Bobby Clunie, 32, the young chef at McSeagull’s, is used to cooking for large crowds.

After leaving his hometown of Gardiner in his early 20s, he went to work at an Italian restaurant in Boston, Maggiano’s Little Italy. “It’s a super high volume restaurant,” he said. “I worked there from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., then jumped on the train and headed to Cambridge for school from 5 to 11:30 that night. I’d get back home around 2 a.m., sleep for a few hours, and get up and do it all over again. I did that for two and a half years.”

School was Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Cambridge. When he graduated, he was offered a position as sous chef at the restaurant. “I jump-started my career a bit, but it was worth it to put in that work initially.

“If I had to do it again, I don’t think I could, but I didn't know any better at the time.”

Clunie has always loved cooking. It started with helping his mother, Jean, in the kitchen of their home in Gardiner. “That's really where I got most of my desire for it. She’s a fantastic cook.”

But he didn't go to Boston, initially, intent on a career in the culinary arts. “I was working as an EMT and a firefighter, and I injured my back. So I had to change my career choice, and I went to Boston just to think, and see what would happen. Then I got the job at Maggiano’s.”

The chef left Boston in 2012 and went to West Palm Beach, Florida where he cooked at a pizza restaurant and a drug rehab facility. He came back to Maine in 2014.

After working for a couple of small restaurants in the Gardiner area, Clunie went to work for a catering company, White Flour Catering, in Augusta. “It was the first catering job I had, so I had to learn a lot about it. The procedures for catering are all different from working in a kitchen. Everything has to be taken to a site, and you may not even have power.”

Clunie said the food served by White Flour Catering was top notch, and he has incorporated some of the techniques and the style of service into his kitchen at McSeagull’s. “I use the knowledge that I gained through that experience to prepare the food here and ensure that everything is as fresh as possible.”

He will have been running the kitchen, with his co-manager, Paul Copeland, and a staff of 15, for a year in May. Copeland has been working in that kitchen for six years. Clunie doesn't think he could manage without Copeland. “If there’s anybody who can be trusted, it’s Paul.”

Clunie said keeping up with the crowds in mid-summer can be challenging. “When I had my interview for this job, they tried to explain the volume of customers, and the headaches and challenges I'd encounter, but it really couldn't have been explained. The restaurant has its own personality.”

Among Clunie’s favorite dishes at McSeagull’s are the butternut squash ravioli with a brown butter sauce, fried sage and crispy candied walnuts, and the haddock Francaise. The chicken Parmesan is at the top of his list, too. The barbecued pork and chicken are smoked in-house. “The flavors in those are amazing.”

McSeagull’s, closed now for cleanup and some extensive kitchen renovations, will re-open March 31 with a limited menu. The full menu will resume after Mother’s Day, May 14.