Splendid isolation

Scotsman Alisdair Bletcher, 42, is executive chef at the luxury Kanuhura Sun Resort & Spa on a tiny island in the Maldives, where rooms cost as much as $1,000 a night.

I'm up with the alarm at 6.40am and, even though I could lose a bit of weight, I don't do any exercise. We all live on site here, so I walk over to my office in the resort's main kitchen some time after 7.30am. I don't eat breakfast but I might grab a Danish from our bakery. I never drink coffee.

After opening the e-mails, I check my log book and pigeonhole, and then update the day's menus for our two restaurants, the Olive Tree and the Thin Rah.

At 9am we have the main operations briefing, where we learn about the hotel's current occupancy, VIPs arriving, etc. This is followed at 10am by the kitchen's briefing, which is usually straightforward. There are no banquets or functions here. It's just about preparing à la carte menus or buffets.

My main challenge is to produce five-star-standard food on a sandbar in the Indian Ocean. Most of our produce comes in from Australia or Dubai via Malé, the Maldives' biggest island, 45 minutes away by seaplane.

We also get a lot of produce from dhonis, the local wooden fishing boats. When there's a bad storm, it can be a nightmare. There's also the general unreliability of the service. I've only been here since last July but, in one fortnight, two of our dhonis hit sandbanks and sank. Both times, the captain had fallen asleep. I lost all the produce and could see my lettuces and dried morels floating away. At US$1 (71p)per kg in freight charges, that's no joke.

The most difficult aspect of living here is the intense isolation. This island is only 2km by 500m, so you live on top of everyone and you never actually go home. Therefore, I call my day off my "cave day" because I lock myself away and sleep, read, listen to music and write up recipes for the restaurants.

It can be a wee bit lonely, but I'm used to it. I've been working in isolated places across Asia for 12 years now. I don't sail or scuba dive or water-ski. It sounds silly, but I have a thing about sharks, so I don't like being around the water, and I burn easily. I'm just not a beach person; I'm more a bar person.

Breakfast finishes at 11am. It's a leisurely pace as we have a lot of honeymooners, especially Japanese. Most other guests are wealthy British or Europeans. Most are very friendly and extremely humble despite their wealth.

I take lunch at about 1.30pm with the executive sous chef. We'll eat from the lunch buffet, which normally includes such things as pizza, spaghetti bolognese or white fish.

On some days I'm too busy to stop until 5pm. Then I might take a shower and grab something to eat. Most evenings I cook at the stove, concentrating on Mediterranean dishes and leaving the various Asian cuisines to my staff, who know what they are doing. I'll finish at about 10pm.

My advice to anyone thinking of coming to the Maldives is to remember that you have no social life, because there's nowhere to go. And you must be prepared to work 13 hours a day for two years. But it is tax-free and all health care and accommodation is provided.

Even though the Maldives is a Muslim state, there aren't many restrictions. But you're not allowed to bring in alcohol and you can't buy condoms, not even on Malé.

interview by David Tarpey

Just a minute…

What message do you have for the President of the Maldives, Mr Maumoon Gayyoom?
Please tighten up on the overfishing of lobster and other shellfish in these waters. Otherwise, stocks will soon disappear.

Who would be your ideal dinner partner?
It doesn't matter, so long as she's cute and stays for breakfast.

Where is your favourite restaurant?
My grandmother was Swiss and, as a child, she used to take me to eat at the Swiss Centre off Leicester Square in London. The meals I ate there were wonderful and started my interest in food.

Kanuhura Sun Resort & Spa

Lhaviyani Atoll, Republic of Maldives
Tel: 00 960 230 044
E-mail: reservations@kanuhura.com
Web site: www.kanuhura.com

Owner: Sun International
Officially opened: spring 2001
Rooms: 97 villas
Average occupancy: 80% in high season to 50% in low season
Projected turnover for the first year of operation: US$11m (£7.8m)