SeaView with Superyacht Head Chef, Willy Pastel
Willy grew up in France where he became a chef and followed his passion for Mediterranean cuisines. He has invaluable experience and by far has worked in the most prestigious restaurants.
Willy has great inspiration and continue to expand his creativity skills which makes him one of the best chefs in super yachting.
He started at a very young age and navigated towards superyachts and since he has spent the rest of his life at sea travelling from Europe to the Caribbean, South- East Asia, USA and the middle East. During Willy’s travels he has incorporated new ideas, recipes and sourcing local fresh produce.
Willy has worked in luxury hotels and famous restaurants before he embarked into the yachting world. At the age of 22 he decided he wanted to be a chef on yachts and so he did his STCW95 in the South of France. His first yacht was a small one but since have embarked onto some of the biggest yachts in the industry.
Travelling and being in different ports enables Willy to learn more about local cultures and the excitement of sourcing local produce and ingredients – his favourite has got to be shopping at the local markets where fresh vegetables, fruit and fresh fish is in the abundance.
Willy faces challenges in this industry as he likes to make everyone happy including the crew especially if he is in an area where local fresh produce is sparce, this makes provisioning slightly difficult, but he can always adapt to what can be sourced at the time.
Willy has also been inspired by Alain Ducasse when he worked at the Plaza Athènèe in Paris and uses this experience today for his own inspired creativity. Willy will always admit that he has learnt something from every chef he has worked with.
He has specific places where he loves the produce he can source, France, Italy, USA, Japan to name a few, each of these locations will have various specialty produce, meats, dry goods and spices.
When he is not on board a yacht Willy likes to relax at home and host for family and friends, mostly cooking on the BBQ with nothing but fresh produce and healthy salads. His favorite pass time and playground is on the beach or skiing.
Willy has been successful as a super yacht chef by simply adapting to any situation, understanding his guests requests and having to understand what they require whether it is simple or extravagant cuisine.
He continues to this day creating some of the best cuisines on superyachts and travelling the world.