Captain Jason Chambers did what most superyacht captains would do with a problematic leader Under the bridge below. Chambers tried to motivate chef Ryan McKeown to improve his dishes and when McKeown ultimately failed to deliver, Chambers fired him.
McKeown recently said he essentially “gave up” after the third charter. Also, he had almost no communication with chief stew Aesha Scott. This meant that Chambers had to spend a lot of time monitoring McKeown’s work and behavior.
McKeown is not the first Under the bridge chief to be on the captain’s radar. Chef Mila Kolomeitseva and Hindrigo “Kiko” Lorran worried Captain Sandy Yawn Under the Mediterranean Bridge. Chambers explained that the chef has a “make or break” type role on the boat. Also, crew members have said that if the chef’s food is bad, the tip is usually bad.
Captain Jason said he tried to facilitate communication between the chef and the chief stew on “Below Deck Down Under”
Chambers asked McKeown to think more about presenting the food, telling him he wanted to see food on Instagram. Chambers told Showbiz Cheat Sheet that he was mindful of the pressure on yacht leaders. And that he tried to improve communication between McKeown and Scott.
“That impression on the leader is quite massive,” he remarked. “A lot of charter success lies with them. Any charter in the industry. However, it is essential that the communication between the interior and the kitchen is 100%. You’ll find out in the first episode that there’s already a barrier there, and we had to try to reduce that defense mechanism and try to have a more open conversation so that the two departments could work.
Obviously, Under the bridge down Under fans see how McKeown and Scott couldn’t get into a groove and the food and service suffered.
Chef Ben of the ‘below deck’ deck said the yacht chef had the hardest gig on the boat
Personality clashes aside, Chef Ben Robinson, who played the superyacht’s chef on both Under the Med Bridge and Under the bridge says the work is incredibly difficult.
“It’s the hardest job ever,” admitted Robinson upon returning to Under the Med Bridge Season 4 in the Below Deck Med After Show. “Because you’re on your own and you’re in charge of sourcing, budgeting, it’s a very small space, you don’t have any help.”
“I don’t attribute the failures of the other two chiefs either,” Robinson said of Kolomeitseva and Anastasia Survama stepping in temporarily after Kolomeitseva was fired. “A good leader will know how to rise above. But it’s hard. It’s a difficult concert.
While the gig is tough, yacht chefs can save some serious money. Captain Lee Rosbach of Under the bridge revealed that many yacht chefs can earn up to $10,000 per month.
If the chef is bad, usually the tip is bad
Many Under the bridge crews have observed that if the food is bad, the tip will suffer. Sailboat under the bridge Charter guests Erica Rose and her husband Charles Sanders claimed the food wasn’t what they expected, which is why they left one of the worst tips in the show’s history. Of course, no other guest this season complained and chef Marcos Spaziani was proclaimed one of the best chefs in the Under the bridge.
Surmava gave an insight into what yacht leaders face. “The big thing is you don’t have a team,” Surmava told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “You’re completely on your own and you don’t have your buses and dishwashers and your pastry chef. You really have no support. On larger yachts you may have a sous chef and a crew chief. But usually you don’t.
Plus, “you’re a person who tries to cook everything to the right temperature and then you have to keep it warm,” she said. “And then you have to tackle it to that high-end status. All of this takes a long time. And then you think, ‘I still have my desserts to think about, I have this to think about.’ It’s a lot.”
Adding, “I think it’s hard for people to grasp how much work this is for one person,” Surmava recalls. “That on top of working 16 to 18 hour days. In the end, you’re just a broken human being.
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