A Friendly Reminder…
#26/0027. By Chef Raffie.
A Friendly Reminder to Land-Based Chefs Thinking About “Going Yachting”
Every summer the same story begins again, around this time the same migration begins.
Restaurant chefs see a few Instagram chefs start posting sunsets.
Influencers show lobster Thermidor, wagyu sliders on the sundeck and stewardesses pouring champagne in slow motion.
Crew agencies promise “amazing opportunities.”
And suddenly half the restaurant industry thinks yachting is a floating Michelin restaurant with dolphins.
So allow an old galley pirate (32 years in the industry) to offer a small reality check before you pack your knives.
First, a technical detail many “job offers” seem to forget.
According to MLC regulations, vessels over 500GT and/or with more than 10 crew must have a certified Ship’s Cook responsible for crew meals.
So when you see offers like:
50m yacht
Solo chef
14 crew
12 guests or
50m yacht
Solo chef
11 crew
12 guests
That’s not a job.
That’s a psychological experiment and a cry for help disguise as employment.
If the crew including you is 10+, politely decline and remind them you follow MLC rules. If they want to hire an army of Generation Z interior crew while one chef feeds the entire NATO fleet, that’s their business — not yours.
“But the industry is booming!”
Yes… and no.
Mega yachts over 100m are indeed being built every year. Shipyards in Holland are busy, bookings are strong, and billionaires are still ordering floating palaces that look like apartments buildings with propellers. But here’s the detail nobody mentions
But for every 100m yacht, there are 50 boats under 40m — and that’s where most crew actually work.
And that’s where the circus begins.
Captains with management skills roughly equivalent to a nightclub bouncer and leadership expertise of a parking attendant.
Owners who can afford the yacht purchase, but not the yacht operation.
Management companies run by people who have never lived on board a vessel but somehow control every decision from an office chair. They monitor the budget like the Spanish Inquisition….
Things the Instagram posts will never tell you
They don’t tell you:
- The owner basically lives on board six months a year.
- The boat is chartering back-to-back while pretending it’s “private.”
- The yacht goes into maintenance exactly when the guests arrive.
- The captain’s girlfriend mysteriously becomes Chief Stew / Warden of the Interior Department.
She could be the Captain’s girlfriend or wife.
Which means the interior department is now run like a maximum-security correctional facility with champagne glasses, where smiling incorrectly during service is considered a disciplinary offense.
The Tip Cookie Jar
Ah yes… the famous charter tips.
Sometimes the management company holds them until the end of the season just in case you go crazy or reach a point of critical exhaustion and decide to jump ship in the middle of the season.
Sometimes they “adjust” them.
Sometimes they disappear into what I like to call:
The Bermuda Triangle of Accounting.
Strangely enough, the money always vanishes somewhere between the broker, management company, and “administrative processing.”
The Freelance Circus
Because many owners don’t actually want to pay full-time crew anymore, a new phenomenon has appeared:
The Freelance Economy of Yachting.
Freelance chefs.
Freelance chief stews.
Freelance engineers.
Why?
Because owners love the idea of having a yacht without paying for it when it’s not being used and because the yacht must exist for Instagram and the payroll must apparently be run like a budget hostel.
And then come the snake oil salesmen…
Now we have courses promising:
“Become a Yacht Chef in 5 weeks!”
“Earn six figures at sea tax free!”
“Live the dream!”
Apparently all you need is:
- A chef jacket
- A certificate
- And a strong Wi-Fi signal for your Instagram.
What they don’t tell you is that cooking on a yacht means:
Cooking in a galley the size of a walk-in closet
Provisioning like a logistics officer in a war zone
And plating Michelin-level food while the boat rolls like a washing machine.
Final Advice from an Old Galley Pirate
Yachting can be amazing.
You’ll see the world.
You’ll meet fascinating people.
You’ll cook incredible food.
But remember this:
What you see on Instagram is marketing.
What you experience onboard is reality.
And those two things…
are often very different oceans.
So before you accept that “solo chef for 14 crew and 12 guests” position…
take a deep breath…
read the contract…
and remember:
Sometimes the real luxury in yachting is simply having enough crew to survive the season.
Fair winds, young chefs.
And read the contract before you pack your knives.
I wish everybody a great weekend!
Chef Raffie