Age: 43

Role: Executive chef, The Fairmont Hamilton Princess

What is your job? My role involves overseeing the daily food operations within the hotel, maintaining and surpassing our guest's high food quality and presentation expectations. This includes keeping current with culinary trends and food fashions within the industry, whilst keeping Bermuda's traditional flavours and textures as high-priority ingredients. At Fairmont, we are committed to providing our guests with an authentically local experience, which means that when you dine with us, you'll know you're in Bermuda by the dishes you'll find on the menu. Most people know about our restaurants, Harley's and Heritage Court, but because hotel operations include so much more, my responsibilities also consist of banqueting and in-room dining operations, including designing and implementing the menus, keeping within forecasted food and labour cost guidelines, and providing and participating in ongoing culinary or health and safety training.

What is your favourite part of the job? It's all about the food for me; that's where my absolute passion is, creating new dishes, working with the freshest ingredients, combining flavours, colours and textures. I'm in heaven when I have a knife in one hand, a pan in the other and a new idea in my head.

What is your least favourite part of the job? Seeing wasted food. It's quite rare, but when we have big events that require catering and an event is not as well attended as the host expects, food gets wasted. If food has been on a buffet for a few hours, we have no choice but to dispose of it.

Throughout my working day, I make a point during my tours of the kitchens to peer very visibly into the garbage bins for food waste. My chefs know I expect them to utilise as much as possible of whatever ingredients they are prepping, not just as a cost-effective exercise but also out of respect for the food itself.

What is your most interesting experience in the job? Interesting, memorable and embarrassing all in one! It happened when I was a commis chef at The Ritz Hotel in London. The hotel was hosting the launch of Dallas, when the American TV show was being introduced to the British audience. I was on flambé duty that particular evening and was called to do a table-side presentation of Cognac Shrimp Thermidor for actress Joan Collins. Everything was going to plan, even though I was a little nervous being so close to such a star and her entourage. As soon as I poured the cognac into the hot pan to flambé the shrimp, I realised I'd been a little too heavy-handed and, in fact, was now flambéing the tablecloth and flower centrepiece! Luckily one of the companions of Ms. Collins was quick with his Evian and extinguished the brandy-fuelled inferno. After I apologised for the awkward incident, Ms Collins looked up at me with a slow smile and said "Darling, l haven't seen it done quite like that before." I still cannot flambé today without a huge grin on my face.

What would you be doing otherwise? Definitely not a firefighter! Seriously, though, I'm pretty sure I would have still been in hospitality. Personally, I quite fancy the idea of being the landlord of a nice country pub or bed and breakfast.