Cooking on your boat can be more challenging than cooking at home due to a lack of space in the galleys, smaller appliances, and a limited range of ingredients. However with a bit of forward planning, you can create delicious and nutritious meals to satisfy even the most demanding of onboard guests. Follow some of these helpful hints for dining on deck.

Plan Ahead

According to Chef Steven Chitty from Charter Yacht Charisma, “One challenge a chef faces when cooking on a yacht is provisioning in remote areas. If you’re on a yacht in the south of France it’s easy to get beautiful fresh produce but as soon as you head to somewhere like Montenegro or small Islands in the Caribbean, food produce can be of poor quality or simply not available.”

Thus it’s important to plan ahead and think about what meals you might cook according to your route, ensuring you have all the basic provisions in advance. The saying “fresh is best” still holds true and when cooking close to a port or island hopping, it’s possible to maintain a supply of fresh food and herbs. However for extended voyages, fresh produce will expire after a few days so you need to keep a reserve of dried and tinned ingredients.

Keep your Kitchen Clean and Organised

Fresh produce will last longer if you handle it with care and respect, advises Chef Chitty:

- “Store things at the correct temperature and don’t cross contaminate (i.e. keep fish with fish and raw meat with raw meat.”
- “Try to get all your meat and fish fillets vacuum packed so they’ll last longer.”
- “Keep everything in clean, proper containers. As soon as you see a mushy strawberry in your box of strawberries, take it out so it doesn’t destroy the other strawberries.”
- “Herbs last longer if you keep them under a damp cloth. “

Simplicity is Key

Just like cooking at home, try to make your meals well balanced and nutritional but keep them simple. If the sea conditions are working against you and the boat is rocking, you may find it difficult to prepare sophisticated dishes so keep preparation time to a minimum. If you want to attempt something more fancy, save it for a day when the weather is calm so you can pull out all the stops and enjoy a proper dinner on deck.

If you want to prepare something special, try this delicious dessert from Chef Chitty:

Milk Chocolate Parfait

Ingredients (makes about 10 servings)

Parfait: 665g Good quality milk chocolate buttons
265ml cream
400ml cream
Hazelnut brittle: 300g unsalted hazelnuts (without skin)
500g of sugar
350ml of water
Poached fruit: 30 Cherries
30 Mandarin segments
500ml of water
250g of sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise
1 Vanilla bean split in half

Garnish: Pashmak, Persian fairy floss and chocolate nibs

Method

1. Parfait: Melt chocolate with 265 ml cream and allow it to cool to room temperature.
2. Whip 400ml of cream until soft peaks form.
3. Fold whipped cream into chocolate mixture.
4. Divide the mixture up into moulds and freeze over night. I find paper cones or paper coffee cups work the best.

5. Hazelnut Brittle: In a pan make caramel by heating sugar and water together until golden brown in colour. Add hazelnuts and then quickly pour onto a flat baking pan and allow to cool. Once cool crush the mixture up in a food processor until it’s almost fine in texture but still has small chunks of nut. Be careful not to touch the hot caramel with your skin as it will burn.

6. Poached fruits: Cook on a low heat all the ingredients except the fruit for about 10 minutes. Add mandarins and poach gently for a couple of minutes and then scoop them out of the liquid and cool, reserve a small amount of liquid for them to be placed back into once cool. With the remaining liquid poach the cherries in the same way.

To plate the dish:
Take the parfaits out of their moulds (you can cut a little slit in the paper cup and tear paper away). Place each individual parfait in a bowl with some of the hazelnut brittle and coat in brittle on all sides. Place in the middle of your serving plate and spoon three cherries and three mandarin segments around parfait top and sprinkle a little pashmak and chocolate nibs over the top.

Steve Chitty has been a chef on Yacht Charisma for a year and a half. For more information, visit www.yachtcharisma.com/