THE ADVENTURES OF A WAYWARD CHEF

We took off out of the Pitons in St. Lucia, cruising across the smooth as glass waters and as I looked up at the beautiful conical mountains I thought to myself, this day is like no other, there will never again be a day like this, I should appreciate it. I don’t know why this [...]

The aroma of ganja and garlic filled the air. “five more minutes, mon”, he inhaled deeply off a joint as thick as his thumb, and easily four inches long. “D’er baking right now, all da garlic is infusin’ in dem”. His eyes were like slits, his hair pulled into a fluffly little ball atop his [...]

All was not lost on the charter with the bonafide movie star and malfunctioning galley. When it got to the point where I could only use the stovetop, I decided to bust out the pasta maker and spent an afternoon in the galley making fresh linguine – for which I was accused by said movie [...]

With exception to the refrigeration breakdown, the freezer breakdown, the stove breakdown, the oven breakdown, and the mix up with the provisioner, everything is going swimmingly…
Friday afternoon: The produce delivery from the provisioner arrived. Bags of fresh basil, mint, chives, beautiful baby bok-choy, zucchinis and eggplants so fresh and gorgeous, the best produce I’ve gotten [...]

If there was enough room for a running head start, I could slide into my bunk like a batter sliding into home plate. Fortunately, the designer of the bunk beds was generous enough to create a 6 inch lip on the bottom bunk that extends out beyond the width of the top bunk so that [...]

The heat is stifling in Antigua; the walk down the dock from the boat to the coffee shop and my face is already bright red, and of course, I never remember to put on sunscreen. Unlike St. Martin, with its never-ending traffic jam that stretches around the island and last from 9am to 9pm, and [...]

8am Monday morning in Antigua and the dock is abuzz with crew, day workers and Mega Yachts coming in and out. I’ve just stepped off of the yacht I’ve been freelancing on for the past three weeks and walked down the dock to my next freelance job aboard an 80 ft. custom build sloop.
Chrome [...]

Working aboard a motor yacht is a completely different experience than the sailboats and smaller boats that I have been on thus far. I am purely a galley slave to the chef and don’t have the interaction with the guests that I really enjoyed on the other yachts. The big power boats don’t really cruise [...]

The sauce for eggs benedict came from a packet and over and hour before the guests requested them the eggs were poached to the consistency of a Super Ball and the eggs benedict (if it could be called that) was plated, sauced and then reheated under the salamander, creating a crusty film over the sauce. [...]

It’s not that there hasn’t been much to write about – just a little crazed at the moment. A big post is in the works.
In the meantime, I have back-to-back interviews all day today for yacht chef positions heading to the Mediterranean. The most promising so far is a sous-chef position aboard a 55m [...]