Member of the Month July 2026: Jason Wright

Jason Wright, head of food and beverage at Lost Shore Surf Resort, is The Staff Canteen’s Member of the Month for July 2026.

As thanks for being a regular contributor to The Staff Canteen, Jason, who has been a member since 2017, will receive a TSC mug, an item of merchandise from our online store, and be entered into our member of the year 2026 competition.

>>> Find out more about Jason and follow him <<<

Jason’s career has not followed a conventional route.

He started out making stainless steel kitchens, became a chef after fitting a kitchen at The Rib Room in London, built restaurants and bars in Edinburgh, spent years in Australia, had a spell working in Ghana, returned to Scotland and now oversees the food and drink offer at Europe’s largest inland surf resort – ideal for surf enthusiast Jason.

Alongside that, he has written a novel, built an app for chefs and carved out a career that has taken him well beyond the traditional idea of a chef’s role.

“I now dip my toe in absolutely every single part of hospitality,” Jason said.

“Front of house, bar design, kitchen design, you name it, I’ll put my hand on it.”

For the past year at Lost Shore Surf Resort, Jason as looked after food development, drinks, events and the wider food and beverage offer across the site.

“We have three kitchens in total, plus a cafe bar,” Jason said.

“We also do catering and events, and I’m in charge of all of that.”

Lost Shore, based near Edinburgh, is built around inland surfing, accommodation and hospitality, with pods, lodges and poolside accommodation on site.

“It’s mad,” Jason said.

“We’re the best inland surf resort in Europe, and we use wave technology that nobody else uses. It’s a pretty cool place to work.”

From fitting kitchens to working in one

Jason’s first career was not in cooking, but in making the spaces chefs work in.

“I was a sheet metal worker,” he said.

“I came out of high school and went straight into my family business, which was making bespoke stainless steel kitchens for five-star hotels and Michelin-star restaurants.”

It was not a career he wanted to stay in.

“I hated it,” Jason said.

“The thought of working in the same factory every day for the rest of my life, I just couldn’t do it.

“I was always in the kitchens watching all the chefs having fun and laughing, and I went, do you know what? That’s all I want to do.”

The switch came while fitting a kitchen at The Rib Room at the Carlton Tower Hotel in London.

“I said, ‘look, I really want to do this,’” Jason said.

“The head chef, or I now know he was the sous chef, but at the time I thought he was the boss because he had a big hat on, said, ‘you don’t want to do this, it’s a rubbish job.’

“I was like, ‘no, I definitely want to do this.’

“So the last job that I ever fitted was the first kitchen I ever worked in.”

Building restaurants and businesses

After moving into kitchens, Jason worked with the Dakota group, reached executive pastry chef level and staged in London, including with Claire Clark at The Langham.

He later worked with Roy Brett at Ondine and became head chef there, before moving into restaurant openings in Edinburgh.

“I got headhunted to open essentially the first steak restaurant in Edinburgh, which was called Steak,” Jason said.

That led to a series of projects with Barry Brown, including restaurants, bars and a hotel.

Jason said: “We took a hotel from three bedrooms to 10 and won lots and lots of awards: Best Steak Restaurant in Scotland, Best Restaurant, and I got Rising Star Chef of the Year.”

By the time he was 30, Jason had a growing portfolio, but decided to sell-up and move to Australia.

Australia, Ghana and a global view of hospitality

Jason initially went to Australia on a working holiday visa, but quickly found himself back in the world of openings and consultancy.

He helped open Kittyhawk, a 250-cover Parisian street food and nightclub-style venue, before becoming executive chef at Garfish, which had three restaurants.

Visa rules meant he had to change jobs every six months, so he opened a restaurant of his own in Manly.

“It was a sandwich shop, but I completely turned it into a little 50-cover seafood restaurant, right on the beach,” Jason said.

That restaurant became one of the top seafood restaurants in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

He sold the restaurant, moved towards Byron Bay and returned to consultancy, including launching Dine Hinterlands, a catering company focused on weddings, bespoke dining and pop-ups.

From there, a new consultancy role took him to Ghana.

“I went over there and lived for about four months, opening what they wanted to be a fine dining restaurant and a nightclub,” Jason explained.

Covid interrupted the project, bringing Jason back to Scotland, where he eventually rebuilt his consultancy work before returning to Australia, then coming back again to Edinburgh.

Check out some of Jason's recipes:

• Lobster linguine with courgette & cherry tomatoes

• Slow cooked lamb shoulder, morel mushrooms and roasted asparagus with wild garlic pesto

Food that fits the space

At Lost Shore, Jason has brought that mix of chef experience, consultancy and business understanding into a large-scale, varied hospitality operation.

When he joined, he said the food offer was still finding its shape.

“The idea before was essentially that they were just going to get individual vendors to come in and rotate them in and out every six months, but it just wasn’t working,” Jason said.

“The place was busy, but the consistency wasn’t there.”

Jason came in first as a consultant, then suggested creating a head of food and beverage role to give the site more permanent direction.

“It’s in a better position than it was,” he said.

“The food is consistent and it sells well. We’re really busy, but the place is organised now, the staff know what they’re doing, and it’s a nice, fun place to work.”

The food offer includes breakfast, lunch and dinner, street food, a deli-style market, events and accommodation support, seven days a week.

Jason's approach to food now is less about rigid technique and more about understanding the guest, the venue and what the business needs.

“Food is a feeling at the end of the day,” Jason said.

“You can have all the style in the world and you can be the best cook, but you’re in restaurants to make money. If it’s not making money, then the food’s not right for the space.

“I would always say that I now cook more with feeling and whatever is there.”

The chef with an app and a novel

While Jason’s day job is rooted in food and hospitality operations, his recent projects have taken him into less expected territory.

“I built an app about three or four months ago,” he said.

“That was a big thing. It was taking all my knowledge out of my brain and turning it into something for other chefs.”

He has also written a novel, due out in August, which he said is very loosely based around his own journey.

“To be able to write a novel about a chef and know the details so well, that’s a really proud thing to be able to say,” Jason said.

“I’ve taken that time, I’ve done that. It has been documented. Now on to the next thing.”

For Jason, the future is about sharing what he has learned.

“It’s more that I like instilling information into people in the industry,” he said.

“On the mistakes that you’ve made and how you go forward from that.”

To get to know a bit more about Jason, we asked him some quick-fire questions to finish.

Name a comfort food that isn’t considered ‘cheffy’ but that you love to eat

“Caesar salad.”

What do you like about being part of The Staff Canteen?

“It’s a community.

“It’s approachable, but it’s also approachable for other chefs. It’s a go-to for what other guys are doing, to be seen by other people in the hospitality business and by the cheffing world.”

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a chef?

“Patience.

“You’ve got to have patience in this game. At the end of the day, I always say that an angry chef is not a chef in control.”

What are your hopes or plans for the future in hospitality?

“At the moment, it’s taking stock of everything I’ve done and going, right, what is next? Where do I want to go next?

“I like instilling information into people in the industry, on the mistakes that you’ve made and how you go forward from that.”