Everything I know, yours for life.
Start today — $97 a monthNew here? Watch the first module free.
Start Free — Watch Module 1New — pay monthly
$97 a month for 12 months. Everything unlocks today — nothing held back until you've finished paying.
Start Today — $97 A MonthWant ongoing job access or 1:1 support? Compare all three packages below.
You can already cook. That was never what stopped you.
Cooking is a small part of being a yacht chef. It's everything around it — the pref sheets, the provisioning, the watch, the handover, the contract you shouldn't have signed — that decides whether you get hired, and whether you get asked back.
I'm Dean Harrison. Fourteen years at sea, up to the 88-metre Project X. I filmed the whole job onboard the boats I actually worked — not a studio, not theory — so you can walk up the passerelle already knowing how it runs.
Yacht chef salaries generally run $48,000–$160,000 a year, plus tips on charter. General industry ranges, not guaranteed earnings. Pay varies by vessel, position, experience and season, and changes over time.
Start Free — Watch Module 1As featured in
The yachting press has covered Dean’s career and galley work — click any logo to read or watch.
Also heard on SuperYacht Radio, Rich AF and Get The Fork Out.
Why Most Chefs Fail to Break Into Yachting (and How to Do It Right)
Every year, hundreds of talented chefs try to trade the kitchen grind for a life at sea, and most never make it.
Not because they’re bad cooks.
But because they start blind.
They take expensive courses that teach unnecessary and useless things.
They send CVs to the wrong agencies.
They show up to the docks unprepared and get sent home.
Here is a secret, becoming a yacht chef isn’t about luck or connections.
It’s about knowing exactly how the industry works, what certifications matter, and how to make yourself the chef every yacht wants onboard.
That’s what this course gives you... the truth, the roadmap, and the shortcuts from someone who’s lived it for 14 years.
Becoming a Yacht Chef is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
The Route to Becoming a Yacht Chef
This program shows you how to turn your culinary career into a life of travel, growth, and financial independence with huge salaries and tips.
Enroll now
Here is what you'll learn
40 videos across 6 modules with all the secrets to break into the yachting industry, all available now, plus 36 PDF handouts. See my course outline below!
So You Want to Be a Yacht Chef?
How to Secure Your First Job
Joining the Yacht
Crew Cooking
Guests On Board
Your Future
36 PDF Handouts
You’ll get these amazing bonuses to make the whole process even easier!
Before You Go
Getting qualified and getting hired
- Yacht Chef Self-Assessment Scorecard
- Certificates & Visas Guide
- First Steps Checklist
- CV Sample + Builder Guide
- Yacht Chef Salary Guide
- Skills & Certifications Ladder
Finding Work
Where to go and what to sign
- Where To Find Work + Hiring Seasons
- Where To Stay While Job Hunting
- Finding Jobs Through Agencies and Groups
- Yacht Chef Job Types Cheat Sheet
- Contract Red-Flags Checklist
- First-Season Game Plan
Joining The Yacht
Your first weeks onboard
- Yacht Crew & Chef Packing List
- Galley Familiarisation Guide
- Galley Handover Guide
- Galley Cleaning Schedule
- Galley Cleaning Checklist Grid
- Cabin Inspection Checklist
Cooking For Crew
Feeding the people you live with
- Crew Meal Rotation Guide
- Weekly Menu Planner
- Grazing & Weekend Spread Ideas
- Crew Morale & Celebration Food Planner
- 14-Day Crew Crossing Menu
- Ocean Crossing Prep Guide
- Prep Lists
Guests On Board
Charter season, pref sheets and service
- Charter Prep Countdown
- Guest Preference Sheet (Example)
- Worldwide Provisioner List
- Provisioning Order Calculator
- 24-Hour Menu Planner
- Service-Day Timeline
- Service Standards & Plating Checklist
- Guest Wow-Moments Swipe File
- Jet & Transfer Food Packing Checklist
Your Future
Building the career after season one
- Season Earnings & Savings Tracker
- Yacht Chef Instagram Starter Kit
All 36 handouts are included with every package, and every future update is yours at no extra cost.
With The Full Support Package You Also Receive These Additional Resources
14 Day Guest & Crew Menus
Breakfast, lunch and dinner for guests, plus two full weeks of crew menus. Four sets in total, written from real charter seasons and ready to cook.
What're My Options?
Explore offersTake these 4 steps to become a Yacht Chef
Kitchen grease to salty air.
Step 1: Get Qualified the Right Way
Learn exactly which certifications matter and actually find out what it's like to be a yacht chef before you take the leap.
Step 2: Build Your Chef Profile
We’ll help you turn your land-based experience into a yacht-ready profile that recruiters and captains actually care about.
Step 3: Get on the Ground (and Onboard)
Learn how to choose the best yacht hubs, find short-term “day work,” and make real connections that lead to full-time roles.
Step 4: Master the Lifestyle
You’ll discover what life onboard is really like: managing tight spaces, long charters, crew relationships, and demanding guests.
With The Course You'll Get:
$97 a month for 12 months
Everything unlocks today. Or pay $997 once — both options are on the same page.
Full Online Course Access
6 modules, 40 videos and 36 PDF handouts, plus lifetime updates. Learn everything you need to know about what it's like to be a yacht chef and how to become one.
36 PDF Handouts
Every checklist, template and guide from the course, grouped by where you are in the journey — getting qualified, finding work, joining the yacht, cooking for crew, charter season and building the career. All 36 included, plus every future update.
Pay Monthly:
$97 a month for 12 months, and everything unlocks the day you join — nothing held back until you have finished paying. There is a 3-payment option at $332 too. I built these because I remember being a broke chef myself.
With The Full Support Package You'll Get:
$997 then $1,099/month
Limited spots. The monthly is for ongoing job access and support, not the course. Cancel any time and the course stays yours for life. The $997 course portion can be paid monthly instead — $97 a month for 12 months, or 3 payments of $332.
1:1 Coaching Calls with Dean:
A 1-hour 1:1 coaching session every 90 days, designed to help you map your career path, optimize your CV, and become fully job-ready. This lets Dean get to know you so he can recommend you for jobs when you're ready to go.
Private Mentorship + Direct Feedback:
Your CV and portfolio reviewed by Dean himself, with referrals through Yacht Chef Jobs, plus direct WhatsApp access to Dean at every step.
Everything in the lower tiers, included
The full course — 6 modules, 40 videos and all 36 PDF handouts, with lifetime access and every future lesson at no extra cost. The BAYC Jobs Group with new jobs 12 hours before any other chef group, the BAYC WhatsApp Community, monthly live Q&A, and the BAYC Galley Chats community. The course can be paid monthly — $97 a month for 12 months, or 3 payments of $332.
What chefs who've worked with Dean say
Crew who ran galleys alongside him on Loon, Arience and Project X — and chefs he's coached one to one.
Judy
“In my 9 years cheffing he's the best head chef I've ever worked with. Calm, patient, and an amazing teacher. He genuinely wanted to teach me how to become a great head chef myself — crew menus, guest desserts, provisioning, even the accounts. He gave me the confidence to take charge of the galley. Not long after working with Dean, I landed my first head chef role and tackled it with ease. There's no one better equipped to teach others about becoming a yacht chef.”
Sous Chef, 68m M/Y Loon
Daniel
“I met with Dean for 1:1 coaching to look over my CV and talk through his tricks for staying organised during a heavy charter season. He gave me so much more solid advice and new techniques than I expected, and after a few weeks I landed a great job. He's a calm, level-headed chef who's worth meeting with if you want to take your career to the next level.”
Head Chef, 50m
Leandri Kersch
“Hands down the best head chef I ever had. He taught me so many foundational tricks of the trade and chef hacks that to this day I still use — as a sole chef on 50 metres. Definitely grateful to have him as a mentor. He's one of the goats!”
60m M/Y Arience
Sean Connolly
“Working under Dean I acquired new cooking techniques but also a new management style, and essential communication skills with both guests and crew. His cool demeanour allows for calmness in the most heated moments. All in all 10/10 — except his dance moves, 6/10.”
Sous Chef, 68m M/Y Loon
Max Hemming
“An exceptional chef and an even better leader. Calm under pressure, incredibly knowledgeable, and always willing to take the time to teach and support his team. I genuinely credit a lot of my development as a yacht chef to his guidance and mentorship.”
Crew Chef, 88m M/Y Project X
Fredrik Grönholm
“I wish I’d had this knowledge and guidance when I first started in the industry.
I’ve only been in the industry for 1.5 years, so this course came at the perfect time as I’m looking to progress in my career.
The value for money is incredible when you take into account all the knowledge, course material, and the one-to-one coaching. I see it as an investment in myself that will pay for itself very quickly.
The course gave me a much better understanding of what to look for in a job, where to find the right opportunities, how to avoid dodgy contracts, how to manage my time effectively, and where to focus my energy. Most importantly, it reminded me to look after myself and know my worth in the industry.
This has been the best money I’ve spent on myself in a long time.”
Course + Coaching student — 5/5
Meet Your Instructor – Dean Harrison
I did everything you're supposed to do. Got my STCW. Rewrote my CV. Then I stayed in my hometown and barely tried.
It took me three years to land my first offer. That was my own fault, and it's half the reason this course exists — because nobody had told me the one thing that mattered: the jobs don't come to you. You go where the boats are.
Here's the other half. There's one yacht I never talk about, because I was ashamed of it.
I was working a 35-metre dive boat back home in Australia when the offer came — three weeks on a 40-metre as a temp, with a shot at going full time. I'd never set foot on a superyacht. I walked onboard completely blindsided, and not just by the day-to-day. By what the job actually was. I had no idea how to provision — the captain had to show me. I didn't know what was expected for breakfast, lunch and dinner, or how you cook for twelve guests and ten crew at the same time. Nobody was guiding me, and there was no information out there to go and find.
I wanted to quit three times in three weeks. I finished the trip, and I was done. I decided superyachting wasn't for me.
So I went back to the dive boat. Comfortable, slower, about $150 a day — and I stayed there another year and a half. That's the part that still stings. Not that I failed on the 40-metre, but that I spent eighteen months hiding from it. Not because I couldn't cook. Because nobody had shown me the job.
Eventually I made the jump to a 30-metre, and it went one boat at a time after that — three years through the South Pacific as sole chef and sole deckhand, eighteen months on a 37-metre sailing yacht in remote Southeast Asia. Then my first head chef role on a 60-metre, the 68-metre Loon, and the 88-metre Project X.
I started in 2004, a rebellious 15-year-old who couldn't stand school but loved being in a kitchen. First job was dishwasher and prep cook, chopping parsley for hours while the chefs laughed from the back steps. Twenty-one years later I'm still doing it, and I still love it.
Nobody walks straight onto an 88-metre. But nobody should lose eighteen months to a boat that blindsided them either — and you won't, if someone shows you the job before you walk on.
That's the whole course. Everything I wish someone had handed me on that 40-metre, filmed onboard the boats I actually worked.
Enroll now
You’ve Mastered the Kitchen.
Now Master Your Freedom.
You’ve got the skill. You’ve got the drive.
But restaurant life? It’s a grind, long hours, low pay, no freedom.
You’ve seen chefs cooking on yachts and thought, “How do I even start?”
And honestly, no one explains it clearly. Most end up wasting time and money chasing bad info and doing courses you don’t even need.
It’s time to get the real game plan and knowledge on exactly what you need to do with actual footage of me on the yachts showing you what it's like and how it's done.
Enroll nowWhy This Course Works:
Saves you money before you even start.
BAYC is equivalent to the cost of just 2-3 days work on a yacht. See what its actually like to work on a yacht before spending upward of $10,000+ on flying to another country, all your yachting courses, accommodation and daily expenses to try and land a job. Find out if you are actually the right fit to be a yacht chef, which courses and certifications actually matter, get insights in to what yachting is exactly like to prepare yourself better and excel your career.
Global reach.
Whether you're in London, Cape Town, Sydney, or Miami, you'll know exactly how to find work in top yacht hubs around the world.
Real prep for real life at sea.
From understanding your contract, what watches are, cabin inspections, prepping for charters, accounting, how to setup your galley, cook for guests and crew in tight galleys, this course gets you ready for the job and the lifestyle.
Made for working chefs.
The lessons fit around your schedule and focus on results you can act on right away.
A better way to build your career.
Earn way more, travel farther, and take your craft somewhere most chefs never get to go.
