Host Requirements
Inside Quarterdeck
DESIRED SKILLS
Pre-Academy Training Access
Once accepted into the Host Academy, you’ll receive a link to our pre-academy training video. It’s an inside look at what cooking and hosting at the Quarterdeck standard actually feels like, whether that takes you onto a yacht, into a private villa, or into a ski chalet kitchen. The same fundamentals run through all three.
Basic Knife Skills
How to properly hold a chef’s knife and techniques on how to cut various foods
Desserts
No bake desserts, basic cake skills
Food Safety and Handling
This is one of the most important lessons
Menu and Meal Planning
Implementing a meal plan for the week based on different dietary restrictions and needs
Food Presentation
People are said to eat with their eyes first, meaning that they notice how a dish is presented and garnished and have an opinion on the meal before they even have their first bite
Breakfast
How to properly fry, poach and scramble eggs; how to make french toast; how to cut fruit and make fruit platters; how to make pancakes/crepes
Starches
How to cook rice, quinoa, pasta/cous-cous, and potatoes (understanding the difference between starchy vs waxy). Discuss different potato recipes including mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, Jackson potatoes, etc
Meat
Show various ways to cook meat with dry heat cooking, and moist heat cooking. Learn techniques such as stuffed chicken breast, roast chicken, coq a vin, pulled pork, pork loin/chops, braised beef/pot roast
How to make sauces
White sauce (how to turn a basic white sauce into a cheesy Béchamel, a garlic and herb sauce for pasta, a spicy creamy jalapeño sauce to enhance the flavour of a stuffed chicken breast, etc.), hollandaise sauce & bearnaise sauce, tomato sauce, and wine sauce with herbs
Vegetables
Best ways to peel and cut vegetables; how to maintain bright pigment in vegetables; various ways to cook (simmer in salted water, braise, blanch, fry, etc); various vegetable main courses and side dishes.
Pre-Academy Pathways
Experienced Chef or love cooking for friends and family?
Whether you’re an experienced chef from a professional kitchen, a cooking enthusiast who loves hosting dinner parties, or have honed your skills through cooking classes, we want you! If you have a passion for creating delicious meals and are ready for an exciting new opportunity, you’re ready to apply now!
To get started, simply upload your Hospitality CV , Cover Letter, Passport, and Food Hygiene Level 2 Certificate. We’d also love to see your culinary creations, so feel free to include photos of your dishes in your application. For inspiration, check out our Instagram: @quarterdeck.co.
Not enough kitchen confidence yet? Start with Galley Academy.
Host Academy moves fast. You’ll be cooking three meals a day in a working yacht galley under real time pressure. If that sounds exciting but you don’t yet have the kitchen background to apply directly, Galley Academy is the way in.
A 7-day, hands-on entry-level cooking course at Fort George on Vis Island, Croatia, with a parallel programme on a working yacht in the British Virgin Islands. You’ll train in a real kitchen with a professional chef and our most experienced host-chefs, cooking three full crew services a day, every day, until the rhythm is in your hands. By Friday you’ll own the fundamentals Host Academy expects: knife skills, mise en place, stocks and sauces, food safety, menu planning, dietaries, and clean plating. Plus the small habits and systems that make yacht service run smoothly.
Galley Academy is the official feeder into Host Academy. Students who finish Galley Academy move straight into Host Academy the following week, with the schedules aligned and a short handover from your Galley instructor to your Host Academy instructor, so you start Host Academy already known to the staff.
Outcome: a clear pathway into Host Academy and the confidence to cook meals people genuinely rave about.