'Below Deck' Chef Answers Burning Questions: Menu Changes to Cooking a Bat
Chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph. Fred Jagueneau/Bravo
Not every kitchen challenge makes it on screen — which is why Below Deck Down Under‘s Tzarina Mace-Ralph answered some burning questions about what takes place behind the scenes.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Tzarina, 30, pulled back the curtain on issues in the galley, asking, “How long do you have?”
“A difficult thing [this season] — especially when it comes to the paperwork and provisions — is that our food was being flown in from France and, obviously, I get the preference sheets that day,” she explained.“So it’s kind of like guessing what people might want and having to change my menu, maybe, three times and having to really focus on paperwork.”
Tzarina recalled having to adjust to the Katina, the yacht on season 3 of Down Under.
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“That was a stainless steel metal box without a window. We also didn’t have any proper air conditioning in there,” she noted. “Then if you think about it with the temperatures [in Seychelles, Africa] as well and the way that the boat rocks. Even that big walk-in fridge door, you have to wait for the boat to rock to be even able to open the door because there are times you won’t be able to pull that door open. So you have to wait to open a fridge. Also with the way that the boat rocks and your brain just naturally slows down as well.”
She continued: “There’s many things about that galley that were really tough. I don’t need to explain myself because people who’ve never worked on a yacht just don’t actually know how difficult it is. It’s not fun, but we do it.”
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This is Tzarina’s second season on Below Deck Down Under, but certain details are not getting any easier. The chef told Us that one of biggest issues was having guests and crew alike not understand her predicament.
“The fact that I was getting the provisions and having these preference sheets meetings and having to work with what I had. Then everyone knows what guest preferences are like and all we want to do is please the guests,” she explained. “It’s a lot of challenges because also when you’re relying on something being put on a plane and brought to you, if something’s missing then you can’t really get it. And the produce there isn’t great. I had some breakfast where I didn’t have bread and didn’t have eggs.”
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But the challenge that became a career first for Tzarina? Maggots and weevils developing an infestation in the pantry.
“I’ve had small cases on yachts before where it is just like, ‘OK, just chuck away everything in that cupboard and bleach it down and spray it and everything.’ I have never experienced anything like that in my life,” she explained of what viewers saw in the premiere. “I had a lot of firsts and I felt like it started with that. I was just in so much shock. Also it pulled me back a day or two and I never felt like for the rest of the season I could actually catch up with myself.”
Tzarina teased that the bugs were nothing compared to a meal she has coming later this season.
“I had to cook a bat,” she revealed to Us. “That’s my one little spoiler that I’m going to give to you and you’re going to have to wait for this one. You’re going to see tears.”
Below Deck Down Under airs on Bravo Mondays at 8 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
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