Meet Kim, Our Restaurant Manager at Grotto Tavern. Her passion for the hospitality industry is all due to her older Brother who is a chef, and from a young age Kim was always influenced by her brother’s skills. Kim loves home cooking and also experiments in the kitchen when she has some free time. She is the kind of person that will challenge herself and hence why she enjoys going to the gym. Kim also likes to spend time in her garden where she cultivates lavender, cherry tomatoes and spinach. A lover of tea, gin and whiskeys, she also likes to incorporate these into cocktails, some of which you are able to taste at Grotto Tavern.
A Graduate in Hotel Operations from ITS, Kim’s experience in the catering business started much before when she was working as a part-time waitress in a well-known restaurant in St. Julian’s. There, she learnt a great deal about customer service and that is when she decided to start her studies at ITS.
As for her one year working experience, Kim had gone to Lake Windermere where she worked in a prominent fine dining restaurant. After a few months she longed to move from front of house operations to the kitchen, and was placed in the pastry section. There Kim created her own dessert made of a soft baked meringue, dark bitter chocolate mousse, hollandaise sauce and fleur de sel. Because of the success of this dish, Kim was allowed to move to the Main Kitchen, and what fascinated her most was the great quality of produce used. This inspired her to want to become a chef instead.
However back in Malta, Kim took an interest in wines, and has represented the school in the Gran Trofeo D’Oro competition and placed first the sommelier section. Since then she has taken a sommelier Course and also sat for the intermediate and advanced WSET exams. Kim was also determined to learn more about operations, as being a people person what she loves most about the industry is to be able to interact with different people on a daily basis.
After completing the Diploma, Kim took the position of Restaurant Manager in a local Pizzeria for about five months, after which she was promoted to Restaurant Manager of a fine dining restaurant within the same establishment, moving on to Assistant General Manager and later on General Manager.
After four years, Kim decided to pursue a new challenge and she moved to Australia along with her sister for a few months. On her return to Malta, Kim was offered the opportunity of Restaurant Manager at Grotto Tavern. What she likes most about our establishment is the spectacular ambience especially within the 2,000-year-old cave as well as the fact that the Grotto Tavern Team is a small yet solid one.
Kim hopes that in time the team together, be it kitchen and front of house, will create a flowing story in the food and beverages servedas well as within the service provided.