CELLAR & GALLEY
A CHARTER CHEF AND A MASTER SOMMELIER SERVE UP THE PERFECT PAIRINGS
Most Michelin-star-quality chefs have a trick or two up their sleeves, a secret spice or galley gadget that helps define their culinary identity. For Michael Wilson, chef aboard the 185-foot (56.4-meter) Delta My Seanna, that gadget can also play vinyl.
“I use a record player,” Wilson says of his technique for creating chocolate spirals. “I saw it done on YouTube with a clay pottery wheel. You can make some nifty patterns with your garnishes, so I got one and did some experimenting. But it broke, so then I got a record player off Amazon. Same idea, only the record player had a lot of extra unnecessary stuff to it, so I took it all apart. I just needed to spin a plate on it.”
Experimenting and improvising are habits that define Wilson, whose early training was helping around the family kitchen in Wiltshire, England. He trained at the school formerly known as Salisbury College in the United Kingdom, and then moved to Barcelona, Spain, to learn textures, modifiers and molecular cooking.
Keen to see the world and stimulate the mind, Wilson then ventured to the Far East to study at sushi schools in Tokyo and Singapore, and at the Macaron Pastry Training Centre in Bangkok. He’s also a graduate of the National Culinary School in San Diego and the Chef Academy in London.
Well versed in vegetarian, vegan, Thai, glutenfree and fusion cuisine, along with fish butchery and game fabrication, Wilson made the move to yachting in 1998. He has circumnavigated twice as head chef aboard charter yachts, amplifying his repertoire of international cuisine while experimenting with different ingredients.
“Fresh is key,” Wilson says. “I make everything from scratch, from hors d’oeuvres to formal meals to the midnight snack, so I mostly use local products. Right now [in Antigua], I’m using a lot of coconut, grouper, goat, banana…for more specialized stuff, we’ll have it ordered in from elsewhere, such as fresh flowers from Holland or beef from the U.S.” Wilson’s secret to serving as many as 12 guests is simplicity. “Just keep things as simple as possible to make it work for me,” he says. “Say we’ve got vegetarians aboard. Keep the menu the same,