Meet the team: Nageswari Pichaykaranan

Meet the lovely Nageswari Pichaykaranan (known as Dhini) from our front of house team. We sat down with Dhini, to find out more about her, and her job.

I’m originally from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but I moved to the UK 10 years ago as a student to study international tourism in York. I then completed a master’s degree in leadership management. Alongside studying, I wanted to work within the hospitality industry to gain that was experience relevant to my degree. My main interest is travelling – I love visiting and exploring other countries! Of all of the countries I’ve been to, I’d say India was my favourite.

I’ve been at The Refectory for five months now and I’m an early bird who’s part of the breakfast team.

Most days I’m responsible for the host stand, so I get to greet everyone who joins us in the morning – basically I take them to their table and explain what’s on offer for breakfast. It’s really important to be confident in explaining how everything works so that guests know what’s on offer. Also, being a friendly face at whatever time they venture down to the restaurant in the morning – sometimes, very early!

Once breakfast has finished and everyone has fuelled up for the day, as a team we clean and re-stock. We also prepare for any conference lunches we may be hosting in the restaurant. There’ll also be days devoted to deep cleaning and team training.

What I love about York is that coming from such a big city myself, it was a such pleasant change to be somewhere smaller, with a lot of character. Everyone knows York, its history and culture – it has remained the same over so many years. I also find York very affordable, which means I can save for more travelling!

If were to describe myself in three words, they’d be: independent, honest and hardworking.