It actually happened at the same time. I put myself through university working in the food and hospitality industry so I was no "green horn" in a kitchen and I grew up on the water around boats. My background landed me my first job on a sailing catamaran as a sous chef and deckhand in the Caribbean.
How do you prepare for one or two week charter? Securing necessities, making sure everything is stocked, etc.
After I receive the guests meal preferences I create a menu around their needs and I begin sourcing the ingredients locally. Often I provision the boat in Fort Lauderdale getting the freshest organic produce available and will source the seafood from local fisherman in the Caribbean contingent upon which islands we will be visiting on our trip.
Can you share a bit about your trickiest experiences trying to get supplies onboard?
My very first charter as sole chef in the Bahamas was on a catamaran and the charter was 16 days long with eight guests and three crew. I knew from the start that I would need to provision once more to get fresh ingredients and to restock the boat, however because of inclement weather the boat was not able to make it to the closest island that had a small grocery. When we were able to get to the island I literally had no protein for dinner and had to perform a miracle. I went to shore and to my surprise it was Sunday! Nothing was opened...NOTHING but churches. Everything would be closed until after 3 pm. I decided to hurriedly walk around the island asking for any local fisherman explaining that I was a chef on a yacht and needed to buy some fish. Eventually a local picked me up in his golf cart and carried me to his cousins house who was a fisherman and I was able to buy enough snapper for this evenings meal.
All chefs have a few tricks up their sleeves and for yacht chefs it's imperative that you have a few more. If you have ever worked as a freelance yacht chef one knows that we are often flown to foreign countries with little to no knowledge about provisioning. Most regions will have a local white fish and white wine available. In this case I always have Rockfish Picatta on my menu. It is simple yet elegant and has wonderful flavour.
Do you have a favourite corner of the globe for the foodies out there looking for amazing/unique culinary experiences?
Food and traveling are my favourite past times so I have many areas of the world I could gush over. However, most recently, I completed a Spring season in Southeast Alaska and I was blown away by the quality and abundance of seafood available. I loved the King Crab, the halibut, halibut cheeks (what a delicacy) Sockeye Salmon, freshly dug Arctic clams and the amazing flavour of White King Salmon.
