{"id":12594,"date":"2019-06-19T09:21:58","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T09:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lcnonline.co.uk\/?p=12594"},"modified":"2019-06-19T09:24:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T09:24:03","slug":"kyle-is-in-at-the-deep-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lcnonline.co.uk\/kyle-is-in-at-the-deep-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle is in at the deep end"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyle Greer (31), the recently-appointed executive head chef at Belfast\u2019s Europa hotel,<\/a> got his first taste of life in a commercial kitchen when he stood in for a breakfast chef who had phoned in sick at Antrim\u2019s Holiday Inn.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time, Kyle worked on reception at the hotel and had no experience of what it was like to cook for the guests.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018I still thought I\u2019d give it a go,\u2019 he told LCN this month. \u2018And I\u2019ve not looked back since.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a harsh baptism for Kyle, but it left him with a real desire to follow what he felt was a new calling:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018I might not have had any formal qualifications, but it\u2019s like I say to those people who come to me looking for work today, if you\u2019re passionate, if you want to work, then you\u2019ll be able to do it.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Kyle left the Holiday Inn shortly after his stint in the kitchen and came to Belfast where he started knocking on doors, eventually securing a position in the kitchens at the former 27 Talbot Street.<\/span><\/p>\n

All told, he spent four years at Talbot Street, but in between, he gained valuable experience in London where he did a stage at Tristan Welch\u2019s Launceston Place restaurant. During that time, he became acquainted with acclaimed English chef, Tom Aikens and ended up working for him for 10 months.<\/span><\/p>\n

During his time with Aikens, Kyle was in the kitchen from 7am to 1am, five-days-a-week:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018It was tough going\u2019, he concedes, \u2018but it taught me a lot about discipline, no matter what else was going on in your life, you knew that you had to get up and go to work and get it done. You might not see the benefits of that in terms of the money you were making, but you were working with people who were moving on to the kitchens at La Gavroche or whatever and that\u2019s inspiring. It gets you through it.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

At 21, Kyle was back in Belfast and back at Talbot Street, where he remained until the venue closed its doors in 2012. From there, he took up a post as junior sous at the Europa, but Kyle had recently made the acquaintance of French chef, Marc Amand and through him, he secured a six-month posting at the prestigious Restaurant Patrick Gilbaud in Dublin.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a dream come true for Kyle, but the ensuing reality put him under a lot of strain:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018To be honest, things were slightly overwhelming at this point,\u2019 he recalls. \u2018I had a girlfriend, a car, responsibilities and moving down there, working a 90-hour week, it\u2019s hard on your relationships. It affected me and my home life. My partner was with me in Dublin, she wasn\u2019t that happy either and we ended up moving back to Belfast.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Kyle admits too, that the regimented nature of the Gilbaud kitchens made for a mentally exhausting experience, and because the menus for lunch and dinner were entirely different, \u2018it was like working I two restaurants at once\u2019, he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in Belfast, he worked as head chef at Malmaison before transferring to the Balloo Group under chef Danny Millar and eventually to Wine Inns where he helped open The Doyen on the Lisburn Road in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, six months ago, Kyle successfully secured his most prestigious position as executive head chef at the Europa in Belfast.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since arriving, he\u2019s made some changes. Menus have been revised throughout the property and he\u2019s established an 18-strong team of chefs that he\u2019s very happy with. Also, rather than have one executive sous chef, he has three sous chefs, each one responsible for a single element of the catering operation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kyle has plenty of praise for his predecessor, Adrian McDaid, but he points out the benefits of \u2018a fresh pair of eyes\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018I can see areas where we can be more effective and offer a bigger selection than we\u2019ve done before,\u2019 he says, and he adds:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018One year ago, I would have loved to have the top job in a big hotel in the city and then this job came along. It\u2019s early in my career, you don\u2019t normally expect this at 31, so I genuinely have no aspirations to move anywhere. I want to put my roots down here and develop this place into something special. I can see myself being here for a long time.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kyle Greer (31), the recently-appointed executive head chef at Belfast\u2019s Europa hotel, got his first taste of life in a commercial kitchen when he stood<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":12597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[730,29],"tags":[36,57,158,82,69,60],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKyle is in at the deep end - Licensed & Catering News (LCN) - News Coverage from the Local Trade<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kyle Greer, the new executive head chef at the Europa in Belfast, was once a receptionist at a Holiday Inn outlet in Antrim town...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"bingbot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/lcnonline.co.uk\/kyle-is-in-at-the-deep-end\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kyle is in at the deep end - 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