While the pristine waters of the Seychelles offer a stunning view, Chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph understands that her food must offer equally impressive views at the dining table. Returning for a second season on Bravo’s Below Deck Down Under, Chef Tzarina is ready to take guests on a mesmerizing food journey.
Below Deck fans will remember Chef Tzarina from Season 2. While she might have balked at the idea of doing a flaming onion tower during one dinner, she impressed Captain Jason, as well as the charter guests. Balancing creative ideas with guests’ preferences, there were many wow moments throughout that charter season.
In Below Deck Down Under Season 3, Chef Tzarina had a variety of issues to handle just as the season began. From the yacht’s size to conflicts with her sous chef, smooth sailing might not be on the horizon for this season.
Below is a transcript of a recent conversation with Below Deck Down Under's Chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph.
Cristine Struble: You decided to return to Below Deck for another season. How was working with Captain Jason again and what were you hoping to accomplish this season?
Chef Tzarina: I’m just so happy and honored that Captain Jason wanted to work with me again because I really, really look up to him and one of my main goals of the season was just having him happy and proud of me.
CS: What do you think are some key components in a good executive chef and sous chef relationship? How do you build that give and take in the galley, and does your approach stem from a particular mentor or experience you had?
Chef Tzarina: When I was a sous chef, I had horrible, horrible experiences and really badly spoken to. So, I do just try to keep a nice environment within the galley, try to be as understanding as possible but sometimes you do have to try and be a bit firmer with people when they try to take advantage of that.
CS: What are some key components in a good executive chef and sous chef relationship?
Chef Tzarina: Well, it's just hiring the right person.
CS: A big change in season 3 is that you have a sous chef. You seem to give Anthony a lot of opportunities and wanted to get a sense of his culinary point of view. Why do you think your relationship went wrong so quickly?
Chef Tzarina: Unfortunately, I think from the beginning there's just a lot of respect for the job role and a misunderstanding because Anthony comes from much bigger boats where it's a much different layout because there's more chefs and stuff, but I did put him into the role of a sous chef for a 60 meter. I also felt I should've been a lot harder on him at the beginning, but I just don't think that was the right management technique.
CS: Season Three's yacht seems quite large, when creating menus did you have to take that into consideration with the long walks from the galley to the table and did it change your approach to menus?
Chef Tzarina: It changed my approach to some things on menus. Like I try to start with a colder starter at least to try and get things rolling but also having to work around the actual produce to get to the Seychelles. But I think it actually put on pressure but also I would totally understand once the food got to the table it wouldn’t be hot because it had such a way to go so it was just more a factor of asking for the discretion of the charter guests more than anything because there were times when it was just impossible.
CS: Guest preferences are always a topic of conversation on the show. Given the seasons location of the Seychelles did you have any trouble sourcing ingredients for the preferences?
Chef Tzarina: It was extremely difficult, and I never want to disappoint a charter guest and say that they can’t have something but unfortunately felt like that was my moto of the season due to it being so hard to get produce flown in from other countries to the Seychelles.
CS: What is your strategy for managing all the guests' preferences given this particular location and were you able to include any local ingredients in your menus?
Chef Tzarina: I would always try and include local if I can I much prefer locally sourced food because at the same time even though the resorts in the Seychelles have so much money that the local people don’t, I don’t want to take too much away from locals. But I would definitely try my best. It was just a lot of last-minute preparation and having to change menus constantly I felt like for every single meal I would have to write it down actually probably at least six times and change it.
CS: Yacht chefs must be experts in all types of cuisines. Do you have a particular style or type of cuisine that you prefer to cook with?
Chef Tzarina: I’m all about nutrition and normally when I'm working in private households, I'm usually a nutrition based or dietitian-based chef, so I do like to put that into my food.
CS: Do you ever try to push that cuisine on the menu to try and push the guests a little out of their zone?
Chef Tzarina: Yeah, and I guess that I like to especially with the amount charter guests drink I do like to give them a balanced meal, so I always have that in the back of my mind that they are having enough protein and carbohydrates to absorb the alcohol.
CS: Looking back at this season, how did you grow as a chef and how did this experience make you more confident in your culinary career?
Chef Tzarina: Unfortunately, this season for me, I wasn’t proud of myself when it came to cooking and how I handled things. It's a very intense and high stress situation for me the whole time with also personal matters being fired at me when I was struggling so much with the hurdles I had to go through with that galley and provisions at the same time. But I think I left the season with more to think about than I thought, but it was more about personal growth.
To see how Chef Tzarina handled the ups, downs, and all the other experiences on board the yacht, be sure to watch new episodes of Below Deck Down Under on Bravo. New episodes air every Monday night at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Episodes can be streamed the next day on Peacock.