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Appointed last November, Jean Paul Giraud is the Executive Chef at the Millennium Hotel on George Square. Part of his remit is overseeing the menus at the Brasserie on George Square, a venue which is very popular with 5pm customers. He describes the menus at the Brasserie as using the finest Scottish produce given a French twist. This might mean venison haunch cooked with a herb and pepper crust or duck confit with a Buckfast jus.

If the interview tickles your taste buds then the Brasserie on George Square is currently running a great Big Deal: a main course and glass of wine for £9.50. You can see all the details here.

In this latest Chewin’ the Fat interview, Jean Paul discusses Barbados, celeb chefs and what it’s like working for a head chef who is also your Dad.

How did you get started in the kitchen?

JPG: I come from a family of chefs and two of my three brothers are chefs. I started when I was fifteen, working in a delicatessen in the West End of Glasgow. I would make up all the sandwiches, go to school and then come back and start on all the salads and so on in the evening.

I started my first proper chef job about 24 years ago when I was sixteen. I had an apprenticeship in what is now the Marriot in Glasgow but, back then, was the Holiday Inn.

My Dad, Pierre Giraud, was the head chef. He’s French and very old school. He wanted to prove that he was showing me no favouritism so I would get it in the neck worse than anyone else.

One day, I came in for my shift one minute late and he went through me like a dose of salts. Someone else came in three minutes late and he just wished them ‘Good morning!’ The other chefs were saying, ‘I wouldn’t want to be his son.’

I’m not going to complain about it; my job has taken me all around the world.

Can you run through your career?

JPG: I worked in Barbados on and off for ten years. One day, I was sitting in my flat in Glasgow and, as usual, it was raining. I got a call asking if I would go out to Barbados and help for a few months in this big all inclusive hotel. I jumped at the chance and ended up out there a fair bit.

My Dad used to open Holiday Inns all over the world and he had opened one in Barbados so I had already lived there and been to school there. These days, it seems like a second home to me and I probably have more friends there than in Glasgow.

I also worked for the Saudi Royal family in London as their group executive and development chef. They have lots of houses throughout the UK and the kitchens in these places were making lots of Saudi food. However, the people who lived there, especially the younger Saudis, wanted more Western style meals a lot of the time. My job was to teach the existing chefs how to do more British, American and European style food.

What brought you back to Glasgow?

 JPG: I met Laura, the woman who was to become my wife in Barbados. she had come out to stay with friends of mine at the hotel. I recognised her Glasgow accent and asked which team she supported. She picked the right side and we are now married with two kids and that’s what brought me back here.

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I understand that working in the Millennium is more than just a job for you?

JPG: I used to fly home once a month from Barbados to visit Laura and I would always stay at the Millennium hotel. I told her that if a head chef job ever came up here then I would try to get it.

I loved the history of the hotel and it has been a part of some pivotal moments in Glasgow’s history. During the Battle of George Square, the hotel was right in the middle of it all and there are pictures of police with guns on the hotel roof looking down at the action.

The hotel is also where Harry Hopkins, Roosevelt’s unofficial emissary to Britain, met with Winston Churchill and signed the agreement that led to America entering the war.

I wouldn’t say I’m a huge history fans but parts of it fascinate me. When I was younger, I wanted to be a marine archaeologist, I was totally into the Titanic and the Marie Rose, that kind of undersea history.

As a chef, what gets you out of bed in the morning?

JPG: It changes with time. When you are a young commis, it’s all the excitement of being in a big group and being part of a team. For me, now, it’s about creating something that makes people happy.

Yesterday we did a wedding and it’s really important to me that they enjoyed their day. I won’t leave until they are happy with every course. There’s a lot of satisfaction in trying to make everybody’s visit a little bit special.

If you get a night off, where do you like to eat?

JPG: I love going to Urban, I think that the food and service there is very consistent. For a light meal, the Church on the Hill is good as well.

Have any chefs inspired you?

JPG: Three people have really inspired me. This might sound corny but my biggest inspiration is my father. As of yet, I have not met a chef that was better than him and I’ve met a lot of chefs. There are lots of chefs in Glasgow who worked for him and would probably tell you the same thing.

I’m also very much influenced by Escoffier, the grandfather of modern cooking.

Finally, I’m  big fan of  Hubert Keller in San Francisco. I was spending a few months in San Francisco relaxing and I ate at his restaurant, Fleur du Lys. I felt as though I was walking on air when I left the place.

He was really friendly and helpful. He gave me some recipes and was very generous with his advice. The food was out of this world.

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If you could have anyone, live or dead, cook you a meal, who would be in the kitchen?

JPG: I would be very happy to eat Hubert Keller’s food again but I’d also love to try Keith Floyd’s food. Seeing him drink so much you would wonder how he got it out but his food always looked really interesting.

Obviously, most chefs these days only drink in moderation but, if one of your staff did turn up looking a bit shaky, is there a special hangover cure you can share?

JPG: Work. If he comes to my kitchen with a hangover then he will know about it.

There are lots of cooking shows on TV and some chefs have become massive celebrities. Good or bad?

JPG: There are pros and cons. It’s made people more aware of food but it also means that everybody’s a critic. They will hear Gordon Ramsay criticise somebody’s food on the telly and they will take that criticism out of context and apply it to different and sometimes wrong circumstances.

So a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous?

JPG: I was at Jamie’s Italian a while back and there was a young couple on a first date at the table next to us. The lad was telling his date how each item on a charcuterie plate was made. She was lapping it up and he was very confident but completely wrong about everything.

I had my head in my hands. My wife had to restrain me from pointing out that he was talking nonsense. He came over as very knowledgeable but I imagine that that girl would have got a shock at the first meal that he cooked for her.

Do you think the TV shows are encouraging people into the industry?

JPG: I’m not sure. There are too many people coming out of college having done their two years and are now convinced that they should be going in as a head chef.

I try and teach all my chefs certain skills which are in danger of being forgotten. Things like how to bone out a haunch of venison, make bread or fillet a fish.

Too many people are buying too much stuff in these days. I think it’s important that the staff that work for you can go home at night and say ‘I made something today rather than taking it out of a wrapper and heating it up’.

The flipside of that is that it’s very rewarding to see your staff develop. I have two very talented young commis here: Toni and Jason. They are coming on leaps and bounds – it fills you with pride seeing them learn and develop.