Five days in Martin Lippo's lab.

The gap

The guests have eaten everywhere.

Every yacht chef knows it: the difference between a good week and a legendary one is three plates they've never seen. This is the week that closes the gap. Martin Lippo opens his Barcelona lab for five straight days — not a demo, not a screen: your hands, 35 hours, a room of professional cooks — most of them from the galley.

His open-calendar sessions run in Spanish; English is normally a private commission. This is a full week with him, in English, timed for yard period — when the boat is in the shed and the season's tips are still in your pocket.

The five days · 10:00–14:00 + 15:00–18:00

What your hands will learn

And because the room is half the point: I'll be looking for a shared cohort apartment — optional, at cost, close to the lab — so the conversations don't stop when the bench closes. Five days of technique; the people you meet are what you keep.

What you leave with: a room of peers who cook where you cook · the techniques in your hands · Vakuum's full recipe and theory dossiers · founding-cohort status — first refusal (72 hours' early access) on every future EducatedTraveler week.

The honest terms

Straight, like a good galley

• €1,500, VAT included — in line with Martin's own published rates. The same 35 hours off his open calendar cost €1,390–1,590, in Spanish, spread over months (his sous-vide + texturizers sessions = €1,390; texturizers + nitrogen = €1,590 — check martinlippo.com yourself). EducatedTraveler is paid out of that price by agreement with Martin — nothing is added on top of his rates.
• You pay Vakuum — Martin's lab — directly. The week is sold and delivered by Vakuum; EducatedTraveler introduces, vets, and organises the cohort. We never hold your money.
• Confirmed the moment 10 chefs have paid. If we are not at 10 by Tuesday 15 September, the week cancels and every euro is refunded in full — and I'll say so publicly. Don't buy flights until we announce CONFIRMED (that's also why travel insurance is smart).
• After confirmation, seats are transferable, not refundable. Can't come? Send a chef of comparable professional calibre in your place, up to 7 days before the week (Vakuum keeps a reasonable right of refusal). If Vakuum itself has to cancel after confirmation, you're refunded in full — flights are yours, hence the insurance line above.
• Boats often cover professional training. Vakuum can invoice the boat directly — ask your captain. And consider bringing your second: one galley that levels up together.
• You arrange travel and stay. The lab is at Passatge de Centelles, Barcelona — 55 minutes' flight from Palma, 1h25 from Nice. We share a shortlist of good stays nearby. Bring a chef jacket; ingredients, tools, materials, dossiers — all provided by Vakuum.

The master

Martin Lippo, Vakuum

Argentine, in Barcelona since 2000. Founder of Vakuum — laboratory, training space and culinary venue — and of the Nitro School: liquid nitrogen is his signature terrain. Les Vergers Boiron, the French fruit house, built a technique video library around him; his work appears in so good.. magazine; he works between Adrià's modernism and Escoffier's classicism.

Check him yourself: martinlippo.com — his lab, sessions and prices, all public · @vakuum_by_martin_lippo on Instagram · his Les Vergers Boiron profile.

You can go to him directly any day — the free Atlas links you there. What his calendar doesn't offer is this week: consecutive, in English, in a vetted room of peers.

The bridge

Who's behind this

I'm Arnaud Callier — a working superyacht chef. Everything I can really do, I learned at the source, from someone's hands. I built this week because I wanted it to exist and it didn't. I also keep the map at EducatedTraveler — about a hundred crafts, free, where nobody can pay for a listing — and I write the food-science publication Littoralicious. This week is the first thing I've put my own name on. Find me on Instagram: @arnaudcallier.

Who it's for: chefs on Med-wintering boats in yard period, rotational and freelance chefs between seasons, and serious professional cooks who want the modernist toolkit from the source.

Take a seat

Apply — two minutes, then a call

Send me five things on WhatsApp: your name · boat or freelance · role · if a chef sent you, who (vouched applications are fast-tracked — but plenty of good seats come cold) · one line on what you want to walk out able to do.

Then 15 minutes on the phone — for your questions, and for me to check the week fits you; I've talked people out of seats. After the call your seat is held 48 hours while Vakuum's payment link is live — the hold exists so a held seat doesn't block another chef. Mid-charter and can't talk? Voice notes work; tell me your watch and I'll work around it.

No account, no sign-up, no card details on this page. Application first, conversation second, payment — to Vakuum directly — last.

Fair questions

Asked straight, answered straight

"Why not just do his sessions directly?"

You can — his calendar is public and the Atlas links you there free. What it doesn't offer is this: five consecutive days, in English, timed for yard period, in a vetted room of peers. Same rates, different room.

"Five topics in five days — how deep does it go?"

Honest answer: it's Vakuum's full programme — the same modules he sells separately, run consecutively. You won't spend 21 hours on texturizers like his dedicated session; you'll leave with every technique started in your own hands and the dossiers to go deep afterwards. If you want one topic exhaustively, his single-module sessions are the better buy — I'll tell you so on the call.

"€1,500 is a lot."

It's in line with what the same 35 hours cost off his own calendar — and those run in Spanish, months apart. Many boats cover professional training; Vakuum can invoice the boat. The techniques stay with you for the rest of your career.

"What if it doesn't fill?"

Then Vakuum refunds every euro and I'll say so publicly. Confirmed at 10, or refunded after 15 September. Don't buy flights before we call it.

"I can't confirm my October yet."

Take the seat when you can. If your programme changes after we confirm, you send a chef of your calibre in your place, up to 7 days out — the seat is transferable. After confirmation there are no cash refunds; that's the deal that keeps the price at his rates, and I'd rather tell you here than in the small print.

"How do I know it's legit?"

Check it: his lab, his sessions and his prices are on his own site, linked above. The map I keep is free and always will be. And you get me on the phone before you pay anyone a euro.