Glasgow chef talks addiction and serving Billy Connolly and Paul Newman

Andrew Traynor has fed the likes of Billy Connolly and well-known Hollywood stars during his time as a sous chef at the plush Stonefield Castle Hotel in Loch Fyne.

The 49-year-old said: “I worked all over, I worked in all the resort restaurants and for the agencies with Chefs of Scotland.

“I was working in Loch Fyne when Billy Connolly was doing the tour in his trike and served Paul Newman and some footballers as well.”

He said that the focus on getting up for his morning shift kept him from hitting the bottle as soon as he finished a shift, despite struggling with alcohol addiction since he was just 8-years-old.

“I’ve always had a problem, I had my first drink when I was eight at a New Year’s Day party,” said Andrew. “That was the days you would have the parties with all the aunties and uncles, just the proper Glaswegian thing.

“I was a glue-sniffer and gas-sniffer after that.”

Andrew grew up in the city’s East End before moving around the country for work, including a six-year stint in Blackpool, before returning to Glasgow. Formerly homeless, he now lives in Govanhill.

He was pulled away from his work as a chef to become a full-time carer for his mother who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s around seven years ago.

She and his brother died within a few months of one another in 2016. It was this, coupled with Andrew’s ongoing addiction to alcohol which he said brought him to his lowest point.

Speaking in Vinicombe Street, where Social Bite, the group which helped him turn his life around, has launched its Festival of Kindness Tree, Andrew told of his first encounter with the homelessness charity.

He said: ”My mum used to say: If you see a queue, go stand in it because they might be giving something away.

“I was walking down to St Vincent Street, I was at my lowest point and two boys directed me to this queue.

“They told me they were giving away sandwiches and the minute I walked in the Social Bite staff member said to me: You look as if you are in desperate need of a hug.”

That was four years ago and Andrew has been a volunteer with Social Bite ever since.

“I’ve not always been the perfect volunteer, but I have a great caseworker, Ewan Black.

“Social Bite never saved my life, it changed my life. It’s always been about the social interaction.”

The charity are taking cash donations at the Christmas tree in Vinicombe Street Thursday to Sunday between 10.30am and 7.30pm.

They aim to provide 25,000 meals to vulnerable people in the run-up to Christmas.