When I was formulating the charteryacht's cookbook about five or so years ago, I experimented on my mother. On the weekends, I put her through the typical day on a charteryacht which meant a full breakfast, including muffins, fruit and mimosas, then came lunch - a full, hot lunch which would sometimes be a pizza, pasta, homemade soup, something from the grill, etc. Around late afternoon came sundowners and hot/cold appetizers. Then dinner...complete with salad or soup, homemade bread, entree, followed by an incredibly rich dessert. Oh...and homemade ice cream after lunch. Frankly, it was just too much food for one day! And when I finally bought the boat and moved to Miami, her doctor was quite happy. My mother had gained a lot of weight being my guinea pig. LOL Oh, and did I mention she also had to test all of the bar drinks we came up with, and well...I helped, too!
Now you can see why a yacht's chef's day is exhausting! When we're "on", we go through that routine everyday. And of course, when we're "off", it's power tool time. There are no days of rest. I had to get one of those gel mats because at the end of the day, my feet and back are killing me.
These days with my mother being in Atlanta, I experiment on my friends and neighbors. I never experiment on guests. A couple of weekends ago, it was two of my friends - Lobster Tail. I don't like seafood, but they really enjoyed being my guinea pigs. I rarely experiment anymore as my culinary collection is pretty full. Every now and then, I pick up a recipe from here, try it, and add it to my collection, but that's about it. My latest additions were the ham and egg tartlets with English Muffin Bread.
