When Chris Chafe first started cooking in hotels, he was so young that his chef hat was too big for his head.

That was back when he was just 15 years old. More than twenty years later the chef hat fits perfectly, especially now that he is the new executive chef at the Fairmont Southampton. This month he replaced outgoing executive chef David Garcelon who is moving on to another Fairmont hotel.

?I grew up in a small town called Romsey just outside of Southampton, Hampshire, England,? said Mr. Chafe. ?So, in a way, I grew up in Southampton, England and I now work in Southampton, Bermuda.?

Mr. Chafe?s mother was a good cook, and as a child he enjoyed helping her to make Sunday lunch which was always well-done beef.

?I was terrible at woodwork, so I thought I?d try cooking as a career,? said Mr. Chafe with a laugh.

?The hustle and bustle of the kitchen was like a drug. After a couple of weeks I loved it. It is just so interesting to do the cooking trade.

?When I cooked at home with my mother we used maybe a pound of carrots or potatoes. In the hotel, we were cooking with twenty pounds of carrots.?

After a couple of years Mr. Chafe went to work in the Grand Hotel in St. Petersburg, Russia intending to stay only a few months as a relief chef while the hotel opened. Instead, he stayed eight years.

?Communism broke down in the late 1980s and then the country opened to tourism,? said Mr. Chafe. ?The hotels of international standard were not there. Now, there is every hotel company in the world in Russia. St. Petersburg is a beautiful 300-year-old city. It is a wonderful place. I spent four happy years at that hotel.?

Mr. Chafe said working in a hotel in Russia was not unlike working in a hotel on an island. There were the same difficulties in getting access to resources and supplies.

?They didn?t have the final luxury products that we would use in hotels,? he said. ?We would be importing ingredients from Finland and Stockholm, Sweden. We?d be there at the door waiting for the truck to arrive. It was like an island where you are waiting for the boat to come.?

Unlike in Bermuda, one of the main difficulties for Mr. Chafe was the language barrier. Very few of the chefs he was working with in the kitchen actually spoke English.

?My English-speaking friend worked as the pastry chef and he?d have to use hand signals for ?chop, slice, dice and cook?,? said Mr. Chafe. ?When we went out in the evening and had a beer, he?d still be talking to me with his hands.?

Mr. Chafe tried to learn Russian, but by the time he?d mastered it, the other chefs had mastered English thanks to the many hours spent listening to him.

His career progressed and he moved to a hotel in Dublin, Ireland. It was there he met up with Peter Finnegan who is now the Food & Beverage manager at the Fairmont Southampton. The two friends kept in contact when they went their separate ways. It was Mr. Finnegan who alerted Mr. Chafe about possible job opportunities at the Fairmont Southampton.

?I tried for five years to get a job at the Fairmont,? said Mr. Chafe. ?It is a quality company with world renowned standards. The company is expanding and there are opportunities to work all over the world.?

In order to advance, chefs often spend a lot of time traipsing around the world to bigger and better positions in the kitchen. Mr. Chafe said he loves this about his job.

?I believe in staying for three to five years in a place,? he said. ?You can?t learn anything in your first year. You can?t teach anything until the second year. Your friends come in the third year, plus you settle down. Then you get into the mould and then see another opportunity and move again.?

Being a chef has allowed him to travel the world and experience other cultural flavours, far more than an office job would have done.

?I knew a little bit about Bermuda when I came here,? he said. ?Bermuda cuisine is great. Here at the Fairmont Southampton, we have a chef called Herbie Bascome. He has been here for so many years. Herbie teaches Bermudian cuisine. We also have a fish chowder that is named after him, it is called Bascome?s Fish Chowder. It is used in every outlet in the hotel. He makes gallons of the stuff. Anything Bermudian food, Herbie would do it.?

Mr. Chafe said hotel guests are often excited about trying new cuisine, and the hotel tries to accommodate them.

?It is a shame when you ask for egg and chips and you are in the middle of Spain,? he said. ?You should be having paella. It?s the same in Italy. You should try the risotto. There is an expectation to try the local foods and we have it on most of the menus.?

The Fairmont Southampton offers guests a buffet called the ?Bermudian Welcome? that includes traditional Bermudian dishes like cod cakes, conch fritters and peas & rice.

?It goes down so well,? said Mr. Chafe. ?It is their first introduction to Bermuda. If the sun is shining and the rum swizzles are rolling, that is the Bermudian welcome.?

His goal in the new position is to continue upgrading the food at the Fairmont Southampton restaurants.

?We work well with all the sous chefs to compile menus,? he said. ?It is a huge teamwork effort putting menus together. I am going to be an open door boss. I will follow in David Garcelon?s footsteps. I want team work and accountability. I also want it to be a friendly kitchen. Happy chefs, make happy food.?

He said the Fairmont Southampton is good at providing young Bermudians with job opportunities. There are currently five Bermudian apprentice chefs at the hotel.

?We are looking to take on more apprentices,? Mr. Chafe said. ?It is a great opportunity. Our apprentices now have the opportunity to travel the world as I have done. Most of my management team have international experience. They can learn the tools of the trade at the Fairmont Southampton and continue on.?

He said the Fairmont does not have a problem keeping apprentice chefs.

?The ones who take the whole course and pass their exams are usually hooked and stay,? he said. ?We are cool with our apprentices. It is great to teach them. It is great when they pass their exams and stay within the company.?