Well, we’ve now started our work here at Kinloch Lodge. Here's Hamish in his work gear, and this is our room in the staff quarters called the kennels (Kinloch was built as a shooting lodge so our rooms used to be part of the kennels). Hamish has started training at the bar for seating guests, pre-dinner drinks, canapés and the like, and also serving wine and drinks during and after dinner. They have these ‘wine flight’ things which are like wine tasters they do to compliment the particular meal a guest is having. So Hamish is learning all about wines and what compliments what, and also carrying around these fangled frames which fit all the glasses in them! There’s a lot to remember for sure. I have started training as ‘food runner’ which involves service of food, clearing plates etc. But it’s a lot harder than it sounds, as the meals here are 5 course fine dining experiences, and I need to be able to present the food to the guest with its full name and list the ingredients. Also the hotel has a policy of not asking a guest what meal they ordered, so we need to remember which plate goes to which guest. There’s also a lot of cutlery and things that I had no idea even existed :S
The first night was a bit of a disaster for the both of us because there was just so much information to take in and it was all new. The second night we coped a bit better and hopefully from now on we will be able to keep up with the busy-ness of dinner service. Lunch and brekky are a little less crazy paced so we have been ok with that so far.
The dining room dinner service seems to bring in between 20 and 40 guests per night. It’s very formal, with classical music playing in the background, silverware on display and paintings of the MacDonald family ancestors on the walls.
All the staff here are amazing. The chefs are wonderful and they also cook meals for us too (lunch is made for us and put in the ‘larder’ or pantry) and then they make a lovely meal for us at 5pm before we start work for the dinner service at 6pm. Also, the service team have been really good to us, especially because we are starting from scratch and so we’re a bit slow.
The only things that aren’t so pleasant here are the midgies. Scottish midgies. They’re like a tiny version of our NZ mozzie, and they leave terrible itchybites. Apparently they will die off soon, but until then we will both be devising ways to shelter from the dreaded midge.
I guess I won’t be posting that many blogs from now on, unless we do a bit of sightseeing on our days off. There are lots of great walks on Skye which we will try and do as soon as possible while the weather is still relatively nice. The last few days have been a bit overcast and rainy, but apparently in the winter it is really stormy, windy and rainy! So we’ll have to do the walks before that kind of thing sets in
Hope you are all well
xxx Renelle
Well, we’ve now started our work here at Kinloch Lodge. Here's Hamish in his work gear, and this is our room in the staff quarters called the kennels (Kinloch was built as a shooting lodge so our rooms used to be part of the kennels). Hamish has started training at the bar for seating guests, pre-dinner drinks, canapés and the like, and also serving wine and drinks during and after dinner. They have these ‘wine flight’ things which are like wine tasters they do to compliment the particular meal a guest is having. So Hamish is learning all about wines and what compliments what, and also carrying around these fangled frames which fit all the glasses in them! There’s a lot to remember for sure. I have started training as ‘food runner’ which involves service of food, clearing plates etc. But it’s a lot harder than it sounds, as the meals here are 5 course fine dining experiences, and I need to be able to present the food to the guest with its full name and list the ingredients. Also the hotel has a policy of not asking a guest what meal they ordered, so we need to remember which plate goes to which guest. There’s also a lot of cutlery and things that I had no idea even existed :S 
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