Golf club gets a new chef
Comfort food at its best is what David McGill offers at the Pollak Park Golf Club.
David, who has been a chef for 15 years, is the new executive chef at the club and, growing up in Springs, he feels he is just right for the job.
David was born in Scotland but has lived in Springs since he was three years old. He attended Selcourt Primary, Springs Boys’ High and Springs College before venturing out into the world, starting in his country of birth.
“I got my first job working in a hotel in Scotland called the Royal Hotel. I was literally cleaning the floors and making the beds. I moved from there to the kitchen to do things like peel potatoes. I got interested in the process of cooking there,” says David.
The executive chef at the hotel took David under his wing and started to teach him how to cook.
“I never thought I would get into cooking,” David says. “I have my BTech in road freight management and my N6 in industrial electronics.
“Cooking was not the direction I had chosen for myself, it just happened that way and I wouldn’t change it at all.”
From Scotland, he moved to East Sussex, South of London and worked in a pub. He travelled around London, working in a variety of food service establishments.
“I became a self-employed relief chef which is like a freelance chef, so I was never in one restaurant or hotel for long.”
While working, David went to what he believes is one of the best catering colleges in the world, West Minster Kingsway College.
Once he was done with college, he moved to London where he worked in Le Gavroche, a restaurant which was owned and run by the Roux brothers.
After Le Gavroche, David got a job at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay on Hospital Road in London, working for Ramsey himself for a year and a half.
“Ian Perry, one of the chefs I worked with in East Sussex, headhunted me for his new restaurant called the Red Lion, so I went there to help him open it. My style of cooking was inspired by Ian.”
Since returning to South Africa, David has worked as a senior executive chef for Fedex, which is an outsourced catering company.
“There we were doing about 18 000 meals a day, so it was a busy, crazy job.”
Fedex runs part of Carnival City’s catering and David’s first job in the company was the executive sous chef at Carnival City.
“I’m all about comfort food,” he says.
“Food is a very delicate thing, you have to give it love and attention and if you don’t it will show in the taste.”
He enjoys cooking alfresco and light salads which he describes as ‘simple and rustic food’.
At the golf club, for the first few weeks David will be focusing on the Half Way House in which he will be serving things like toasted sandwiches and breakfasts.
Once he is settled in, he will be introducing a lunchtime menu with meals like gourmet burgers and lunchtime roasts.
Having been a chef for so long, David can never see himself sitting behind a desk.
“My office is my kitchen,” he says.
