On Being a Yacht Chef - Johnny

One minute you are putting the finishing touches to your signature dish of wind dried Yak’s cheese on a bed of wilted rocket, vying for space with the 1st mate who has decided he needs to make a cold spam and baked bean sandwich at your only work space. The next minute you are outside with a fender trying to protect the paint work from some German bare boat charterer in handling his fifty foot Oyster sailing boat with a death wish.

I am a trained chef with ten years experience in restaurants and hotels and now I have been on boats for about seven years. My first boat was a 25m Benetti, a job from hell. The owner was Arab, on a low fat Arabian style diet with subtle western influences (!), the captain had just given up smoking and the deckhand was a junkie. We had three stewardesses in three months and the pay was average. But the owner liked me so much he flew me out to the States to cook on his estate outside Washington for a couple of months.

The next boat was a 30m Haterras. I hated the captain so that didn’t last all that long. The next boat was 55m and brilliant. I went on as temp because the chef had broken his leg. He quit and I ended up staying. Great crew, great boss, great boat, great experience.
The boat I am on now is OK. The stewies are lazy cows and we have to do our own laundry. A bit tough as the owner is never on board and there are three stews who sit around exposing their breasts to the world while they work on their tans. And we have to wash our own uniforms. The captain is a tosser and as for his wife… But the rest of the guys are great and we have had an excellent season.

I am not making the boats my long term career. I am saving as much money as I can then going back to the UK where I want to buy my own business.
It has been three years and I have stashed away £35,000. I have also been snow boarding in Europe, spent Christmas in the West Indies, seen the Monaco Grand Prix, gone scuba diving off Barbados, done bungee jumping in Turkey… No, I wouldn’t say that has been all that tough!

Three essentials for cooking on a yacht.
It is one of the toughest jobs on board which is one of the reasons there is a high turnover of chefs in the boating industry. But if you are serious about getting on, be certain of a few things first:

1.  Can you cook? Seriously! Many cooks and chefs come onboard, not really knowing what will be asked of them. It is not like a restaurant where Pierre does the desserts, Jean Claude is in the larder and the kitchen porter from Senegal peels all the vegetables. Nope, you do it all.
2.  Are you good at keeping your area clean? Remember these owners/charterers are used to having staff by the hundred to keep their homes spotless. If they visit your galley and find it a tip they may have you not so delicately placed ashore with a ticket home.
3.  Are you easy going? Can you keep your cool under pressure? Remember you live, work and play with the other crew on board. If you can’t take the strain, you can’t take the job.

My advice on succeeding in the job? Maintain a sense of humour, try to please everybody and most importantly… chill!
Are you scared off now? Don’t be. For those who can meet these demands, the rewards can be wonderful with excellent pay standards, travel opportunities, and frequently a free rein to be creative, using some of the finest ingredients in the world.