Meet Chef Neil Walker On SOARING
Leaders in the luxury yachting industry, Ocean Independence took the opportunity to talk with Chef Neil Walker on board stunning motor yacht SOARING from their charter fleet. Operating in the Western Mediterranean this summer, Neil’s diverse culinary journey is a fascinating story.
Neil’s introduction into the life of yachting came about purely by chance. Having worked in luxury ski chalets across Europe for a number of years, he was lucky enough to have a group of yacht captains and their families staying in his chalet one season, “They seemed to enjoy our hospitality and my cooking, so much so that a couple of weeks later they called, inviting me to head down from Val d’Isere to Antibes for a chefs’ trial aboard a 40m motor yacht”. One week Neil was cooking tartiflette and raclette in the French Alps, the next he was preparing dinner for Arab royalty, in a huge sprawling villa above Antibes and then on their spectacular yacht. “I did a week-long trial for them which was ultimately unsuccessful due to the fact that I had no driving license or STCW at the time” he recalls. “The captain urged me to get these two things organised and come back to Antibes. I rushed through my driving lessons, passed my test, got my STCW and away I went! My first job was as chef/deckhand on a 24m Sunseeker. This is why whenever any young deck crew are finding it tough going, I am happy to let them know that I have also done their job before so know how hard it can be”.
Highly driven and eager to please, Neil admits he can sometimes be his biggest critic, “I am never really 100% happy with anything I do. So I am always looking to improve and get better”. Additionally there are other motivational factors within his chosen career, “Of course a big incentive of working on board a yacht is that it fulfils a desire to travel, whilst also being able to explore cuisine in different locations. My inspiration is certainly linked to my love of eating out. It really is hard not to be inspired by the food that others create at such a high level”.
With this love of travel, Neil realised from a young age that cooking professionally would be his ticket to travelling the world. “I have always loved to travel - even now that passion has not faded. For sure FOMO is a running theme in the way I choose to live my life! As soon as I realised that I could hold my own in a kitchen, I travelled to Sydney for work during the 2000 Olympics for a year. I haven’t really stopped traveling since then. Being a chef is really the only career that could have enabled me to do this”
Chef Neil onboard M/Y Soaring
It is clear Neil’s decision to work as a yacht chef has been the right one, “If you have no ties shore side, or at least ties that you don’t mind leaving behind for a few months of the year, then specifically cooking aboard yachts is the profession to be in. As my grandmother always used to tell me, people will always need to eat, so there is (pandemic aside) always a need for chefs. Working on yachts has enabled me to travel more and more outside of work too. With yachts moving there is regularly a fantastic new part of the world to discover. Of course the financial benefits of yacht work also facilitate this for me”.
Variety is certainly something chefs don’t get with shore-based restaurant roles, Neil explains further, “Ashore you do of course have a more stable lifestyle which I understand is important to most people. I do envy that sometimes if I’m honest. But I also love the variety that one week you will be cooking classic French food and the next you might be cooking Southeast Asian or vegan Californian. It means that you are always teaching yourself new things and constantly learning. Of course you don’t get that from a set restaurant menu. There are of course restaurants that have the freedom to change and evolve their menus as and when they want, but these are few and far between, and generally speaking they will stick to a certain style of cuisine”.
Bringing extensive insight from his years of experience in the industry Neil has a philosophical approach to where is best to be a chef, “It is hard to draw many comparisons between working as a yacht chef and working as a restaurant chef other than that we both cook food and try to please our customers. It is vastly different in terms of the day to day working life. I think there is certainly a lot more freedom when working on a yacht whether that is down to our often-generous budgets or simply the freedom we have to plan our own menus within the parameters that the guests give us”.
As a yacht chef there are definitely many constraints such as space and planning with availability. Neil has picked up numerous tips that have stood him in good stead over the years, “I think any successful yacht chef will tell you that the key to running a galley is the organisation and pre-planning. Although my current galley is a good size, it does still have limitations. These are brought into sharp focus once guests arrive and you find yourself cooking for 29 people along with the crew. One thing that I am always conscious of is that even once a job is done and the galley appears to be calm and ahead of the game, I’m aware that at any moment a guest might ask for something that could be completely out the blue. So I am always working at a pace that reflects that, with the attitude that I need to get things done in an urgent fashion before the next unusual request appears!” Being an experienced realist is a key skill for a yacht chef, “If you work like that and use the down time in-between guest trips to prepare lots of mis-en-place, you put yourself in a position where you do have the time to create great food that you are happy with. This opposed to being constantly on the run and therefore struggling to put up plates that you are truly proud of. The longer I work in the industry, the more tricks I pick up that make life in the galley that bit easier when it comes to pre-charter prep”.
Having cooked professionally for 30 years, Neil has seen and experienced a lot, which has gradually got him used to the pressures that can be thrown at you in a kitchen. “I try to keep organised in order not to end up in a position where I may not be able to deliver to the guests (or the crew’s) expectations. Certainly guests can sometimes be very demanding but thankfully with prior planning and organisation this can be mitigated. There is nearly always a solution to any problem, and we encourage calm and polite interaction between crew on our yacht and this also helps to not let any situation become overly stressful”.
Eating out during down-time, Neil gains vision and new ideas from the restaurants he visits, “I try not to copy, but it is impossible not to be influenced sometimes by the dishes, styles and trends that I encounter while dining out. Crew meals are a great testing ground for new broader ideas before maybe refining them to eventually end up in front of our guests”. With provisioning being a vital feature, Neil identifies the Med and Asia as his favourite spots to source ingredients, “I particularly enjoyed my time spent in SE Asia and visiting the markets in Thailand. The wealth of incredible produce is never-ending, and there are always some new and interesting ingredients that maybe you haven’t used before to experiment with”.
Most comfortable with creating Asian food, Neil finds this type of cuisine comes naturally to him, “I don’t claim to be anything near an expert, but it seems this style of cooking for me is more intuitive than say the more technically precise nature of the classics. The main skill that I believe stands me in good stead while cooking on yachts is the ability to put many dishes of a high quality together at a moment’s notice, in order to cater to frequently changing requirements. I have always felt more comfortable and at ease doing that with Asian dishes”. When asked if he has a particular standout that he has created, “I don’t really have a signature dish, as I’ve had to adapt to the way any planned dishes and menus get changed to guests’ preferences rapidly. It is a good job that I love being kept on my toes by guests, indeed it is one of the main features in this industry on which I thrive!”
With an incredibly popular Instagram account, Neil’s winning formula came from his other hobby, photography. A perfect platform to store and showcase him images, he particularly enjoys taking shots of beautiful food created by talented chefs. “Since starting the account a few years ago, my life outside of work is now purely focused on curating restaurant tours for myself and friends to enjoy. I now visit between 180 - 230 destination restaurants each year and not many people do that! It’s quite a niche hobby to have, and a subject that many people are interested in. I didn’t expect the account to grow as much as it has when I started it but now that I get a lot of interaction with people planning tours themselves and also with chefs around the world, I can see the popularity and why people are interested in it
Finally, Neil offers some excellent observations to pass on to those looking to start out in the yachting industry, “My advice is always to lose any ego when joining a yacht and to be friendly and kind to the people that you are now living and working with day to day. To realise and be conscious of the fact that this job is different from the restaurant trade is vital, because we all don’t get to go home at the end of our shifts. It’s a high-pressure job in an extremely enclosed environment, so stop and count to ten before you snap at someone for a little thing that may have annoyed you.
This is of course difficult at times but if you can try to maintain a positive, can-do, friendly attitude, that will get you a lot further than the greatest chef in the world on the next boat who shouts at his team! It’s not for everyone, but if you want to explore the world and meet fun and interesting people along the way then yachting is an extremely good choice of career”. Wise words indeed.