Richard ‘Tricky’ Harrison

What is interesting as a yacht chef is that when people ask me if I have a particular style, I have to say that I did when I was Head Chef ashore but I’m not sure you really can on a yacht, because it’s so diverse. We might be doing burgers all week on one charter, and then only plated fine dining the next. It’s quite hard to have a style – you’ve got to be adaptive and a bit of a Jack-of-all-trades to some extent. And you definitely have to pull rabbits out of hats on occasions! Knowing how to cut corners or to improvise is certainly key – not only for when you can’t get certain ingredients but also for when guests say they are going ashore for dinner and then all of a sudden they’re not! It means that’s a dinner that has to happen, which makes it interesting but that’s when your experience kicks in.

My path to working in superyachting involved an element of chance. The early part of my childhood was in the south of England, but then we moved up to the Lake District in northwest England when I was 13. I started working in a pub kitchen during the summer holidays, but I completely flunked school, left when I was 15 and went to catering college, which was the only real avenue open to me. I was working in a local pub and got really lucky working with some good chefs, one of whom sent me down to London. I suppose that’s where it all really began properly.

I worked at the Mandarin Oriental for four years, then left for a restaurant in southwest London which was my first Head Chef gig, although looking back I was a bit young really – but it was interesting! Then I went travelling for a bit and worked on the west coast of Ireland but my food progress halted a little bit until a friend of mine who had bought a pub back in southern England asked me to go over and be Head Chef there. It was really exciting, with a menu that was very seasonal and used local produce. We made a good name for ourselves there – I was there six years.

Another old friend of mine, who was working as Head Chef on Slipstream, was constantly pestering me to get into the yacht industry. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but there was a natural time for me to move on from the pub and there happened to be a Second Chef position open on the yacht. It all just sort of fell into place – I started on Slipstream as Second Chef which was useful as I was new to the industry – everything is different, even provisioning. I’m in my ninth summer on board now, and I stepped up to the Head Chef role here five years ago.

It was a fairly steep learning curve, but I had the advantage of not really having any pressure because as Second Chef I was only cooking for the crew – still a really important job, but I could just get on with it and it gave me time to find my feet in the superyacht industry. I had time to learn where all the markets are and where to go in different ports, which is invaluable knowledge. And on top of that I was working with a mate of mine – we both worked at the Mandarin Oriental and we shared flats when we were poor broke chefs! It was great to be working together again and it was fun as well. It was he who had originally called me Tricky and it has transferred to the yacht!

And yachting is a wonderful industry. The chance to explore so many different food markets really gets me fired up. Barcelona has amazing markets and really exciting vibes, and I recently found a great food market in Denmark which got the creative juices flowing. I try to eat out as much as I can when we’re in interesting places, and I definitely try to eat local and buy local as much as I can.

We can’t always just follow the seasons on a yacht but I definitely try to take something different from each place I go. Of course, we’re lucky too with the quality of places we go due to the nature of the industry – there’s always somewhere quality to go and it keeps me inspired.

I adapted to working on a yacht fairly quickly because for a lot of my land career I either lived in staff accommodation or in provided flats with a lot of other people around, and I also went to boarding school for a bit so being part of a crew was second nature. We’ve got a great crew on Slipstream at the moment and that makes a huge difference – you’re surrounded by a decent bunch of people and that feeds off itself. You get a lot more out of it when everyone is enthusiastic.

I love being on the yachts, although if I had to give some advice to anyone just starting out or thinking of a career on yachts, don’t assume it’s all going to be glamorous. You can end up not having a day off for 30 or 40 days and you might not step on land really for a month if you’re swinging to an anchor – so be prepared for the nitty gritty behind the scenes as it can be hard work, particularly if you have a busy charter season. Don’t look at it through rose-tinted glasses!

Of course, the flip side – apart from the camaraderie and the professional development – is that you can get to see some amazing places. We just came back from the west coast of Scotland and it was absolutely stunning up there. I love the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean and I love going to Corsica – if I could tell the captain to take us anywhere that would probably be my request. As for my food – it’s hard to pick a signature dish because I have to change the menu so often. It’s one of the other joys of working on superyachts – it’s just so varied.