Living the Yacht Life with The Crew Chef Nina Wilson

This episode dives into the unique world of yacht chefs, focusing on the experiences and challenges faced by Chef Nina Wilson, who works on luxury yachts.

1. Rotational Work Benefits: Nina appreciates the rotational work schedule that allows for better work-life balance and creativity.
2. Creative Challenges: Maintaining creativity in a demanding environment is crucial; chefs need to recharge to avoid burnout.
3. Ingredient Sourcing Challenges: Provisioning quality ingredients can be difficult in remote locations, affecting meal preparation.
4. Career Path Insights: Nina discusses her career progression from a stewardess to a yacht chef, highlighting the skills and adaptations required.
5. Personal Touch in Cooking: Engaging with guests and personalizing their culinary experience is a key aspect of yacht chef duties.

1: Introduction

Overview of the episode and introduction of Chef Nina Wilson, her background, and the main topics to be discussed. Hannes Hennche sets the stage for an insightful conversation about life as a yacht chef.

• Hannes Hennche: "Welcome to the Private Chef podcast serving the 1%."

2: Life as a Yacht Chef

Discussion on the benefits and challenges of being a yacht chef, including the rotational work schedule and its impact on personal life and professional creativity.

• Nina Wilson: "Once you've had rotation, you're going to find it very hard to go back."

3: Creativity and Workload

Exploration of the creative demands on yacht chefs and how Nina manages heavy workloads and maintains creativity.

• Nina Wilson: "You push really hard for too long, creativity dies."

4: Ingredient Challenges

Conversation on the challenges of provisioning fresh ingredients in remote locations and how this impacts meal quality and preparation.

• Nina Wilson: "You really got to pull your tricks out of the bag."

5: Yachting as a Career

Reflections on Nina’s career path in yachting, her transition from different roles within yachts, and her future aspirations.

• Nina Wilson: "I grew up in a family of yachties, which inspired my career path."

• Understand the Importance of Balance: Ensure to take breaks to maintain creativity and prevent burnout.
• Creative Menu Planning: Adapt your menu based on available ingredients, especially in remote areas.
• Career Development: Seek diverse experiences within the industry to broaden your skills.
• Guest Interaction: Engage personally with guests to enhance their dining experience.
• Continuous Learning: Always be open to learning new culinary techniques and styles.

In this episode, Chef Nina Wilson covers her amazing journey into yachting, the benefits of rotation systems, the importance of creativity and rest for chefs, and the power of social media platforms for networking and building an inspiring community.

Chef Nina is an Australian chef with over a decade of experience on luxury yachts. She comes from a maritime background. Before diving into culinary training in the UK, she served as a Scuba dive instructor on the Great Barrier Reef and managed sailing flotillas in the Greek Islands. Her culinary journey reflects her global travels, with a passion for Southeast Asian, Japanese, and Mexican cuisine, and recently spent a lot of time in the U.S. embracing the ‘New American’ style of cooking. Chef Nina is a columnist and a social media influencer, with her YouTube channel, "The Crew Chef," inspiring over 200k followers.

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Nina Wilson, Hannes Hennche

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Nina Wilson

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Nina Wilson
If they want their money's worth, if they want their value. Got to keep us fully charged though. If you want the best out of your chef, there's a lot more that goes into that than just paying them good money. If you're a chef and you're thinking about how to venture into the private chef space, how to set yourself up for success from resume to first interactions with your clients as well as succeeding at the job. Our one on one coaching got you covered.

Hannes Hetji
Go to www. Dot Privatechef, dot CC and connect with me. Decades of experience can be your support to seize the next private chef opportunity.

Welcome to the private chef podcast serving the 1%. I'm your host, Hannes Hetji, and on our show, we speak to the best chefs, how they honed in on their skills to excel in the industry, and what it takes to work as a private chef for some of the most exclusive clients in the world.

Welcome back to the Private Chef podcast. I'm your host, Hannes Henchy. Today we're thrilled to have chef Nina Wilson. Nina is an australian chef with over ten years of experience working on luxury yachts. She's also columnist for Dog Walk, the number one magazine for yachts cruise.

She is the creator behind the crew chef, a YouTube channel with nearly a quarter million followers. I just rounded that up to make it cooler. Thank you, chef. Nina's cooking is influenced by her travels with a focus on southeast asian, japanese and mexican cuisine. Recently, she embraced new american cooking after her time in the US, and she loves hosting beach barbecues and pizza parties.

This is going to be a fun and exciting chat. Welcome to the show, Nina. Thank you so much. And I'm so glad we finally lined our schedules up because yacht chefs, you know what, you know what it's like. Yes.

That took us a little bit of time, but I'm glad we finally made it. And chatting maybe. Yes. So actually, let's start right there. How is life on rotation?

Like, what makes you appreciate it compared to a regular chef schedule? So this is the second vessel I've had rotation on, and I think once you've had rotation, you're going to find it very hard to go back. What I found was lacking prior to that for both my husband and me was that we weren't getting time at home together. So we just wanted to sort of slowly start transitioning to building more of a life on land. And we were really missing being able to plan and sort of execute holidays and events and festivals and things like that.

Nina Wilson
So I really loved having rotation in the fact that I can actually plan ahead. Say to my family, I'm going to fly to Australia, then say to my friends, it's my birthday. Then let's plan a birthday event. Or weddings has been a big one. I'm at that age where every Tom, Dick, and Harry is getting married.

So I think I've made every single wedding except one. So, yeah, really loving the rotation life. The other aspect is that I'm so much more well rested when I go back to work. I just find I need the time off to get creative again, to find the passion again. And then I get back to work in eight weeks.

You're just like, yeah, let's do it. So it's a win win. I can see that. I used to love event work because you throw yourself in, you make the magic happen, but then, you know it's over and you get to relax again. You have a finish line inside.

I agree. Yeah. And then there's. I totally agree on that component with the creative part. Like, if you push really hard for too long, creativity dies.

Yes, it does. Yeah, it's tough. You sort of get a bit exhausted mentally. And I can remember being on a very busy Charlie yacht with Dean, who I rotate with now, but at the time, he was my head chef. Neither of us were on any rotation program and were literally looking at Pinterest at midnight for menu ideas the next day.

Going busy chart. But that's also something that is so crucial to communicate with principals. Like, actually, just yesterday, I was speaking to a chef, and he's being signed up for a really tough traveling role with a very challenging principal. And I'm like, see, you can do this. And the reality is that at some point, you will hit the wall and you will not be there creatively.

Yeah. And honestly, from my perspective, what he's signing up for is more like a rotational, almost like you want two chefs in this team because there's a lot of travel involved and everything. And I'm like, I think there's also some we need to communicate that with. With the principals, with the owners. Yeah.

If they understand, if they want their money's worth, if they want their value, you know, you gotta. Gotta keep us fully charged. So if you want the best out of your chef, there's a lot more that goes into that than just paying them good money. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't matter how much money you throw at a dead horse, you know, it's like.

That. I'm not sure if it isn't, but I like, I remember.

Hannes Hetji
I remember that my dad had a sign at his office door, one that you, you like, cannot be the dead horse to performance or something. That's maybe. Okay. I like that. I like, I still.

Nina Wilson
The concept is the same. Yeah. So basically, you know, once the horse is dead, it's like, it doesn't matter what you do with it. It's like you gotta get rejuvenated. Yeah.

Yeah. It's really good. So, loving the rotation life. Nice. I think it's.

Hannes Hetji
It's crucial that the industry at a whole understands what it takes to not get the most out of people, but the best out of people, you know, to make sure that the performance is there. And the performance comes out of giving them a little bit of balance and not grinding them down to the bone 100%. And I think we definitely saw a large uptick in rotational roles over the last sort of four to five years as more boats are realizing that. And not just the chef department, also in chief students department. And now you've got second engineers, which are going on to rotation.

Nina Wilson
So it's becoming this whole crew shift. I think a lot of the old school captains kind of moan about it a bit because it's a higher payroll. You know, you are increasing salary payroll, but at the same time, you're not replacing your crew as often, so you're saving money in that way. The other thing that I do see from a captain's perspective is when you've got two people sharing a role, there can almost be a bit of a. You do your eight weeks and you tap out, you just make it to the end.

So it's really important to find people which are invested beyond that. So Dean and I, we're keeping in contact throughout even our off rotation with each other. So I do my orders for when I come back. So there is overlap. It's not just like you disconnect and drop.

You just find that really important, because I can understand, especially with engineering as well, you know, having that hand over period is really important. Yeah. Otherwise you're like, okay, yeah, see you in eight weeks. Learn something. Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. So what brought you into yachting originally? What was the drive that you wanted to do? This. Ah, Hans, you'll love this.

My parents were yachties. How did that. Back in nine, in the late eighties, early nineties, my mum and dad, they wanted to buy a sailing yacht and sail around the world. When they started looking at buying yachts, they were down in the marina, and they're like, oh, we could work on these boats and then travel for free. So they traveled.

They did yachting for like, four years in the early, sort of late eighties, early nineties and, yes, sailed all around the world. Did a mixture of motor sailing. My dad was an engineer, but he was just a car mechanic. And then he went on board and he was an engineer. It was hilarious back in the day.

And they were all, you know, some 40 meters yachts, 50 metre yachts, big sizes. And then my mum got pregnant whilst they were in Fiji. They were stuck there because of a cyclone. It was called cyclone. Really?

Yeah. How does this baby do? Funny. Yeah. And then my mum's going, oh, this is weird.

I'm getting seasick. And it was me. It's because she was pregnant, because she never got seasick. And then they had to go back to Australia and I crossed the Pacific before I was born, you know, told me. So you measured it?

Hannes Hetji
You were born to say it. Yeah. Looking at their photos going, that looks really cool. I want to do that. And basically went straight from school to doing a dive internship.

Nina Wilson
So I became a dive instructor because I wanted to have something else with the industry. I just didn't want to be a crew member. I want to be honest. And then, you know, once I had my dive internship completed, I flew to antib, got a job. This is fun.

Hannes Hetji
I mean, just part of your dad is like, yeah, I'm a car mechanic, but I'm not now. And it's like completely winging it. Completely winging it. Yeah, it's those, like, back in the day, like, no STCW, no eng one. They would.

Nina Wilson
How they got jobs, so they would sit in the harbour, say, like, they're in Antigua and there's english harbour. They'd sit there with a pair of binoculars and a radio and any yacht that came in, they would radio the yacht and say, do you need any crew?

Can you imagine doing that today? Like, Dilba, Dilba, Dilba. You need a chef. But I love this, you know, I really love this because there's so many times people are like, in my DM's, I'm like, hey, can I get a job somewhere? And I'm like.

Hannes Hetji
Or, you know, sometimes I forward something and they're like, yeah, I'm interested. Like, you really? You think you'll get a job by saying, I'm interested under a post without even dming any specifics about yourself or why you're passionate, you know, imagine the kind of what it means, the hustle. Like, if you're, like, getting onto these yachts, like, hey, do you need a chef? Or something.

It's like there's already an attitude that you want to hire. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like the original dock walking, you know, that's the way it's putting yourself out there. And people are getting so creative these days with their dock walking and applications.

Nina Wilson
I saw one, Doc Walker had a chocolate bar with a QR code printed on it and she was handing out these chocolate bars and the QR code went to her cv. Very cool. Yeah. But was the chocolate bar indicating in any, any way that she's a dog walker or. Yeah, I think it said on the.

On the wrapper it said, you know, Nina Wilson. Stewart. Stewart s or what have you and. Yeah, yeah. Scan for CV.

It's pretty clever. Yeah, I think that's just cool and I appreciate that. And I think these people never have scarcity. I think that's the beauty of what you've probably learned there from your parents too. It's just like, you know, go out and have fun.

Hannes Hetji
Go after what you want, but you also gotta make it happen. Yeah. My sister's also in the industry and she actually started before she beat me to the boat. It was hilarious. So the one.

Nina Wilson
I grew up on a small beach town in Australia, Ailey beach, and we have a nice marina, but it's all sailing yachts, and this superyacht cruises in and there's like a big buzz. I'm out on a dive trip, like at sea for a week. She beats me down to the superyacht, says, can I get a job? And she gets the job. I was like, you.

That was my dream. I wanted to work on superyachts. Got there first when she was 17 years old and I think my parents were like, you know, go down, put your cv in, see if they need any help. So, yeah, that's so funny, man. You have like, this is the family.

Hannes Hetji
It's like all. It's like, let's go into yachting. We love it. We want to be on the open water. Yeah.

Nina Wilson
Every. My father's side, they were yacht builders. Sailing sailing boat builders. And my dad has always loved sailing yachts and he always asks me, you know, Nina, when are you going to work on a real yacht? Because I've always worked on motor yachts on the power roads.

I like staying flat. Yeah, yeah. You don't want to get the whole thing tilted. No, I didn't. Just to get some knots in.

I did. I covered. My sister worked on a sailing boat and I covered her for a crossing. The worst 28 days of my life like this?

No, thank you. So what are some of the challenges that you think or didn't anticipate when you first signed up for this? I went through a bit of a funny route in terms of how I got into the galley because I originally started in the industry as a stewardess, and then I was working on a boat where, because I was a dive instructor, background, I was very used to being outside, so I was always trying to be outside helping the deck crew, can I learn how to drive the crane? That kind of thing. And then they asked me, oh, why don't you come on deck?

So I also was a deckhand for a couple of seasons. I did that. Then I met my husband, and both of us on deck, we weren't having much luck finding jobs, so we ran a smaller yacht together, and it was just two crew, and one person had to be the captain and one person had to be the chef. And I was like, well, you can't cook for shit, so I will cook. And this is probably going on seven years ago now.

And I just remember loving cooking. I've always been a foodie because my parents traveled the world. They brought back with them, you know, cuisines from all over the world, and we were always eating different stuff, more interesting stuff that I would say than my fellow australian schoolmates. You know, no one has, like, a shrimp salad, like, green papaya salad in their lunch. And I was like, it smells stinky, but it's delicious, you know, but the challenges that I found doing the swap from Dec to galley was I spoke to a lot of my chef friends, and I said, what do I need to do?

And I was like, you need to go get culinary trained and find a good head chef to work under. And whilst I found that transition relatively easy, I didn't find out how hard it was until you're actually in the job. And I think no one prepares you for the creativity burnout. The boss trips that go on for, like, five months, and then when you move up to head chef, the amount of responsibility, and you are, like, the final point. If you forget something, like, you're the full guy.

So it is a big step up in responsibility when you go from suit to head. So that'd be those three things. Yeah. The creativity burnout was real. During my first season as a crew chef, I was like, get me off this boat.

Hannes Hetji
And it's tough. Seasons are tough. I mean, there's. I remember when I first spoke with chefs that started going on boards and stuff. I'm like, a lot of them had, like, a real knack for drinking stuff.

I'm like, I don't know, guys. I don't want to get too deep into that part of the game, you know? Yeah, yeah. And I think you have sort of an arsenal of your go to dishes, which I definitely had this last season. And towards the end of the season, you're like, I'm really nailing this.

Nina Wilson
And you've really refined these three or four dishes or desserts that you like to do. But now I've got my time off. It's a fresh season. I want to come up with new ones. So I'm looking forward to that.

I think one of the things, the other things that I wanted to say, one of the other challenges would be just provisioning. I think. I've been cruising up in Alaska, and I didn't. It really made me appreciate the Mediterranean, how good the produce is there. And same with just now, this season in the Caribbean.

When you're given, when you've got, like, bad produce or, you know, just. Just not great, you have to work that much harder to get the same product. Yeah. You really got to pull your tricks out of the bag. Yeah.

Hannes Hetji
I was really sobered out in the Caribbean. Sometimes I'm like, I didn't think too much about it when I first went there, and I'm like, okay, this is, like, really basic in terms of what you can get sometimes and, and how old it is already. Like, some of the veggies, they've traveled, they've sitting, and you're like, okay, that has seen better days. Yeah. Because if it's coming by ship, it's already spent four, five, maybe even a week on board a ship, getting to the island.

Nina Wilson
So you've lost that window of freshness, and you get on board, and the captain expects you to make it last another two weeks. Yeah. And before it gets on the ship, it's already traveled a week from California to Miami or fort. Yeah. Kind of scary when you think about it.

Hannes Hetji
Yeah. I mean, the logistics of that stuff is just mind boggling sometimes. It is. So I'm really looking forward to going back to the Mediterranean and, you know, your window, it's like, it was picked three, four days ago. I think that was one of the coolest, actually coolest places.

So, like, Mallorca is also big in provisioning, and the quality you can get there is just amazing. Like this. Yeah, yeah. Same with Barcelona, with the mercabana there. Yeah, I did a tour around that.

Nina Wilson
That place is so cool. Yeah. Like, tomato means something in Spain, like a tomato, you know, you. And that's oftentimes in the US or in the Caribbean. It's just like, this flavorless red piece.

Hannes Hetji
And that's where I feel like it's so much harder to get really good product than it is in the Mediterranean. It really is. And it definitely adjusts your cooking style. Like, I definitely noticed there was a stage where I just gave up on trying to cook anything Mediterranean inspired. You know, instead of doing a really nice caprese, I would go, we don't.

Nina Wilson
I don't want to do that. You know, I don't. I can't do that. Let's go down the route of more locally available things. We'll do, like, a pineapple salsa.

We'll do, like, a mahi mahi ceviche and kind of do stuff that's locally readily available instead. So it does change your style of cooking, and I think your guests also appreciate that sometimes they're going, you do get the ones which are like, oh, we just want, like, Mediterranean fare. Like, yeah, but it'll be caribbean influenced. Yeah. Because you have to give them some flavors.

Hannes Hetji
Like, if you take bad burrata mozzarella with bad tomatoes and you put a leaf of basil on top, it won't taste great. No, it might look great. It might look pretty. Yeah. And that's one thing I really learned in the Mediterranean, is that there, the product carries the dish in so many ways where you don't need to over flavor it.

Nina Wilson
Yeah. But then you just have to let it speak for itself. Really easy. Yeah. Yeah.

Hannes Hetji
But that's less so over here. Us, it's. I don't know damn what to say. Yeah. Rip.

Nina Wilson
Yeah, it's a wind. Honestly, Alaska was tough. I was really lucky that I had very, um, fish mad guests, and they were fishing every day. Crab pots out every day, shrimp pots out every day. So it's all about the seafood.

And the vegetables could be a little heavier anyway, like, a little bit more, like root vegetable based and, like. Like, more pumpkins, that kind of thing. Getting that involved because it was colder. So it would have felt weird if I'd served a, you know, a crunchy caesar salad. It wouldn't have quite felt in place.

So a more, like, roasted pumpkin salad did feel situationally appropriate. So I was just lucky with that. Nice. I think it's also cool to have guests that are so passionate about where you are, and they're, like, actually there for the fishing and, you know, and you. I did have to tell them to, like, slow down on the fish, because we.

They caught so much. So much fish and then bring it in. We had, like, four gastros of halibut, like, piled high. And I was just saying, guys, we've got an avalanche in our freezer of this fish. We sent it, like, so much of it home on the jet with them, like, eskies, probably about 30 kilos of halibut.

We're like, take it. Please take it. You know the funny thing, halibut is such a funny one. So last season I was in the Hamptons, and people think that the halibut that you buy from the local fish shop is from the Hamptons. And I'm like, no, it's from Alaska.

Yeah. And they're like, yeah, but it's from the local fisherman. Like, yeah, but he buys it from Fulton Fish market in the Bronx, and it's from Alaska. Oh, dear. People.

Yeah. A lot of people are out of touch with where it actually comes from, which is a shame. But when you are in the place where it's from and you're sort of championing it, it's really fun. I was like, spot prawns. Gonna eat them raw.

And they're like, we don't know about that. I was like, do it. Yeah, they have these. Have you ever had soye gambas in Mallorca? No, I haven't.

I've had the carabineros. I know they're really big in Spain. They're not those. They're like, right outside of soye, it's like, I don't even think you can get them off the island. It's just amazing quality.

Hannes Hetji
Yeah. Oh, that's cool. I have to look up that. I don't think. I don't think we're going to Parma at all this season, which is such a shame because I love Palma, you.

Know, right in Palma, when you're in the harbor there is. Right off there, there is a fish market where in the morning, in the wee hours, there's an auction. And sometimes when we used to be out at night and we would come, like, from the club or something, we would go straight to the auction and just, like, check out what's. What's coming off the boats in the day. That sounds amazing.

Nina Wilson
That is like a fantastic way to end the night. I love that. Yeah. And then you smell like fish market and you take a good rinse and go shower and sleep and go back to work.

Oh, that's so cool. You just, like, straight from the club, dressed up, all bed weed. That would be an experience. I'll have to try and fit that in on my schedule. One time we took a.

Hannes Hetji
So that was the Fulton fish market in the Bronx. I took my friend's car and I parked it outside, and he was so mad at me for weeks because he just felt like it still smelled like the fish market.

I don't know, maybe it was just like, his sensitive nose. Oh, man. I used to be very sensitive to coriander. I used to. I think I always said to my mum I was traumatized.

Nina Wilson
She once locked me in the car with, like, a big bunch of coriander right beside my baby car seat. And I remember being like. And then I traveled around Southeast Asia and got over it. And now I love coriander. It's my favorite herb.

Hannes Hetji
I was just about to go to. I used to. I don't know, there's something. Maybe you grow up and you learn to appreciate the freshness of it and the flavor profile it brings and, like, yeah, yeah. I have tried to educate myself to, like, licorice and a seed.

Nina Wilson
Those sort of flavors. Like, I don't really like them naturally. Like, even fennel is a little bit of a. Mmm. But, yeah, I was like, okay, I need to learn to like this.

I did it with coriander. I can do this. So I got, like, an aniseed flavored toothpaste, you know, thinking I just. And all that happened was I stopped brushing my teeth. Like, so I was like, that needs to go.

Hannes Hetji
I hope that was while you were at home and not on the boat. Yeah. I was like, yeah. And that's also how I found out I'm allergic to Colgate. Total.

Nina Wilson
Makes my mouth go numb. Tongue go numb. I can't taste anything after I use it. Nightmare. Yeah, that's wired.

Hannes Hetji
What is that? There's a. There's an ingredient in it. Apparently it's quite common because I googled it. I was like, this, is this normal?

Nina Wilson
And, yeah, happens to quite a few people. Something in the Colgate total toothpaste makes your mouth and your tongue go numb. Whoa. But for how long? Like, is it just like.

It was like a good hour? Yeah, yeah. So, um, I switched because I'd be going back to work after my break, being like, yeah. Taste meanings. This doesn't taste, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And taste is very important as a chef. Yeah. I don't know. It's secondary.

Hannes Hetji
It's all about presentation. All in the nose, you say, right, you can smell the salt, right? I wish I was good enough to smell the salt. I think I'm getting there. Sorry for the interruption.

We will be right back. And if you're a chef thinking about venturing into the private chef space, this is for you. We coach you on how to set yourself up for success from resume to first interactions with your clients, as well as succeeding at the job. Our one on one coaching got you covered. Go to www.

Privatechef dot CC and connect with me. Decades of experience can be your support to seize the next private chef opportunity. I'm more good on smelling cakes. You can smell if they're done or overdone. Oh, I think it makes sense.

Like, I feel like in baking, there's. There's so many nuances of smell that develop around the process. So much. So much so, yeah, yeah. I love it that there's something about cakes where I can be like, yeah, okay, well, shit.

Nina Wilson
Overdone. There's another one sometimes. You know, for me, it's out of sight, out of mind. If something is in the, like, there's these ingredients where it's like, just forget about them when they pop them in the oven for another minute before I put them on a plate. Like, just didn't end up on the plate.

Toast constantly. They're like, yeah, miss so and so would like two slices of toasted sourdough. As soon as you put it down, you forget about it. Or under the grill. The salamander.

I used to have salamander on my. What boat was it on? Hasna. And, yeah, the amount of toast I burnt.

Hannes Hetji
This is too funny. So when we moved, I started toasting everything in the pan, but then I burned so much of my sourdough bread in the pan because I would be turning around or walking away, and then I'd smell it, and I was like, okay, I'll just buy a toaster. It's so sad. It's so sad. You just sometimes got to admit, buy a toaster or by a timer.

Nina Wilson
I am addicted to timers now. I have my watch so I can set time, but I've also got two timers in the galley next to the oven. That makes perfect sense. Like, yeah, I remember, yeah. There's one kitchen in particular where I had, like, literally three to five timers at my station.

Hannes Hetji
And it's like, it's just. It's a really good safety net. It's a really good safety net. I think when, like, the guests pull a quick one on you and they're like, we want this now. And you're trying to juggle multiple things at once.

Nina Wilson
Having the timers, there are really important I have gotten, like, a lot better. Like, I'll find at the end of the eight weeks, I'll set a timer for eight minutes and I'll be like, at the chopping board, I'll be like, that timer should have gone off. Wait. I'm like, yeah.

Judging, like, internally. Yeah. And then you go back home and it's all, like, loose and you get back to the timing. Totally. Totally.

Yeah. The first. The first day back after being rotation, you're like, how do I cook again? It's, um. That's wild, right?

That's. That's so real. Like, sometimes when I haven't cooked and stepped into, and then I'm like, I don't know, it's like I really have to pull it back together. I'm like, how do I make this happen? But then it comes, I'm stepping up.

The level of multitasking. Like, you know, starting off with just two things at once, and then you're like, no, we can bring in a third, we can bring in a fourth. And bringing your sort of brain power back online with that is good. Yeah. So what inspired you to start your channel?

It wasn't really an aim of starting a yachting channel as such. It was. So when I was working on Ariants, Jared Watney was filming loads of Ariant stuff and he asked me to film the crossing. I was like, sure, ill film the crossing from my perspective as the crew chef. And he never ended up using the footage.

So I asked him, can I use the footage, edit a video? And I put it into a drift. The film festival, theres like a film yachty film competition. And then I put it on YouTube and kind of forgot about it. And then my husband's friend, who he grew up with, sent him a message and he lives in Bristol in the UK.

He's like, why is your girlfriend coming up on my YouTube home screen? I was like, what? That's weird. And I logged back in and it had like 40,000 views or something like that. And it was slowly graining traction and going viral and I was like, holy moly, I better keep posting.

So that it was kind of an accident, really. Growing up in school, I was always the media girl, though. I was always the one with the camera. And I used to film little videos for a school assembly and, like, little class videos and things like that. So I've always loved filming and editing.

Hannes Hetji
Oh, that was my next question. Do you still edit yourself? You like that? Yeah, I still edit myself. I am very, I think, a mama, be a chef thing.

Nina Wilson
It might be a personal thing. I'm very conscientious about the way my videos come across. And I like them really snappy and I like the story to be a certain way. And also like, I'm very controlling over how I am presented, which is why I think I find it hard going on below deck. Because if I'm speaking to camera and there is a three second gap or I go, um, in editing, I will cut that out.

Hannes Hetji
Yeah, yeah, fair enough, fair enough. Because it also, like, sometimes you can literally cut out probably like 15% in timing out of a conversation if you take out those gaps so much. And when I interview people, when I have other people, my channel, I'm always like, you know, let's make this a quick interview. You know, fast one's a good one. And then even then, if there is any, because it's also about retaining attention of the viewers.

Yeah. So keeping it stimulating, but that's a real thing. And I think anybody who has ever seen mister Beast video, you know, there's so much happening that, that constantly draws you back into the video. And there's like the tension is built up in the beginning and you don't know and you just kind of stay with it. And there's, see, I have a really, it's two mind.

Like, I like, for example, Lex Friedman and Tim Ferriss and those guys who put out like two hour content. And it works. But I've learned it has something to do with trust. See, people are not willing to trust you with their time. You get that in snippets, you.

Maybe you build it with shorts and then they start recognizing you. Or they, and only when they actually trust your content that they won't get disappointed on spending 1 hour listening or watching something, they will actually go for the long, long format. That's amazing, Hans. I've never really thought of it like that before, but yeah, I. Yeah, because technically, I think the first few videos I was putting out were kind of like six, seven, eight minutes long.

Nina Wilson
And now the average that my videos sit at is about 16 minutes. So maybe 1516. But yeah, it is interesting because like, once they're like, you know, I invested in this person and the content they produce now commit to a long video. Yeah, it's building trust. So each short you give or is like recognizable.

Hannes Hetji
And it's short enough that it doesn't hurt. Like if somebody, I don't know, watch it in between things, 30 seconds, I'm like, ok, that, I don't know, that Nina thing wasn't that great or something. And then the next one was like, oh, this is fun. And then they click on it, and then there is an eight minute one, and maybe if you retain attention long enough, they appreciate it. And then next time there's a 16 minutes one.

They might even watch that. Exactly. Yeah, it's amazing, the progression. It's really cool with all the statistics you get on YouTube studio telling you, like, how the average view of your videos and stuff, you can see what works, what doesn't, and it can be a bit of a wild ride. I think at the start I put a lot of value on the numbers and subscribe because it was so new to me and my channel, like, really took off.

Nina Wilson
For the first three, four months, I was getting like 15,000 subscribers a month, 30,000 subscribers a month, and I was like, this is norm. And then it plateaus. You start to, I started to, like, associate my self worth with the numbers that a video was getting, and it became a bit like it was not healthy. So I really took a step back and just kind of like, let it go. And now it's like, I just do it fun, which is good.

Hannes Hetji
The way I like to think about it is just picture the amount of people that watch an individual video and think you are in a room with them. Yeah. So, like, and then even ten people is great. Like, if I. If I get to speak to ten people, I think it's great.

If I get to speak to 10,000 people, I think it's also great. Yeah, yeah. It's a privilege every time, really, that someone chooses to watch this. And it's pretty cool. Pretty cool.

Nina Wilson
It was also a privilege for me right now is being on a boat that lets me film. Yeah, that's amazing. That was a huge draw card for me. Yeah. Why do you think they allow you to do that?

Hannes Hetji
Is that because they think they're gaining some traffic for the boat, too, or. Yeah, so I believe what loon is trying to do is create a social media profile where they can book charters directly. They don't want to use brokers anymore. So there's various ways of doing that, you know, by having repeat clients and building your own client base. But what they're trying to do is build a very large social media profile so people find the yacht and then charter directly with them because, you know, brokers, they take a big chunk, and brokers can also be a little bit tricky.

Nina Wilson
Oh, there she is. You know what I really love is how they also make it about the crew, you know, and show all of you. Yeah, kind of. Kind of tell the story here a little bit. Yeah.

Find Nina and they feature. They feature the crew. I was wondering, you're the only one who's not wearing the white shirt. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's weird.

Why is Dean wearing a polar. He's a chef. He should be in a jacket.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. You're wearing your coat standing out here. Yeah, he should be in his jacket. Shaft.

Dean, come on. He looks like a deccan. Yeah. But I think it makes a lot of sense for them as a board, as an operation to disconnect from the brokers if they can. It's.

Yeah, yeah. It's a little bit, actually, like chefs disconnecting from agencies. And there is a lot more ways to go direct now than in the past. It was nearly impossible, but, yeah. I like the amount of chefs I see getting hired off social media now.

Hannes Hetji
It's amazing. Yes. Victor. Yeah. How I have got.

Nina Wilson
I got this job through Dean, social media, and I've employed my last. I think I've employed every single sous chef I've ever had has come through social media. So you go in the feed and you look at the work they do and then you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I put the job up on my instagram and then they contact me directly through that.

I do definitely believe there's a time and a place for agents, though. I got my previous couple of jobs through agents and I did love. I do love working with agents, particularly when I'm looking, because they. They have processes in place. But, yeah, when I'm looking for a sous chef or what have you.

Just social media. Yeah, I think you're right. There is a. There is a place for it, but there is potential to. To kind of be your own rainmaker.

Hannes Hetji
And I think not everybody's quite tapping into it because they're scared of putting themselves out there self conscious. You open yourself up for criticism, like, I'm fully aware of that. Um, but let's be honest. The world doesn't care for us. Like, if.

If I disappear tomorrow or what, like, worst case, I get, like, bad mouth for a day, but a week from now, 48 hours, everybody will have forgotten whatever I said doesn't matter. 100%. 100%. Yeah. And I think it doesn't have your social media profile.

Nina Wilson
Doesn't have to be like your portfolio be all, end all, you know, it's just about being active on there and joining in a community, because it's quite a fun community and you'll see trends go around you'll see. You know, there was, like, a couple of years ago, people started making bao, you know, like the fluffy buns, and then for Cru, and, you know, my sous chef tilly made it. And then someone was like, that's great idea. Then they made it, and within the space of two weeks, you know, everyone was making bao or being inspired by each other. I just think it's epic, especially for Cru cooking.

And, you know, even when I'm running dry on guest food, I will go. There's, like, a few accounts which I love looking at for inspiration, which is really. Yeah, I think that's. That's also really cool. Like, I remember when I first started cooking, I still had books.

Hannes Hetji
Like, literally books where I wrote down recipes and cameras just kind of started popping up in phones, and they were really horrible. Like, almost useless. So we would actually bring digital cameras initially, and, like, I actually just found a us. I just found the USB the other day from my time in Mallorca, and I was like, we literally still had a camera back then because it was just, like, around the time when iPhones and stuff became usable in a way that you could make sense of the pictures. Yeah, for sure.

Nina Wilson
Yeah. You actually completely forget about that now. It's so Gary, and so you take it for granted. Just. Yeah, now everything.

Hannes Hetji
You. You can stand in the galley on a board, and you can go on Pinterest or Instagram and find inspiration that used to be nearly impossible. Like, you actually need to be creative back then. You actually needed to be like, yeah, from scratch. Or you'd have loads of recipe books.

Nina Wilson
Loads of cookbooks, which is just, you know, who has the space. I mean, to be fair, I have actually got, like, a huge tub of cookbooks on board. Loon, um, which I do flick through, particularly for patisserie. Like, it's not my strong point. So I, like, get it out, but I've got, like, the Thomas Keller, the french laundry in there.

I've got a sous vide book, so they're good still, you know, old school, but to go to an actual book. But I love it. Yeah. And that's. That's actually something that I didn't understand in the early stage of my career, is that it's okay to use books.

Yeah. You don't have to come up with everything from scratch. Yeah. Initially, I thought I'm like, I need to be authentic and all this nonsense, and then I'm like, no, I need to create an experience for them. And if that experience comes through something that comes from someone like Thomas Keller that already went through the learning curve and put out the best recipe, then why not?

Yeah, 100%. Yeah. I mean, that's very impressive that you're dedicated to the authenticity, though. Like, that's having that drive of doing everything from scratch, which is very, always very true to oneself. Yeah.

Hannes Hetji
In hindsight, I just think it was stupid. It was impressive then. Yeah. It's like playing it the really hard way. And then eventually I realized that there is no such thing as being, like, actually fully authentic, because everything.

Everything is based on. Yeah. Everything has been done before in one way, or. And maybe I'm combining something differently, but creativity is feeding of everything that has happened in the world before in one way or another. Yeah.

Nina Wilson
There's no such thing as truly, truly original, I don't think, anymore. I mean, you have to be pretty avant garde. We're not going into the world of art because that is something else. But in terms of food, like, yeah, you can guarantee someone else. I've often come up with, like, what I think is a really cool idea.

And I'm like, oh, that's genius. And then I kind of google it, and I'm like, things on it. Yeah. There's very few things I've ever thought of that nobody has thought of. And I am personally, I am totally okay with ripping stuff from restaurants I go to or, like, other people, other chef's instagram.

So I'm like, genius. Copy paste. Add a bit of this ctrl z that. Yeah, I love it. And also I love, like, messaging them, being them, like, thank you.

Hannes Hetji
That's. I love the dish. This is my take on it. Yeah, I think that's cool. It's also rewarding for them.

Like, they put something out there that's worth while being picked up by other people and replicated. I think it's a fine line sometimes with. So you'll get some chefs or some chefs that post a lot, and I'm sure they get so many messages being like, oh, hey, can I have the recipe? And then it can get a bit annoying if you're like, there's no recipe, just do it yourself. So, yeah, I try to avoid that, but I do some, you know, I am irresistibly sometimes.

Nina Wilson
Can I have the recipe, please? If it's a really nice looking brioche, and I know they're a pastry chef, like, I'd love to try their recipe. Yeah. And then I credit them in the post. Thanks to solitary for the recipe.

Hannes Hetji
Yeah, I guess it was very organic for you. The interactions with the guests themselves. Given that you were already used to be on deck and you're very outgoing, you probably don't have a hard time with that. Um, no, I think you are right. Yeah.

Nina Wilson
I'm quite an extroverted person, so I'm always very comfortable interacting with the guests. And being on loon has been fantastic. Because it's such a charter facing guest, we're encouraged to go out as much as possible. So I will maybe every second night, I take dessert out with the interior girls, and I announce dessert, and I chat to them a bit about the meal and ask them how their day went and stuff. We do so many barbecues and pizza nights on there, so I'm very guest bored.

So I'm literally cooking in front of them, chatting to them at the same time. I love that kind of thing. And also even the old school stuff, I like making Caesar salad tableside for them or making, even if it's, like, super simple, doing guacamole tableside. Because we're charter and we usually have families, they want that engagement, that chat that, you know, fun. So I get out there with a mexican hat.

I bought some mustaches for this season, so I can be appropriately mexicanified. This is funny. Yeah, I don't think it's for every chef. You know, you get chefs that are a lot more internal than not so guest facing, and I can see why that would push them out of their comfort zone a lot. Now that you say that, now I can see where this fits in.

Hannes Hetji
I'm wondering about this superman here earlier.

Nina Wilson
Oh, have you seen the reel? It's so funny. Oh, I didn't realize it. I only saw the picture here they. On the instagram, the loon Instagram.

So I think today is, or yesterday was national superhero day. I gotta check that out with a. Bunch of crew dressed up in superhero costumes. It is honestly one of the funniest things, I think, that loon has done with dress ups. It was a cracker.

I loved it. I was a bit bummed I didn't get to be there to film it, to be honest. I'd love to be. This is so funny, man. I like how refreshing and kind of.

Hannes Hetji
It's a lot more casual approach to this world, you know, where you can deliver high end service but still have a lot of fun around it. 100%. 100%. You get different yachts, attract different clients. So you'll get a yacht like flying Fox or maybe Phoenix too.

Nina Wilson
And they attract the high end clients, which want that sort of private, sleek, slick service. And that's cool. Like, that's. That's. You know, that's the right connection there with loon.

It's all about families, and we have so many toys on board. Like, it's so water sports orientated. That sort of. That stuffy level of service wouldn't match the boat. So, I mean, it's very common with charter guests that even at the end of the charter, we do a crew and guest barbecue.

So the crew are eating and drinking with the guests, like, having a little wind down, like, yeah, we had a great charter. You know, it's really, really sort of integrated. There's no. And nothing too stuffy, serious, service wise. Yeah, I think, again, this is cool.

Hannes Hetji
This is where people need to realize a career can have your flavor to it. Like, it. It's just go through the volume a little bit till it clicks. It's like, whether it's a family or a yacht or a crew, you know, it's like, it's not one size fits all. Like, you can work in Chelsea with a stuffed up butler team, or you can.

Yeah, it's. It's true. No, or you can be in Chelsea. That you've just said, yeah, yeah. Or you can be in Chelsea with a modern family who wants, like, casual circles and where it feels a little bit more natural to you.

And I think the same is true whether it's on a yacht or an estate. Yeah. 100%. I think I would struggle to be on a vessel where there was a very serious client crew divide, because, you know, I value what I bring to the table, and I value being treated, you know, not as a servant, you know, more as a, you know, part of the team. That kind of thing, I like.

Yeah, I think that's an important distinction. It's like, there's one thing I really did not appreciate in the Middle east is that it was very clear that we're servants. Yeah. And that's something that I feel like in the west, it's more like you're part of the team to make this happen. Yes.

You're employed here, but you're an employee. 100%, and I would never cross that line. I never do you never think. I've seen what happens when people assume that they're, you know, untouchable, and the reality is that everyone is irreplaceable, but. Yeah, there's no such thing.

Everybody is replaceable. No such thing. Everyone is replaceable. But, yeah, being on a boat where you feel appreciated, I think the boat where I was first head chef, I saw. I was on their 40 meters as Sol, and then they bought a 55 meters.

Nina Wilson
So I stepped up. So I got my first head chef roll quite organically that way, which was fantastic. And they remained the same, the owners, in terms of, like, after dinner, they would come in if it was a really one they loved, or after lunch, and they were like, that was amazing. They would come into the galley to be like, nina, we love those shrimp tacos. Or Nina, we loved, you know, that ginger cake or something.

And they were so enthusiastic. So they. For me, they set a standard of people to work for where I'm like, ah, this is so nice. You know? So that's what really attracted me to loon as well, because I only had good things about the owner of the vessel.

Hannes Hetji
I like that. And this is actually something that I did. I don't know, maybe I got this wrong. My very first job was the most, most pain inflicting head chef I've ever met in my life. But I didn't know any better.

Nina Wilson
Yeah. And there were other people coming through the kitchen, like, chef, the parties and line cooks and sous chefs and stuff who didn't last. And they were like, this is just insane. And the whole time, I'm just like, I don't know any better. And I stayed there for two and a half years before I moved on.

Hannes Hetji
And then I was like, oh, so this is not how people need to be treated. And the funny thing is, the next headshot literally said, you know why we hired you? Because no matter what we do to you, you will think it's heaven compared to where you come from. Wow. And like, okay.

But they actually treated me well. In the next restaurant, he just said it for fun because he knew how brutal it was before.

Nina Wilson
I mean, I would say the only good thing about that is, you know, you've only gone up. You've only gone better. Yeah, yeah, but I'm. Yeah, I mean, it's like, once you're through that, you're like, I guess you can take on many things, but then the question is also, like, maybe it would have just been a nicer journey and would have also worked out if you would have had it. Yeah, yeah, you are right.

Hannes Hetji
You are right. There's always. But there's always. I think there's always positives. I.

Nina Wilson
My very first role as a. As a sous chef, crew chef on this boat, big boat, 74 meters, 20 crew. And I'd just come out of culinary school and, like, I didn't really know what I was doing. Like, I'm happily admit that. And the head chef.

He'd had five male sous chefs in the space of one year, and then they thought, let's try a girl with him. And he was a big, big personality, and he, granted, taught me so much, taught me how to be a good sous chef, but he was hard at times, and I was crying and, you know, I found it tricky, but at the same time, like, and then, you know, I go to my next head chef and I go on the next boat, and I'm like, oh, can I eat in the galley? And he's like, of course you can eat in the galley. What are you going on about? And I was like, well, I wasn't allowed to eat in the galley on my last boat, so, you know, it's just the thing, as you know.

But at the same time, like, because he taught me to be such a good crew chef, I don't, you know, good experiences, bad experiences, it's all part of the journey. Yeah. I mean, it truly is. And then it's. It's, how do we look at it?

Hannes Hetji
How do we recover from it if we think it really was painful or. And there's always a learning. Like, whatever I felt like was the biggest gut punch. It also led to the biggest learnings. Yeah.

So what do you picture for your own career for the next couple years? Like, what do you want to explore right now? I'm really loving being on loon. I love. I really love the galley.

Nina Wilson
I love the way it's set up. I enjoy working for the captain, the atmosphere he's created on board, and the trust that he's given me and the team is really good. I really feel, like, supported there. And the bonus of it being so social media friendly, I think I'll be staying on board this yacht for quite a bit longer. There's really only one reason I would leave, and that would be to work on a yacht with my husband.

And right now, he's on a. He's on a boat where there's only one chef, and I don't want to go back to being a sole chef, so I'll have to wait till he gets on a bigger boat because he's a captain on board. But I think yachting for, you know, a few more years, and then we're in the process of where we're going to start looking at what we want to do next. We have our pipe dream of a business on a lake with a cafe and then a water sports business as well. So I think it's going to have to be Australia for that, because the UK, where I am now, does not have consistent weather to make a business like that, you know, super viable year round.

So, like, something. Or maybe start out with a cafe somewhere, or maybe total turn of events. I find a production company, film a food and travel tv show, go down that route. That would be fantastic. If anyone listening has a production company is after.

Hannes Hetji
Yeah, I'm pretty sure you could make that one work if you actually wanted to. Yeah. Or just hire my own, you know. Yeah. Make the investment myself.

Nina Wilson
But I'm still very much loving yachting. I like the salary, I like the lifestyle, I like the time off I get. I like the buzz it gives you. I like the beautiful places we get to travel. So I'm definitely still in it for a couple of years.

Yeah, I am. I'm 31, so I've got a few years left before. You know, the whole, like, you can have kids or not kicks in. So I'm just gonna enjoy it while I can. Buy more cars.

Actually, I'm gonna buy more motorbikes.

Hannes Hetji
The other day on the group, we were chatting a little bit that even after so many years, we still. I mean, you can call it butterflies or performance anxiety, but I remember this conversation. Yeah, that's. Is that also still a thing for you where you're like, when there's new, new guests and you're trying out something or something, that's like, do you still have that? Funnily enough, I don't.

Nina Wilson
I the type. I think it might be the type of guest that we have coming on, but we get a lot of families, and I've been very lucky on board this boat where they've been quite easy to cook for. So I think next time, when I go back, if I read the client briefing and it's like, they want XYZ, they've got XYZ, that's when I'll start to get like.

But I've been very lucky this season with people that are very easy to cook for, so I've been spared that. And I also think as I've become, you know, been at a. As a head chef now for a few years and being naturally quite a calm person, even though I act excited, I am a calm person in that environment. That's a superpower. Yeah.

I don't get super stressed, and so I just control it that way, which is good. I find when I get stressed, I cut myself and I really hate cutting myself, so I try my best not to get stressed. You know, it's a true superpower, is to live in that space where you're intense and you're able to be outgoing, but reaction, I think. I had a realization. When you work with people who take things too far, you know, on superyachts, they get absolutely freaked out.

You're like, oh, my gosh, we can't find the bosses slippers. Where are they? And we need lunch on the table now. And I was just kind of like, no one's going to die, you know, life is much bigger than this. Yeah, I think that's the whole thing that's taking me like, no one's going to die if lunch is ten minutes late, you know, and they can wait to know if that's jeopardizing my job or.

I haven't worked for a stressy enough owner because I know some owners are very hard on their chefs and they demand a lot. And I'm very lucky that I haven't worked under that pressure disclaimer there for the people that still get stressed. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Nina, this has been very interesting.

Hannes Hetji
Lots of fun and explorative conversation. Where can people connect with you? Find your YouTube channel. The Gru chef. Yeah.

Nina Wilson
Or Instagram. If you send me a comment on Instagram or send me a message, that's boring, probably. Or brioche recipe. Yeah, another recipe. Please, just start a conversation with the recipe.

Hannes Hetji
That's the opener. Yeah, exactly. You give me a recipe, I'll give you a recipe. Actually, to be fair, I had a chef contact me being like, can I have your sops? In exchange, I'm going to give you a sorrel sorbet recipe.

Nina Wilson
I was like, that's a pretty good trade. Why not?

Hannes Hetji
Nice. I like that. You know, it's not just asking, it's also giving something like a trade. Yeah, I'd love to hear from anyone and everyone. Well, DM's are open.

Nina Wilson
Can't guarantee I'll reply because I'm usually pretty busy, but I'll read it. Nice. Well, thanks again. Really fun. Hans, thank you very much for having me on.

Glad we finally got it happen. Thank you for joining us at the private chef podcast. If you know any highly skilled chefs that want to take their life to the next level, make sure to share this podcast with him. And if you enjoyed this episode, click subscribe and check out our upcoming episodes. Thank you for listening.

Hannes Hetji
Thank you for listening.