First 5* female executive head chef appointed at Blythswood Hotel restaurant

by XPRESS, 15 May 2019

Scotland's first female executive chef at a 5* venue has been appointed! Gillian Matthews, 34, started her career in hospitality as a waitress and has worked all the way to the highest rank in the kitchen!

Matthews is now in charge of Glasgow's only 5* hotel and spa resort - The Blythswood Square Hotel's restaurant, Bo & Birdy, which only opened recently.

Matthew started as a waitress in La Bonne Auberge in Glasgow and pushed her way through a mostly male-dominated industry. Her first kitchen role was in a French restaurant where she "loved it straight away". She spent two and a half years there before moving to the Blythswood. She began covering for the pastry chef and developed a keen interest for pastry making. Eventually, she was offered the role of pastry chef and began working her way up. She noticed that she was one of few - if not the only - woman in the kitchen. But has since noticed a change towards more balance.

She said: “There were always more guys in the kitchen when I first started out.

“For example, at La Bonne Auberge there was only me and one other female chef.

“And when I started here, I was the only female in the kitchen – there had been a female breakfast chef but she had moved on – but now there’s loads of us.

I never thought this career would be something I’d get into, but when the opportunity came up to try another department for the day, I jumped at it.”

Ms Matthews has even found love in the kitchen, having married one of the chefs from La Bonne Auberge.

Congratulations Gillian!

Emma Richardson