Atlas of Skills / Culinary

Being a Chef at Sea

Nobody's country decides whether you're qualified to cook at sea — the flag on the transom does, and it usually asks for less than the schools do. A trade, not a tradition: no master, no workshop, no line of teachers. It passes between chefs who overlap for a season, aboard.

Gold credential: Ship's Cook Certificate of Competency (UK MCA) — the document no flag will argue with · Maritime and Coastguard Agency (UK) — elsewhere, your vessel's flag

The craft in depth →Where it came from, what is true and what is sold, on its own page. The places come first.

Ordered by community strength — not by who pays

Where the community gathers

PlaceSeasonLevelHow long
MallorcaSpringBeginner -> First boattwo weeks
LondonYear-roundWorking chefs -> Ship's Cook CoCthree days
★ Best place to go
Strong living community

Learn the galley from two working yacht chefs, with three days and nights aboard a catamaran, in a port where crew are hired.

in Mallorca, Spain
Season: Spring · Beginner -> First boat

Palma is one of the ports where the Mediterranean's crew are actually hired, from spring — and here two working yacht chefs teach their own trade, with three days and nights aboard a catamaran.

Living sceneVerified schoolsTaught in English

Deep-dive — two weeks

The full sheet on Mallorca →The school and the course and what it costs.

Photo: Anchor & Apron

A gold credential
A credential, not a place

Where the ticket is earned: the MCA's Assessment in Marine Cookery, at a centre the MCA has approved.

in London, United Kingdom
Season: Year-round · Working chefs -> Ship's Cook CoC

Not where the craft lives — where the ticket is earned: the MCA's Assessment in Marine Cookery, one of four things it wants before it issues the Ship's Cook Certificate of Competency, and it only counts at a centre the MCA has approved.

Verified schoolsGold credentialTaught in English

Certification — three days

The full sheet on London →The school and the course and what it costs.

Write me a note about this one — how you'd love to learn it, and where.

If this box never loads, the same note reaches me at arnaudcallier@pm.me.

Catalogued, not checked

Two more places we know of, and nobody has checked any of them

Listing five places would tell you this craft happens in five places, and it does not. These are the rest we know of. Nobody has checked any of them. No school here is vetted, no teacher named, nothing graded — this is the lowest state on the map, and we would rather print it than let a short list read as a complete one. A line each, and what the place is known for. If you have been to one, or know a school or an instructor there, the line will take a note — it comes to me, and it is how a place stops being a line and starts being checked.

  • Antibes, France
    Where the Mediterranean's crew are actually hired, from spring — the dock to stand on before you buy anything.
  • Fort Lauderdale, United States
    Where the trade gathers from autumn, when the fleet crosses to the Caribbean.
The long read

Being a Chef at Sea in depth →

Its history, what nobody tells you, what is true and what is sold, what to read next, and how we checked it. A page of its own.

If this one pulls you

Close to this on the map

Grouped by hand, not by an algorithm — same hands, same instinct, a different craft. Drag, or use the arrows.

The classical kitchenItalian Cuisine & PastaBologna, Italyopen · where to learn itWorking at seaSailing & YachtmasterThe Solent (Cowes & Hamble), United Kingdomopen · where to learn itThe classical kitchenModernist Spanish CuisineBarcelona, Spainopen · where to learn itWorking at seaYacht Crew & STCWAntibes, Franceopen · where to learn it
Why you can trust this map

How a place gets on here, and what we do when it stops being true

There is a real difference between a school that teaches you and a good-looking website, and too much of the internet is the second kind. Four instruments do the work, and every one of them is visible on the page you are already on.

  • We grade it in public, and publish what is missing. The Measure is five plain questions, not a score: is there a teacher we can name, can a stranger get in, will you be learning beside other people, is the craft alive in the place, and is there enough there to keep you going for years. An empty dot tells you which one we could not answer and why. A craft nobody has graded shows no meter at all, because an absence is not a zero.
  • We print what we checked and did NOT list. Every swept craft carries the places we looked at and turned down, each with its reason. That list is the part no marketplace prints, because a rejection is where the money is.
  • The claims are read back to their sources every night. A robot re-reads every link we publish against the school's own page each night, and every price and course name we have written a test for. page. When one stops matching three nights running, it is flagged for a human — and an entry that cannot be confirmed comes off. It is never softened.
  • Where we are not neutral, we say so above the recommendation. We run one paid week a year, with one teacher. His entry says that before it says anything good about him, and prints the way to reach him without us, at his prices.
  • Nothing here has been stood in yet. An open sheet means desk research, carefully done. No place on this map has been visited and dated by us. When one is, the check will carry a name and a date — and until then, the grade says so in the dots it leaves empty.
  • Nobody pays to be here, and nobody can pay to be left off. No commission, no listing fee, no tourist board. The order is the strength of the community, never the size of the wallet.
Before you trust any school — mine or anyone else's — ask these five things
  1. Who actually teaches it? Can you find them by name, with a track record you can check yourself?
  2. Is the craft alive in that place, or is the school the only thing there? A real scene has more than one good option.
  3. What exactly do you walk away with — a recognised qualification, or a certificate they printed themselves? Ask which.
  4. Can you speak to someone who did the course? A real person, not a testimonial on their own page.
  5. What happens on a bad day — weather, an injury, a teacher who doesn't show? A serious place has an honest answer.

If a place dodges these, that's your answer. It costs you nothing to ask, and it tells you everything.

This is the short version. The full method is here — the six questions, in order, for any craft anywhere.