything I had experienced,” he said. “I was quite overwhelmed at first, but I adjusted. In the end, it was really fun.”

Television reality shows often paint restaurant kitchens as hellish places, full of bellowing and stress.

Mr Trott acknowledged it was a real part of the industry.

“You have to love working in a restaurant,” he said. “If you love it, that negates the stress.”

He met Mr Samuelsson briefly in New York, at his restaurant Ginny’s Supper Club.

“I got to talk to him,” said Mr Trott. “He said, ‘Always do your best’.”

Mr Trott loved trying the food at the Red Rooster Harlem.

“I had a fisherman’s pasta that was really good,” he said. “The menu is a blend of things. It was really cool and unique.”

The restaurant features dishes like Swedish meatballs and fried yard bird, a chicken dish well known in the south.

Mr Trott said there are some similarities to the menu here.

“At Red Rooster Harlem they do a blackened catfish,” he said. “We use the same technique at Marcus’ Bermuda to make a blackened rockfish.”

He would like to one day open his own restaurant.

“I am an ambitious person,” he said. “Sometimes I am a bit too ambitious. I just set really high goals for myself that I try my best to reach.”

• Visit www.marcusbermuda.com.