I am not a trained chef. Really it was only a slight interest to me as a young adult. I knew enough to get by when I was single and had a couple of signature dishes to show off to a new boyfriend. That was until my husband and I landed our job as Captain and Chef on a charter boat. Chef – that’s me. Old land based friends would say ‘I didn’t know you could cook Max’. It’s amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it. After working for a charter boat company for three years in the BVI’s we moved into working on our own private charter boat. It’s a natural evolution that most crews do. You learn the ropes with the large company. Having fun but making very little money. Then move into the category of private charter boats. The yachting industry is multi-faceted. We were constantly learning of new parts of the industry in different locations of the world. For now we were happy to stay based in the Virgin Islands but on a yacht that allowed us to have more control and flexibility on how we chartered.
There would be lots of things new when working on a private charter boat. One of the biggest things was doing your own marketing but also the meals needed to be more ‘gourmet’. Luckily I had learned a lot in the past three years. On this ‘big company dock’ there were 12-14 crews and the chef’s were always swapping recipes and ideas. So when we started on the catamaran ‘Tamarin’, I worked on expanding my menu – breakfasts, lunch, appetizers, dinner and desserts. It was always fun to do this and try new things.
A Charter Yacht Show is held the beginning of each season in both St Thomas, USVI and Tortola, BVI. Charter brokers travel from all over to view boats and get to know the crew. It’s a slightly stressful but fun 3 or 4 day event that is necessary for a boat to get the charters for the upcoming year. Every day is busy as you make sure your boat is in pristine ‘Show Boat’ condition and show brokers through the boat and tell them about you as a couple and crew. Then the organizers throw in an activity called the Culinary Contest. On the 3rd day of our first charter show, they had a culinary contest. It was sponsored by Grand Marnier Liquor. Whatever dish you chose to enter had to have Grand Marnier in it. There were different categories of Appetizer, Main or Dessert. I chose Main. While it was not mandatory to enter the competition, participation looked good to the brokers. And that year, Grand Prize was a trip for 2 to Paris and Grand Marnier would use your recipe in their advertising. How could I say no?
My dish evolved over a week of planning. I knew that I first wanted to make a sauce with Tamarind paste. Our boat was called ‘Tamarin’ (eventually to be changed to Tamarin of Tortola). This is Tamarind in French so I knew I wanted to make a sauce with Tamarind paste. You can find this paste in most grocery stores in the Caribbean. It is also one of the key ingredients in Worcestershire Sauce. I liquefied the paste in a saucepan and strained out the seeds. I then added some minced ginger and garlic, brown sugar, a little soy sauce and chicken broth. Simmered it for 10 minutes, then strained out all the chunky bits. I then thickened it with some corn starch and added just a hint Grand Marnier. It was enough to give it some flavor but I didn’t want to overwhelm it with alcohol.
Initially I was going to pair the sauce with some type of pork. But the night before I decided that duck breasts would be more gourmet. And remember – gourmet chef is what I was now. Didn’t matter that I had never cooked with duck before. It was also pre-internet era so no going online to check how to cook duck. Without a chance to practice cooking duck, I was going to ‘wing it!’ for the competition. I marinated the duck in the liquid I had reserved before thickening and adding Grand Marnier. When I was ready to cook the duck, I sautéed it skin side down in a hot pan, crisping up the skin a bit. I then placed it in a hot oven. Remember – I had never cooked duck before. I had wild rice and roasted asparagus to serve with it.
We had to take our dish up to the presentation area by 2 pm. Throughout the day, brokers were going through the boat. I would say hi and have a brief conversation but Whitey handled the boat showings that day as I got more and more stressed. At about 1:40, I took the duck out of the oven. They had been in there for about 20 minutes. I sliced into one of the breasts and it was still very pink. I freaked! I presumed that it was like chicken and had to be cooked all the way through. I only had a few minutes to finish cooking it and lay out 1 plate for judging and a platter for brokers to taste and then get it up to the competition area. We were on the boat in a big marina and the competition was on land, about a 5-minute walk.
What to do? I showed Whitey the duck breasts with their very pink insides, we looked at each other and at the same time said ‘microwave!’ I quickly transferred them to a microwaveable plate and set it for 3 minutes. I neatly plated the rice on the plates. As soon as the microwave sounded ‘ding’, I checked the breasts and they were no longer pink. Who knew what they would taste like after being cooked via microwave but I didn’t care. I just needed to get a dish up there. Whitey helped me slice all the duck. We placed the slices around the rice. Drizzled the sauce on top. Placed some roasted asparagus on the side so it looked like a complete dish. Whitey grabbed the platter, I grabbed the plate and we dashed up to the competition area, arriving with only minutes to spare.
The judges went around tasting. They had already judged the appetizer round an hour before and desserts would be an hour after our segment. There were five judges, a couple brokers, a chef from a local restaurant, a representative from the liquor distributor for Grand Marnier, and Jan Robinson, author of the popular ‘Ship to Shore’ cookbook. They went around the 8 or 9 chef presentations. Tasting from one plate and leaving the other plate for photos. I was extremely stressed! Watching these people I didn’t even know taking little nibbles, making weird purring sounds and not knowing what that meant.
After every plate was judged, lots of brokers went around and dove into the platter for small taste. I guess we were part of the happy hour that day! At least I could now relax. One broker came up to me and said ‘your duck was so moist and delicious. Perfectly cooked!’ As I politely said ‘Thank you’, I was thinking ‘Really? I guess the microwave didn’t dry it out.’
Later that evening they announced the winners around the hotel swimming pool. There was 1st, 2nd and 3rd for each category and then a Grand Prize winner who would get that trip to Paris. All of the chefs were standing up front in groups. They went through the announcements of winners. And surprise to me, 2nd prize in the Main Category was ‘Maxine White of Tamarin!’ Whitey was ecstatic, screaming and hollering from the audience. I couldn’t believe it. The person who won first place in the Main won the Grand Prize as well but I loved my prizes as much. Lots of gifts certificates to various restaurants and stores in St Thomas. But the best was a 150-year old bottle of Grand Marnier. We savored that bottle with only small tastes for a year. It was a smooth cognac. Mmmmm!
