Recipe for Success
I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Betsy McDonald, the chef onboard the 150-foot motoryacht Magic. I’ve known her and her husband, Capt. Mac McDonald, for a half-dozen years, ever since they ran the 114-foot motoryacht Camille. They’re one of those couples who have made a lifetime career out of serving on fully crewed yachts, working their way up to more and more expensive boats as their skills have improved. As Betsy describes her work today: “These people are paying $155,000 to $165,000 a week to charter my boat. I sincerely think that what I owe to them is to always keep going, to do one more thing, to be a little bit more impressive.”
That attitude comes second nature to Betsy, and it’s exactly the sort of enthusiasm that you should look for when booking a crewed yacht of any kind. Charter brokers spend countless hours getting to know yacht crew at every level—from the captains to the deckhands—just so they can pick out the Betsy McDonalds of the industry and recommend them to you for your next charter vacation.
This is Betsy’s 17th year working onboard boats and her third with Magic, which is part of the Koch Newton/Merrill-Stevens fleet and takes ten guests. What she loves about this yacht’s owner is that he helps her to build on her base of skills from the Culinary Institute of America, sending her to Michelin-starred restaurants to sample new cuisines in Europe and to Greystone, the Culinary Institute’s continuing education school in Napa Valley, California. Magic’s owner even lets Betsy organize wine tastings onboard the yacht for the crew, so they, along with Betsy, will know what vintage to recommend when you ask them for a suggestion during dinner.
The yacht owner’s investment in Betsy’s skills pays off for you, the charter guest, because she can handle pretty much any culinary request you throw at her–a skill that all top-notch charter chefs should have.
“We’re hopefully great cooks who don’t specialize,” as Betsy puts it. “We’ve got to be beautifully proficient in Japanese, Italian, French, spa cuisine–we’ve got to do it all.”
When you’re talking with your charter broker about a crewed yacht, be sure to ask not only about the chef’s specialties, but also about her attitude, her training, and her yacht owner’s investment in her continuing education. Betsy is one among many incredible chefs working on boats today, and at the end of the price spectrum where her yacht lies, you deserve to have only the finest crew.