Simon Amos, assistant food and beverage manager, London Hilton on Park Lane hotel

Simon Amos has been assistant food and beverage manager at the London Hilton on Park Lane hotel since February. He describes the role as a "monster task", which includes the opening of the Galvin at Windows restaurant on 19 May.

On top of this he helps run the hotel's other restaurants, Park Brasserie, Trader Vic's and the Zeta and Pop bars.

Amos has been in food and beverage all his working life. At 18 he sent letters to every five-star hotel in London, and was one of two people taken on by the Ritz for its management training programme. He was given an overview of every department there, and it was this placement that kept Amos in the hotel rather than restaurant sector.

"I love the variety of food and beverage operations in hotels," he says.

The first of two stints at the Cadogan hotel followed, before Amos left dry land for life as head waiter on board the QE2 with Cunard in 1996.

"It is something everyone should do. I worked for seven months straight without a day off. It certainly teaches you about stress and working hard," he says of his experiences at sea.

In 1997, ready for another challenge, he joined the Hotel Lancaster in Paris.

On his return from France he spent six years working as food and beverage manager under general manager Malcolm Broadbent at the Cadogan, where he learnt a lot about management, fine dining and traditional service.

A five-month stint at the ice rink in Somerset House, initially a stopgap, led to a position as food and beverage operations manager for Compass Group's fine-dining arm, Restaurant Associates, at London's Cumberland House hotel.

Now 30, Amos is aiming high, and hopes to be a general manager by his mid-30s - but he maintains: "When I go for something, it has to be special."

By Alix Young