Your Guide to World-Class Cuisine on Your Offshore Yacht

Resource Guide to World-Class Cuisine on Your Offshore Yacht

At Offshore West, we know that everything tastes better when it’s cooked and served on your own Offshore Yacht.

Whether you’re serving fresh-from-the-sea delicacies like crab, shrimp, or dorado, sizzling chops right off the grill, or a not-so-simple basic cheeseburger, nothing enhances a meal onboard more than the combination of sea air, balmy temperatures, and active outdoor lifestyle on your Offshore Yacht.

And whether you’re doing your own cooking or working with a hired chef, the best chefs know that cooking on a boat involves planning, provisioning, and an attention to detail that that few land-based cooks really understand.

So, we’ve collected some great resources from the web, along with cookbooks written by boaters and yacht industry chefs with lifetimes of experience, so you can create stunning, unforgettable meals on your Offshore that will have you and your guests raving long after your cruise ends.

General Tips for Equipping Your Galley

The galley on your Offshore Yacht can be as simple as a motorboat or as sophisticated as any kitchen ashore, depending on your preferences. Follow these tips to keep your galley organized, well-equipped, and ready for anything.

• The bare minimum of essential equipment for any yacht includes skillets, saucepans, stockpots, and bakeware, as well as a good set of chef knives and magnetic knife rack.
• Boating and “big box” stores offer a variety of specialty storage solutions including nets, baskets, airtight storage containers, thermal mugs, cups, and beverage servers, as well as silicone bakeware and collapsible containers
• Given you’ll be cooking and serving on a moving platform, keep glass in your galley to a minimum. You can find attractive melamine, Lexan, enameled metal, and even acrylic dishware and flatware.
• Use supplemental coolers for overflow fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as for stocking plenty of beer, wine, and other beverages.
• The grill on your Offshore Yacht can be supplemented with a variety of add-ons for grilling fish, meats, and virtually anything else you can imagine.
• Be “ocean friendly” by reducing trash. Use cloth napkins and tablecloths, and reusable, washable flatware. Your Offshore Yacht is the perfect place to use “real” flatware for formal or festive meals.

General Tips for Preparing Meals Onboard

• In general, boat food usually needs to be tasty and easy to eat without requiring lots of utensils or tableware. Hand-held breakfasts (muffins, granola bars, or fresh fruit), “grab and go” lunch sandwiches or tortilla rollups, and simple dinners can provide plenty of exceptional flavor and flair along with basic nutrition.
• If you’re planning on being away from a port for a week or longer, plan meals around staples like rice, noodles, and grains. Use prepared mixes for sauces, marinades, and garnishes, and customize them (our recommended cookbooks offer tons of ideas).
• Using your Offshore’ s outdoor grill will keep the interior of your yacht a bit cooler and cut down on generator use. Your grill is perfect for sausages or burgers, veggie brochettes, or chicken wings.

Online Resources for Cooking Aboard your Offshore Yacht

The Superyacht Chef is a new website for chefs who serve the yachting community all over the world. The blog features articles about high-end galley gadgets, food preparation and presentation techniques, stellar recipes shared by superyacht chefs all over the world, and recommended cookbooks for the yacht galley. They even link to agencies that will help you find a professional yacht chef, if that suits your style.

Portside Cuisine is the website of Peg Donahue, a former chef aboard both private and charter yachts, where she cooked for scores of interesting, influential people (like you!) including high profile politicians, writers, scientists, and even movie stars. Working as a chef for nearly 10 years aboard yachts ranging from a 26 to 90 feet, she cruised  throughout the Caribbean, along the coast of Venezuela, the Eastern seaboard of the United States, and as far north as the border of Nova Scotia.

Her website features recipes (complete with photographs good enough to eat all by themselves), equipment tips and recommendations, and stories of her travels and the fascinating people and places she’s encountered along the way. We offer a review of her cookbook of the same name below.

The Boat Galley offers hundreds of recipes that include a wealth of options for dietary and equipment restrictions. From the website: “Cooking on a boat is different, but boat-friendly recipes make great meals on your cruising adventures not just possible but easy.” Some specialty recipes include:

• Recipes to grill everything from vegetables to meat and chicken to fresh-caught fish
• Make-ahead meals for longer passages or weekends out on your Offshore
• Specialty recipes for dairy-free, gluten-free, keto, or other restricted meals
• Tips to make your own seasoning mixes for use in other recipes

In addition to the website, there are bite-sized bits of information, 5 to 10 minutes long, offered in The Boat Galley Podcast | The Boat Galley,by Nica Waters and Lin Pardey. The podcasts offer a nice alternative to browsing over 1200 articles on the website itself.

All Recipes is a great online source of tested recipes for every occasion, and their “Galley Kitchen” section offers a wealth of insight into using space wisely, equipping your galley, meal planning and tips for quick, efficient, and safe cooking in a small, moving space.

Recommended Yachting Cookbooks for your Offshore Library

The following nautical cookbooks are highly recommended (available on Amazon) and grace the galleys of many yacht chefs as well as full-time liveaboards and weekend cruisers.

The Portside Cuisine Cookbook: A Yacht Chef’s Recipe Collection by Peg Donahue

From Peg’s press release: “With stunning food photography and more than 160 individual recipes, The Portside Cuisine Cookbook reveals a glimpse behind the galley doors of a professional charter chef as she creates world-class cuisine on the high seas for clients that range from everyday guests to captains of industry and celebrities of the silver screen.” She also shares interesting short stories behind each recipe that are so exciting, entertaining, and educational that you can imagine each dish elegantly presented and served on your own Offshore Yacht.

Her recipes are easy-to-use, family tested, and suitable for budding cooks as well as professional chefs, and range from simple “comfort food” to elegant and elaborate meals for holidays, formal dinners, buffets, picnics, and any kind of party you can imagine.

She includes vegetarian recipes as well as those that are easily adaptable to accommodate dietary restrictions. Every recipe lists nutritional information for those who need to monitor salt, sugar, or calorie intake.

Cruising Chef Cookbook, by Michael Greenwald

After 22 years in print, now in its 10^th printing, the Cruising Chef Cookbook is essential to any boat galley. Not only are there more than 300 delicious recipes, there are hundreds of tips for buying, storing, provisioning, and resupplying in out-of-the-way markets. Greenwald also offers extensive instruction on special cooking techniques like pressure-cooking, stir-frying, and grilling. But perhaps the highlight of this cookbook is the salty humor that seasons the chapters. Articles like “Planning for the Big Eater” and “Fishing” will leave you exhausted from laughing out loud.

The Boat Galley Cookbook: 800 Everyday Recipes and Essential Tips for Cooking Aboard, by Carolyn Shearlock  and Jan Irons

In this easy-to-navigate and extensively cross-referenced masterpiece, long-term liveaboard cruisers Carolyn Shearlock and Jan Irons offer more than 800 recipes made from easily found ingredients and hand utensils in small boat galleys. In addition to their personally galley-tested recipes, they offer unique energy-saving tips like cooking in a Thermos, baking on top of the stove, and preparing enjoyable meals in a tiny, moving kitchen.

The Boater’s Cookbook: 450 Quick & Easy Galley-Tested Recipes,  by Sylvia Williams Dabney

Dabney, a long-time live-aboard cruiser has over sixty thousand miles under her belt, and understands not only the necessity of a well-stocked pantry but the joy of collecting recipes from all over the world. A highlight of this wonderful cookbook is the comprehensive list of the kinds of gadgets gear, and supplies that every boater needs – and how to store it all in a limited space, whether it’s a 27-foot sailboat or a 60-foot motor cruiser.

When you’re next out on your Offshore, remember that dining aboard is one of the rare joys of boating.

We’d love to hear about your recommendations for shopping, storing, or cooking aboard your own Offshore Yacht. We’d also be delighted to share your recipes, grilling tips, and menu plans with the rest of our Offshore family.

Just drop us a line or give us a call at either our Newport Beach Fort or Lauderdale office. We’ll look forward to hearing from you.