Inspiring students to work in contract catering

Gordon Muir’s first job in contract catering after working in hotels and restaurants was at Perth College. 13 years on and he is still there, helping inspire students to choose a career in hospitality.

Gordon has been the Head Chef at Perth College University of the Highlands and Islands for just over 13 years. This was his first job in contract catering after spending most of his career working within hotels and restaurants. 

Speaking about the move to work within an education environment Gordon said: “To be honest I had very little idea what it was going to be like, but I wanted to add this as a career experience. Initially, my plan was to do two years in the job, but somewhere along the line that turned into 13!”

Talking about his day-to-day role and what it involves Gordon said: “I oversee and support the class of students we have training in our main food court kitchen, I also support the college staff member who also works in my kitchen and assist my manager in the overall food operation. I am involved in staff training and have health and safety responsibilities. In addition, I cook breakfast every day before the students arrive and produce a wide range of unit made grab-and-go items for our retail shop.”

One of the things that surprised Gordon was how big an operation Perth College was and the diversity of their customer base. Also having not worked with students before, Gordon said it was nice to see students turn a corner in class: “Seeing students who initially I suspected had no chance of becoming good chefs, turn a corner and grasp the chance to go on to have successful starts in industry is always a good thing. I have had a few like that and occasionally I see one of them and they thank me for what I did for them and tell me that they now understand what I was trying to do.”

Throughout his 13 years at Perth College, Gordon has learnt a lot about the Schools & Universities segment. He said: “I have learned that like most workplaces, it has good and bad points and many challenges. Over the years the job has changed completely. When I first started, our offer was very basic and limited. I also did pretty much all the cooking myself. We then began a project partnership with the college where we had a class of catering student plus a college employee manning the kitchen. This certainly proved challenging at first but as it developed it became a much better experience.”

If anyone is thinking about working within Schools & Universities, Gordon has the following advice: “Like any job, you need to work hard, invest your time and effort and be prepared to meet challenges head on, be flexible and be a good team player.”

Gordon describes his experience as: challenging, rewarding and interesting.