How to Become a Yacht Chef – Part One – Be Brave
So you want to be a Yacht Chef?
Why wouldn’t you, the travel, the people, the money, it’s attractive enough to convince any chef to take the plunge, but how do you actually go about doing it? Like skinning a cat, there are many ways, and in this short three part series, I’m going to take you through the abridged version of my journey, and how I went from flipping burgers in the outback, to becoming one of the worlds elite yacht chefs, with all the perks that come with it! You’ll probably even come to understand why if you’ve got a little hospitality in your veins, you’re already halfway there.
The Three Paths to Becoming a Yacht Chef
Yacht chefs always have an origin story thats comes from one of three beginnings;
- The Trained Chef: Like me, many follow a conventional route and train to become a qualified chef, and did their four year apprenticeship and worked in established restaurants. It’s optimal, but not necessary nowadays.
- The Passionate Foody: Whilst not formerly qualified they’re the one that cooks for the pleasure of it for friends and family, and they’re good at it. If this is you, you can excel as a Chef and some of my most respected colleagues followed this route.
- The Unexpected Chefs: This group are actually yachties, generally stewardesses or deckhands, who never really considered it a possibility, but they made the leap of faith at some point of their career. This happens a lot more than you think and again, some incredible yacht chefs follow this path.
It was a classfied ad..
If you don’t know the details of my background, I was formally trained in Australia, and for me, it started with a classified ad…
All of us can probably trace any place we have ended up in life, back to a single moment. In 2011, my elbows on the prep bench, with my head between my hands and a pounding hangover, was that moment for me.
I was scrolling on my laptop for something, anything, to get me out of the situation I had landed myself in, I was 22 and I’d already worked internationally for years, but coming home to Australia and somewhat broke I was chasing dollars. I’d taken a job cooking in the outback, in the middle of nowhere, in a tiny Western Australian town called Westonia. The pay was pretty good which was why I was there, but after four months I was completely spent, with nothing to do but drink I could feel my feet itching, and I was asking the question of myself, “can I earn this kind of money without living in a complete dump?”
“Looking for Chef, Great Barrier Reef.” – The classified ad read on GumTree. It was vague, but it caught my eye. The taste of desert dust never really left my mouth those days, the idea of a swim anytime I wanted sounded pretty luxurious.
Balancing the Challenges with the Rewards
After a quick phone call I had an outline of what the job was going to entail, and wouldn’t you know it, it was on a Yacht. But it almost sounded like they were trying to talk me out of it. They led with a positive, I was going to be able to make as much money as I was getting paid in the Outback. Whilst that kind of job isn’t outstanding pay, it was good for a Chef still finding his feet. It was quickly established to me that the pay would be per month, and the overtime would be essentially unlimited, awesome, but unpaid, hmm unpaid overtime as a Chef, how unusual?
Over the years I’ve come to realise the negatives of the yachting industry, and it’s important to think about those before you take the plunge. Personally for me, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks, and on that day in Westonia Tavern when I was feeling out that first yacht job, I realise they were already telling me about most of them, but the more I thought about it, I realised I was already uniquely prepared;
- Demanding Work Hours: As was quickly made clear to me, the hours on yachts are long, and you’ll work long stretches without a day off. Sometimes months at a time. Seriously. This may seem insane to people who’re used to having two days off a week, yachting is another world, and regular days off are generally not possible. Fortunately we are chef’s, and we’re kind of used to that already.
- Close Quarters Living: Boats in general are small, even the largest of them, and you need to know how to work with the space you’ve got. This means sharing spaces with people you may not like. There are often conflicts and disagreements, personality clashes, and just plain old jaded grumps with nothing better to do than play with peoples emotions. Kind of sounds like every kitchen you’ve ever worked in right?
- Distance from Loved Ones: Working on a yacht means you’ll be missing a lot of milestone events, weddings on the weekends aren’t a thing (Although I’ve managed to go to some incredible international weddings over the years) and you’ll notice nieces and nephews will be a foot taller every time you see them. It can be tough for a lot of yacht crew to miss the small events. Yes, you’ll be able to request time of for the big events, but you won’t be looked upon fondly if every year you request Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years off. I’m happy to say I’ve gotten a lot of time off at the right times, but unfortunately a lot of requests were denied as well. Luckily, us Chef’s never get Christmas and New Years off anyway, and we wouldn’t know what to do if we did, so I chalk this one up in the win column.
- Boiling Point: Being a chef on a yacht puts you right in crosshairs, a million dollar yacht charter is only as good as the final meal on board, and it’s not just the guests, your fellow crew rely on the food to lift themselves up when morale is low. I’m not going to lie, most captain’s and crew will attest it’s the hardest job on board. Your days can sometimes be upward of 18 hours long, and you absolutely need to deliver. Fortunately everything is accomplishable with the appropriate preparation. Does this seem familiar? That’s because it’s just like every other Michelin star kitchen you’ve ever worked in.
- Demanding Work Hours: As was quickly made clear to me, the hours on yachts are long, and you’ll work long stretches without a day off. Sometimes months at a time. Seriously. This may seem insane to people who’re used to having two days off a week, yachting is another world, and regular days off are generally not possible. Fortunately we are chef’s, and we’re kind of used to that already.
All Chef Jobs are Hard
Surprise. Working as a Chef no matter where it is, is hard damn work. Maybe you don’t come from a chef background. You need to prepare for that, you’re not signing up for a cushy job. For those of you reading that are Chef’s, you may agree with my sentiment that the negatives about working on yachts are almost exactly the same as many other chef jobs, if you have an aspiration to create cuisine at a high level, you really should be thinking about doing it on yachts. Let me explain why.
The Many Upsides to a Life as a Yacht Chef
Australia is a big country, and if I was being honest back in those days, I probably didn’t know that you could jump on a plane on the western side, and you would still be in the air five hours later before you landed on the eastern most side. By the time I landed in Cairns, for my first yacht job, my early afternoon departure and the time difference had me in late indeed. A few hours sleep at a cheap hostel, and early in the morning I found myself at the gateway to the largest reef system in the world, on the fast cat ferry Reef Experience which bought me to my first yacht, Reef Encounter.
Looking back, having worked on some truly awe inspiring Megayachts, Reef Encounter is humble in comparison, but at the time I thought she was incredible. Many of the perks of working on the largest of Superyachts were exactly the same on the live aboard dive yacht, which catered to 35 guests with 20 crew. Of course the budgets get bigger (or unlimited), and the yachts get shinier, but the benefits are all pretty similar.
Within a few months working on board it was pretty clear that this job was offering some incredible benefits that I hadn’t even considered yet, and in the decade that’s followed since it’s only made this clearer to me;
- Money!: Yacht salaries are competitive already, and we’ve all heard about the enormous tips, but what is less spoken about is that your expenses fall to essentially zero. You live on board, you eat on board, your insurance is covered, your flights home are covered. Many boats I’ve worked on even had a generous allowance for alcohol, and as you’ll be working in a work hard play hard culture, that’s important!
- Oh the Places You’ll See: Quite simply, you’ll see the world. Hopefully this is a bonus for you because you’ll have no choice. Worst case scenario is you’ll have to spend summers and winters in the Mediterranean. The next worst, is Mediterranean summers and Caribbean winters. How terrible. However it gets better, find the right yachts and you’ll explore the remoteness and the unknown of the South Pacific or the far reaches of the Northern Seas. There really is no boundaries of where a yacht is able to take you. You will experience what only the 0.1% will ever get to experience in their lives and see things you will never be able to put a price on.
- Elite Ingredients: One of the greatest joys personally for me as a chef has been the simple fact that I’ve been able to work with better produce than just about any other of my land based counter parts. The money that has been spent on the ingredients that have gone through my galley to prepare my food would make the CFO of a fortune 500 raise his eyebrows if he read the expense report. A well run yacht won’t have a budget on what you can buy for your guests. When you are trying to give people the most unique and luxurious experience, not having to skimp on food or provision is a massive weight off a Chef’s back. A successful land based Chef always has his own creative spirit on one shoulder, and his accountant on his other shoulder. White Alba truffles, Canadian live lobster, any manner of Caviar, and of course the best of whatever local produce is available, means that you, as the Chef, can focus purely on outputting some show stopping dishes.
- The Vibes: The watersports, the parties, the rich and the famous, the incredible crew, as soon as you get into the big leagues of yachting your world changes. Your holidays are extra, your adventures increase exponentially in scale and ambition. If you’re open to the experiences you’ll never be too far away from good times, and whilst you work damn hard on yachts, even the job itself lends itself to be pretty enjoyable. Yachties tend to be funny, charismatic, and full of good energies. Of course there are exceptions but it takes a certain kind of person to take the enormous leap of faith to go and work on yachts, and those people tend to be pretty cool.
The Final Word
If you’re on the fence, take my word for it, be brave and take the leap of faith.
In those early days on the dive yacht I got an incredible taste of yachting immediately, but it only got better as the years went by!
Being a yacht chef can be one of the hardest positions onboard! But man, I wouldn’t trade it for another.
I hope this gave you a nice overview of the benefits and drawbacks to entering the world of yachting, and becoming a yacht chef. Please see Part Two to find out a bit more about qualifications courses and other experience that will give you the upper hand when trying to nail that first gig.
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