He was a strong, young grafter who adored food and craved a bit of spending money in his pocket. So, if it meant it would land him his first job in a commercial kitchen, it didn’t seem like an act of folly for 14-year-old Lanarkshire schoolboy William MacIntyre to let his new bosses believe he was two years older than he was.
Willie, who moved from Easterhouse in Glasgow to East Kilbride at the age of 10, had grown up in a family in which food was at its heart.
His late mum, Marie – who passed away when Willie was 21 – was an enthusiastic cook who’d worked in various kitchens, including ScottishPower’s staff restaurants and in Arnold Clark canteens.
“She made a braw lentil soup,” nods a contemplative Willie, in appreciation.
The highlight of their week was a trip to Pearl of India in Mount Florida, where dad William Snr would not only get his fix of fiery favourites, but was also to form a close bond with proprietors the Singhs, who counted the MacIntyres among their dearest friends and invited them to their most celebrated family weddings.
“A neighbour two doors down from my mum and dad asked me if I was looking for a wee part-time job,” recalls former Ballerup High School pupil, Willie.
“Because I was a couple of years younger than I should have been, she said: ‘You’ll need to lie about your age.’”
Willie began working in a kitchen after school on a Friday and at weekends, washing dishes, preparing rolls and sausage and even whipping up his own, fresh mayonnaise.
The teenager carried on working there until he was aged 16 and itching to leave school.
On his departure, his cover was blown and he felt the need to reveal his real age – a confession the staff accepted with good grace.
Soon afterwards, a letter landed on the doorstep from HMRC, inquiring why a young William hadn’t activated his National Insurance since leaving school.
Flustered by officialdom, Willie sought the guidance of a careers officer and was introduced to Rita Kelly who was charged with scouting for promising recruits to the highly-respected training kitchen operated by The Bentley Hotel in Motherwell.
As well as embarking on his training at the acclaimed launchpad for up-and-coming chefs, Rita secured for Willie a Youth Training Scheme (YTS) place in Italian-American eatery Di Maggio’s in his home town of East Kilbride, for which his weekly remuneration was £45.
“A lot of the time, I had already tapped money off my mum,” admits Willie. “She’d give me £45, and I’d give her £45 back when I got paid.
“I started off learning everything at Di Maggio’s, from making the pizza dough to pasta sauces, the works. Rita came in to see me after a couple of weeks and was asking all about what I’d been doing. I’d been stripping chicken carcasses, case after case. She seemed pretty taken aback.”
Glowing feedback from head chef Robert Dougan, who still holds the senior position at the restaurant to this day, confirmed that young trainee Willie was making impressive progress.
Willie’s YTS placement was short-lived and, after only a month, he’d the offer of full-time employment at Di Maggio’s and the trappings of what was, to a school-leaver, “a proper wage.”
He worked at Di Maggio’s five days a week, complementing the skills he picked up from his seasoned colleagues there with the fruits of his studies at The Bentley training kitchen.
After four years, Willie was promoted to junior sous chef and soon found himself at Café Andaluz in Glasgow’s West End, preparing for the unveiling of the burgeoning DRG group’s Spanish tapas restaurant on St Vincent Place in the city centre.
It was soon after the arrival of his second child, also named William, that he decided to turn, temporarily, the course of his career down to a gentle simmer.
“I came here to Cafe Andaluz in the city centre as prep chef because I wanted to spend a bit of time,” he explained.
“When my daughter, Jessica was born, I was always working. The prep hours on the other hand were 7am to 3pm, five days a week, so that made more sense.”
After around a year, the dad-of-two escalated to sous chef and, when the tapas restaurant’s head chef accepted a position in Edinburgh’s fashionable George Street around 14 years ago, it was Willie who filled his shoes.
At a recent glittering ceremony in another of DRG’s Glasgow restaurants, The Citizen, 41-year-old Willie was proud to be among 165 members of the team to be honoured with long service awards – including 38 who had served for 15 years and more, and 12 of whom, like he, had notched up more than two decades with the hospitality enterprise.
“This is just my way of life. It’s something I’ve always done,” said a mild-mannered Willie, who lives with wife Susan and their children Jessica, 22, and William, 18, in Greenhills, East Kilbride.
“I can proudly say I’ve been with the same employer since I left school. It’s been guaranteed work, in that respect. I like the buzz and the pressure when it’s busy. I’ve had suppliers come in over the years and say to me they can’t believe, just watching me, how easy I make it look. It comes naturally to me now.”
Willie, who has seven chefs and four kitchen porters at Cafe Andaluz – a buzzing city centre restaurant with 140 covers inside and a further 60 in its outdoor dining space – continued: “Of all my achievements over the years, my biggest has been getting to be head chef, and working with the same employer.”
With the pandemic having left a skills shortage hangover that has blighted the hospitality industry, Willie believes that its reputation for long hours and hard graft may still be a turn-off for Scotland’s young people who’re setting foot on the career ladder.
He is quick to reassure that those days are largely behind the country’s food and drink sector, with employers who are keen to embrace and nurture the talents of the next generation of chefs and producers of fine, natural ingredients.
Although his son, William, has his sights set on a career in architecture, and his daughter Jessica is still exploring her options, Willie is delighted that his kids currently hold part-time jobs alongside his colleagues in DRG’s Di Maggio’s.
In that environment, he insists, they won’t witness the tirades of “shouting and bawling” and the tantrums of showmen such as TV chefs Gordon Ramsay, whose foul-mouthed feigned fury serves only to drive up the ratings.
“That’s just for show. It’s nothing like that,” insists Willie, who chills out away from work by walking American Bull Dog Bella, bingeing on box sets, indulging on the odd guilty takeaway with his family, and spending time with his executive chef boss and close friend Andy Crawford, with whom he cooked up 40 hot lunches and dinners, donated by DRG to residents of East Kilbride’s homeless shelter, Lindsay House, daily during the first two months of the pandemic.
“If I’m busy and I get upset, I will apologise and walk out the door at the end of a shift and forget about it,” he said.
Asked how his staff would rate him as a boss, Willie concluded: “They would say I’m a good one. I’m laid-back. All my guys are pretty happy. I try to please everybody and I’m always fair. When it comes to complaints [from customers], I do take things personally, sometimes.
"I’m very passionate about it. If something is not quite right, I do get upset. You try to kid yourself that it doesn’t affect you, but obviously it does. During my appraisals, I’m told I take it too much to heart at times. But that is just because I care. Plain and simple.”
Said Tony Conetta, director at DRG: “Willie is a first-class chef and has been a big part of the DRG family for more than 20 years. In that time, he has made a huge impact starting as a trainee at our Di Maggio’s in his home town of East Kilbride and then at Café Andaluz where, as head chef, he is now passing on his skills to the next generation of chefs.
“Our long service awards are about giving something back to our dedicated team members, and Willie is one of 12 people who have over 20 years of service.
“The company has grown and evolved a lot in the time Willie and the more than 160 other long-service award recipients have been with us, and creating a working environment where everybody feels happy, supported, and part of the DRG family is central to it.
"It’s a two-way street between our employees and the business. We provide stability and support to each other. The awards are just one way of us showing our thanks and appreciation to the people who have worked hard to make DRG what it is.”
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