A GLASGOW chef who has served the Queen and Commonwealth athletes is to hang up his apron after 20 years working in some of the city’s best known buildings.

Adi Schmid, who will be 65 next week, has catered for thousands of visitors to the city over two decades at council-owned venues, including Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the Burrell Collection and the Gallery of Modern Art.

Mr Schmid has also helped organise major events, including the re-opening of Kelvingrove in 2006 and the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Originally from Graz, Austria, he trained in his home city as a chef, before moving to the West Austrian region of Tyrol and then Germany.

Read more: Winter Gardens revelations ‘no surprise’, says politician

He settled in Scotland in 1983 and is married, with two daughters and a granddaughter.

Mr Schmid worked in different Scottish towns before starting with Glasgow City Council in 1999 and says serving the Queen lunch was among the highlights of his long stint.

He said: “I served the Queen a mixed seafood starter and a chicken main.

It must have been good because I didn’t hear any complaints.

“Glasgow City Council has changed a lot in my time here. Working at different venues such as the Burrell Collection and the Gallery of Modern Art allowed me to get a feel of how the council ran. I have worked lots of weddings and been put in charge of menus and upgrading standards.”

Although Mr Schmid says he does not have a speciality dish, he offers some tips for cooking the perfect lamb dish.

He said: “First, you need to trim the lamb and clean the bones. Then you season it and coat it with a herb crust. Serve with roast potatoes, green beans and cabbage and a nice sauce made from stock from the bones.”

The chef also opened up on mishaps that can happen in the kitchen, saying: “The most embarrassing is when you find yourself short of an item, or if someone miscounts and you don’t make a dish. Fortunately, that only happened once.”

Read more of today's top Glasgow stories 

Many chefs hate cooking at home, but this is not the case for him.

He said: “I like to cook at home on my days off – it gives my wife a break. The environment is a lot less stressful [than at work] so it is enjoyable.”

On his last day yesterday, he said: “I plan to take it easy [once I retire]. I will return to Austria in the autumn to visit family.”