THE ADVENTURES OF A WAYWARD CHEF

There are about 350 cookbooks in my collection at the moment which may seem like a lot, but I can easily think of 300 more cookbooks that I don’t have and would like to add… Obviously, bringing crates of cookbooks on the boat is not an option. So, I have to decide on five or [...]

Well, I’m all packed and ready to go. With that out of the way, boat work delays and a case of the flu I now have ample time to work out menus and plan my meals for the crossing. So, here I sit at my couch, laptop on lap, a pile of cookbooks, a box [...]

Due to continuing boat work, my departure date has been delayed once again. Now, it looks like I’ll be leaving next Tuesday or Wednesday – November 8th or 9th. Which means that I will have just about one week to provision the boat and prepare the food for our crossing… Yikes!
I just want to start! [...]

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups chix stock2 cups soy sauce1 cup Shaoxing or med-dry Sherry1/4 cup brown sugar1 bunch scallions6 slices ginger4 strips orange zest1 tablespoon fine salt2 whole cloves2 star anise1 dried hot chile1/2 teaspoon peppercorns1 (3- 3 1/2 #) chicken, quartered
Bring all ingred. to a boil in a 4 to 6 [...]

36 hours from now and I’ll be living aboard the boat. My start date has been postponed twice now because of rain delaying work on the boat, but it looks as if Thursday it is actually going to happen and the big day couldn’t come any sooner.
I’ve slept about 3 or 4 hours a night [...]

I woke up this morning at about 7am, my alarm was set for 7:30am but I was much too excited to sleep. I picked up a rental car and drove out to Staten Island to see the boat for the first time. I expected to pull into a bucolic little marina along the coast and [...]

When I first saw the job listening for the position aboard the boat, all I could think about was how great it would be going into different ports and scouring the markets for local ingredients; I really had no idea what went into cooking aboard a boat and the difficulties or challenges that were involved.
In [...]

I received a phone call on September 13, two days after I sent the letter, from Dario, the owner of the yacht. The first thing he said to me on the phone was, “I assume you can cook. What I really want to know is whether or not you can live with yourself. Why don’t [...]

Dear Sir:
I am very intrigued by the private chef opportunity aboard your yacht and have attached my resume for your review. I believe that my skills, experience, work ethic and personality would make me an ideal candidate for just such a position.
I am a graduate of the French Culinary Institute with 6 year’s professional cooking [...]

My Caribbean visit was cut short by a looming hurricane named Emily. I had a big catering event taking place shortly after my return date and although I was ready to call in some favors and brave the storm; having withstood hurricane Ivan in 2001, my friend advised me otherwise and set to changing my [...]