Victoria Allman
Chef, m/y True North

Date interviewed: October 2007

How did you realize you wanted to become a chef?
I’m one of the very few people in the world who knew what they wanted to be in high school. I was washing dishes at a fine dining restaurant near my home in Ontario, and the chef was also the restaurant’s owner, and he took me under his wing. He was young and  fun and exciting, and he had all these stories of traveling and food.
     I was applying universities at the time for environmentalism, and he helped me apply to the Stratford Chef School, which gets 400 applicants and takes just 40 people each year. I was very lucky. After two days at university, they called me. I started a  month later.
     I wanted to be that chef, to have his stories.

What training did you undergo to become a chef?
I entered that two-year school when I was 18 years old, and I completed the standard curriculum, which is geared toward fine dining. This is a private school meant to turn out fine dining chefs, not caterers who come out of restaurant programs at colleges.
     After that I did four years of apprenticeship at fine dining restaurants in England, Ireland, Canada and Florida.

Why did you decide to work onboard yachts?
A woman I worked for had worked on yachts, and she had amazing stories. She had just come back from a winter in the Caribbean, and I’m in Canada in the mountains, and I started thinking, Hmmm. Winter’s coming…”
     I drove down to Florida for the Fort Lauderdale boat show in October 1999. At the time, the crew agency this woman had worked for was [the now-defunct] Bob Saxon & Associates, and they told me, “We have this boat that’s gone through 13 chefs. It has a bad reputation. Just go see it and come back.”
     Well, the boat was so desperate that they took me. It was a 130-foot motoryacht. So I got onto a big boat right away. I was lucky with that.

What other yachts did you work onboard before joining your current yacht, True North?
I stayed on that 130-foot motoryacht for a year. We were all green, the boat was really old, the galley was old, and the captain was militant, but somehow it worked really well.
     Then, in 2000, I became chef onboard the 165-foot Feadship motoryacht Blue Moon II. I stayed there until 2005. That was the first boat where the owner was older, and they used their boat, so I realized, “Okay, I’m cooking for these people all the time.” I learned to cook healthy. The owners sent me to the Culinary Institute of America in New York State for a healthy cooking class.
     Blue Moon II wasn’t a charter yacht, but the owners were onboard 100 days a year, which is a lot. And they did a lot of corporate functions, so there was a catering aspect to my job. We did about 30 corporate functions a year, and I’d bring in a few people as day help, and it was great.
     Blue Moon II sold in 2005, and I was offered a job on the owners’ new boat, but my boyfriend Patrick was a first mate who wanted to move up to captain, and the new boat already had an established captain. There was no room for him to grow, so we left together. It was such a sad thing to me, but we were together and he had goals.
     We ended up on the 184-foot expedition-style motoryacht Pangaea, which was chartering in Australia, the Cook Islands, and Tahiti. I was the chef, and Patrick was the first mate. We did 13 weeks of charter that year, and it was great. That boat sold in August of 2006, and we went back to Florida to find a boat where we could work together and Patrick could move up to captain.

When did you join True North?
Patrick met the owners of True North at the Fort Lauderdale boat show in October 2006, and they really clicked. We started working onboard a month later, me as chef and Patrick as captain.
     We did the Caribbean the first season, then New York during the summer. We’re heading back to the Caribbean this winter as part of the Fraser Yachts Worldwide fleet, trying to increase the amount of charter bookings that we do.

What do you think makes your crew special?
We are an energetic crew. Patrick is a surfer and a diver. Our first mate also loves the water. He’s a diver and a fisherman. Our stewardess and deckhand, same thing.
     So we have a hospitality background and a love of the water, and that’s a great match for the way True North is built. The best part of our boat is the open sundeck and the water toys. For people with a love of the water and a young or active family, True North is the boat you want to be on. If you want to be seen in St. Bart’s, we’re not the boat for you. But we sure know how to have fun.

How do you determine what meals you will prepare for charter guests?
I like the preference sheets. I read them thoroughly. I don’t have a standard seven-day menu for each charter. I want the guests to be happy, and I want to have everything onboard. I’m terrified of having to say, “I don’t have that so I can’t do that.” I plan a menu for the whole charter based on their preferences, I discuss it with them beforehand. Of course it can change during the charter, but I like to make sure I understand what they want.
     Also, the galley onboard True North is country kitchen style, so guests come in to talk and watch. So I have a good bit of interaction with the guests, and I can ask if they like what I’m doing. Plus, I go out at the end of each meal to make sure everything is all right.

What are some of your specialty dishes?
Salads and vegetables. I always have two or three options of veggies, even with meat and potato meals. It’s for variety and health. Even after dinner, I always bake something for dessert, but I also give the option of fruit, too. I’m big on vegetables and fruits.

What cruising areas do you like best for incorporating local ingredients into your menus?
Europe! But Chicago was amazing, too, and Sint Maarten has gotten so much better, and St. Thomas is good, too. The other place that surprised me was Tahiti. They had planes every day from France, so we were able to get quite a bit.

What is a typical day’s menu that a guest might experience onboard True North?
Breakfast is always a buffet with fresh muffins—low-cal, of course—plus cereals, yogurts, fresh fruit salads and fresh-baked bread. I also do eggs made to order, and I have a breakfast special every day to give people ideas, things like asparagus with poached eggs and salsa.
     Around 11 each day I put out fresh fruit as a snack, and then for lunch I usually do salads and grilled chicken or fish, something light. There’s no deep-fryer onboard, thank God. For dessert at lunch, I do something with fresh fruit.
     Around 5 o’clock I put out vegetables with dip, plus a snack like crabmeat guacamole. Then for dinner there are usually three courses: a salad or soup, and a baked dessert plus a fresh fruit option. The main course, I always have two options available, so people can choose what they like.
     I eat everything the guests do. The whole crew does. We need to be active, so the guests can eat this food and be active, too. We’re not stuffing people.

What kind of charter guests are your favorites?
Young, happy and active. And we are a very kid-friendly boat.

What awards have you won?
None, because I don’t enter contests. I don’t like to compete with people. I hate the idea of ranking.

What else should CharterWave readers know about you?
I have a website—www.victoriaallman.com—that has excerpts from a book I’m trying to get published. It’s called Sea Fare: A Chef’s Journey Across the Water, and each chapter is about a different place I’ve cruised and the recipes and food that go with that place.
     So if people want to learn more about me before booking a charter on True North, that would be a good place to start.

True North is part of the fleet at Fraser Yachts Worldwide. Her weekly base rate is $49,500 for eight guests with five crew, or about $7,700 per person with typical 25-percent expenses factored in. Contact any reputable charter broker to book a week aboard.