Antigua Charter Chef’s Showdown

Elizabeth Lee, as an award-winning chef herself, knows a thing or two about showstopper meals. Even so, some of the dishes she saw coming out of charter yacht galleys a few months ago in Antigua left her dazzled. “Over the years, I have seen the level of cuisine continue to rise,” she says. “We are now in an era where dining aboard luxury yachts delivers the highest level of five-star service, alongside chefs producing cuisine of Michelin-star quality.”

Lee, who coordinated the annual chefs’ competition at the Antigua Charter Yacht Show, said chefs showed serious skill in all kinds of dishes. “We did see Breville’s Smoke Bubble Kit creatively used to enclose the sauce element of a dish within a smoke-filled bubble, which burst tableside and added a fun, playful dimension to the overall service experience,” she says. “The judges were extremely impressed by Chef Ryan Kerr’s vegan foie gras, which mirrored the original delicacy in nearly every way. With your eyes closed, it truly felt as though you were enjoying the classic dish. We were also delighted by the work of the very talented Chef Sam Dux, who presented a vegan bolognese that was remarkable in its depth of flavor. Placed side-by-side with a traditional version, it would have been very difficult to distinguish which was the original.”

Above is the 219-foot CRN Amor À Vida, whose chef Alessandro Cargiolli won third place in the superyacht category, and whose stewardesses Nora Edgington and Paloma Estrada earned first prize for table design and service. The yacht was at the show with Moran Yacht & Ship, where charter guests can request the dish shown.

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