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If food is the way to a man or woman’s heart, then the job of a yacht chef is surely the most important onboard, driving the happiness of the vessel’s guests and crew. But what does it actually entail?
A yacht chef is the go-to for all meals and snacks onboard, whether that be a selection of foie gras canapes for a sophisticated soiree or a comforting mac n cheese to lift the crew’s spirits. They are typically a trained culinary professional with plenty of experience in provisioning a kitchen on a budget and a flexible, can-do attitude to adapt to what is available. Learn the typical yacht chef salary, what they do onboard, how to become a chef on a yacht and the qualifications needed below, or browse our available yacht chef roles on our free Cotton Crew Jobs app.
“Cotton Crews app has been the best app for finding yacht work. The work Cotton Crews does is amazing and it was the perfect place to go for crew placement.”
What is a typical yacht chef salary?
On a vessel of up to 35 meters, a monthly yacht chef salary is between $5,000-7,000 before tips.
This grows with the size of the boat – on 51-65 meter superyachts a salary of $7,500-8,500 per month is average, and on vessels over 100 meters yacht chef jobs can earn you from $8,500-10,000 monthly.
Factors that may positively influence a boat chef’s income include expertise in certain specialty cuisines (what these are will depend on the preference of your yacht), experience provisioning in the specified cruising area and yacht CV wow factors like a Michelin Star head chef role. Conversely, a lack of administrative skills like bookkeeping may somewhat reduce your yacht chef salary.
Rotation workers can expect to earn a slightly higher yacht chef salary than those who are permanent, but rotational employment can also be hard to come by. The majority of boat chefs are in permanent charter or private yacht jobs, with frequent changes in chef tending to provoke onboard upset.
What does a yacht chefdo?
Yacht Chef
You might think that being a yacht chef is all about preparing delicious meals, but in reality the responsibilities are much broader. Organising the galley (the yachtie name for kitchen) is a full-time job, including but not limited to meal planning, provisioning, presentation, food safety and hygiene, administration and inventory and – you guessed it – cooking!
Yacht chefs are passionate about creating exquisite dishes and can do this with limited resources and little notice. The high net-worth individuals they are catering for will have eaten in some of the world’s best restaurants and so expect the very best. It is a challenging role, with longer hours and fewer days off than most land-based chef roles, but those that succeed will find that the praise (and the yacht chef salary) is worth it.
Whether you prepare meals for the superyacht crew, guests or both will typically depend on the size of your yacht. A yacht below 50 meters will generally only have one chef, who will create dishes for both crew and guests, while larger yachts will typically have executive chefs cooking for guests and crew chefs catering for the yacht crew. On a vessel of 100+ meters there may be up to four chefs onboard.
How to become a chef on a yacht
So, how do you become a chef on a yacht? The first thing to know is that yacht chefs are normally recruited from sous or head chefs on land.
This isn’t to say that you can’t get a yacht chef job with less experience, but these applicants may need to spend some time a second chef or crew chef on a larger superyacht to cut their teeth.
Crew chef roles are a particularly great way to break into the industry, allowing you to establish relationships with suppliers and gain insight into the industry without the pressure of serving guests straight off the bat.
Alongside culinary experience and prowess, becoming a chef on a yacht requires flexibility, an extremely positive outlook and a desire to light up the tastebuds of everyone onboard.
What qualifications do you need to become a yacht chef?
- Detailed knowledge of the regional produce available in the designated cruising ground.
- Confidence to provision to suit guest demands, even in remote corners of the world.
- Ability to provision to a budget.
- Up-to-date knowledge of nutrition, diets and allergies.
- Food safety and storage training.
- Experience in fast-paced, flexible menu planning.
- Excellent presentation skills.
- Good teamworking ability.
- Extremely organised.
- Accountancy and computer skills.
- Sommelier training as a bonus.
- 3+ years working in a professional kitchen.
- Silver Service qualification.
- STCW basic training and ENG 1 (Seafarers Medical Certificate), as required for all yacht jobs.
