Is Yacht Chef Training Worth the Cost?

Fair question to ask someone who sells a course — so let me answer it the way I'd answer a mate over a beer, including when you shouldn't pay for training.

What you'll spend getting in, regardless

Some costs are unavoidable: STCW Basic Training, your ENG1 medical, a food safety certificate, flights to a crew hub, and crew house accommodation while you job hunt. Budget a few thousand for the lot. This isn't "training cost" — it's the entry fee to the industry, and every crew member pays it.

What training can't do

No course can make you a chef. If you can't cook under pressure, no certificate fixes that — only kitchen hours do. Any programme promising a superyacht galley in a few weeks with zero cooking background is selling a fantasy. I'll say that plainly even though I'm in this business.

What good training actually buys you

Time and mistakes. When I started, there was no roadmap — I stumbled from an outback pub to a dive boat to my first yacht by luck and persistence over several years. The knowledge I paid for in wrong turns is exactly what a good course hands you in a weekend: which tickets to get in what order, when and where the hiring seasons run, how a yachting CV needs to look, how agencies and daywork really work, what a preference sheet is, how provisioning works, what captains actually screen for.

Do the maths on it. If proper guidance gets you hired even one month sooner, that's a month of yacht chef salary with no rent — the course pays for itself many times over. If it saves you flying to the wrong hub in the wrong season, same again.

How to spot a course worth paying for

Taught by someone who has actually done the job at the level you're aiming for — recently, not decades ago. Honest about the hard parts, not just sunsets. Specific and practical rather than motivational fluff. And it should let you try before you buy.

That last one is why Module 1 of my course is completely free. Watch it, and if it's not for you, you've lost nothing and you're still better informed than most people on the dock.

The bottom line

Pay for the essentials. Never pay anyone who promises you a job. And treat good guidance as what it is — the cheapest shortcut in an expensive industry.

Start with the free Module 1 of Become a Yacht Chef and judge for yourself.