How one chef discovered the challenges and rewards of cooking at sea
There’s a saying: “If you can work as a chef on a yacht, you can work anywhere.” The transformation from working as a land-based chef to a yacht chef is quite a challenging process with a steep learning curve for most land-based chefs who take up the calling to work in this unique environment. Yacht cooking requires adaptability, creativity, self-reliance, drive, and a can-do attitude. Just about every chef who works on a yacht came from a land-based position. Every yacht chef has a first month on board, but not every yacht chef has a second month on board, as some decide it’s not for them. It’s a difficult environment, and not every chef is cut out for the demands of working long hours for weeks on end, under pressure, in confined spaces, and away from family and friends in a galley that, at times, rolls around. And when it all goes wrong, there is nowhere to hide. You are only as good as your last service.
My own first experience working as a yacht chef was when I was contacted in London and asked to assist as a sous chef for a 5-week charter on a 50m motor yacht. The yacht was located in Antibes, and the captain directed me to take a taxi from Nice airport to join the boat on arrival. Being completely green and nervous, I arrived at Nice airport and accepted a ride from the first taxi tout inside the airport. He motioned me to a stretch Mercedes Benz limousine. As I climbed into the back, I remember thinking, ‘What have I done, and what impression will this have on the captain and crew?’ I certainly arrived in an embarrassing style for my first day.
For those new to the industry, the first thing that hits you is the compactness of the working conditions and how you now live and work in the same place. The commute from your cabin to the galley can be done in under 30 seconds and day to day conversation generally revolves around the boat and its movements during the season. The character of crew members is revealed quickly in these compressive conditions, and those who have spent long years in the industry are probably diplomatic by nature.
The logistics of provisioning for extended journeys are something that you would not even have to consider in a land-based position, where pretty much everything is on your doorstep or a phone call away. Very different scenario at sea, where meticulous planning is needed for soft produce that would need to be used more quickly than hard produce. Freezing items that can be used at a later date, all aimed at maintaining quality continuity with as little waste as possible, while being balanced within the boundaries of use by dates and available storage space.
Your cooking background could determine how quickly you adjust to life at sea, when you discover as a sole chef that on top of cooking for guests and crew, you also have to do the provisioning, cleaning, stock rotation, shopping, accounts and taking out the rubbish. The head chef and sous chef positions may be shared responsibilities, but they are not less demanding. Then also throw into the equation that there will be limited time off and long, very long working days that will test you. It’s quite an ask, in anyone’s language and does make you wonder ‘why would you want to do it?’
There is something quite seductive about working on a yacht and being on the water. The outside world is a distant place, and life onboard takes on a life of its own with an inward focus to work as a team to deliver the best possible service to owners and guests under the most trying conditions at times. But the lifestyle will be its own reward. You will meet people from all over the world, see and visit places you’ve only seen on TV or the internet, and you’ll be engaged in a dynamic industry that never sleeps and have access to some of the best produce in the world. It will be an experience that will forever change you.
Not every chef is cut out to work on a yacht, and some chefs need to discover this for themselves. But those that do stick it out and find their groove in the industry can be sure they are in for quite an exciting, adventurous and challenging journey that will be beyond anything that they could ever have imagined. That has been my experience, and I would recommend it to any chef with the ambition to take on something difficult but incredibly satisfying that will take you to places and give you a life you never thought possible.
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