Alisdair Bletcher

Name: Alisdair Bletcher

Date of birth: 20/10/59

Job title: Executive chef

Location: Kanuhura Sun Resort & Spa, Maldives

First job in hospitality: After catering college in Scotland, Bletcher started as a commis chef in the kitchens of what was then the THF Excelsior Hotel at Glasgow Airport.

Route from there to current job: After five years at the Excelsior and twelve months at Glasgow's Holiday Inn, he went to work for a locally-owned hotel in Dubai. Returned to England and spent a year at Pennyhill Park, near Egham, Surrey. In 1985 he got a six-month working visa for Australia and started what became a four-year stint as a sous-chef at the Regent Hotel, Melbourne.

Bletcher then returned to Asia, working as a Hyatt employee as executive sous chef in the Royal Palace of the Sultan of Brunei, where he was regularly laying on banquets for 5,000 people. After two years he transferred to the Hyatt Kuantan in Malaysia. Next stop was the Hyatt Cheju in South Korea, followed by stints in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Finally in 2000, he got the offer to come to the Maldives.

Main responsibilities: Oversees about 60 staff (brigade chefs and kitchen porters) from many different countries. Everything from budget planning and recipe writing as well as cooking and basic PR with the guests.

What do you most enjoy about your job?
The beauty of the location here and meeting and chatting with the sorts of people who stay here.

What do you most dislike about your job?
The lack of a social life and the fact that one is so isolated here. That's a real challenge.

What's your next career move?
I'm due to get my Australian citizenship later this year and some time after that I'll go back to Australia and a five-day working week.

What's your ultimate career goal?
I can't break my ties with Asia, so once I have citizenship I'll return to Asia. But I'll be 43 this year and I don't want to be still working as a chef when I'm 50 so an ideal job would be something like a corporate position overseeing the F&B operations for a big chain.