How to Watch
Watch Below Deck Down Under on Mondays at 8/7c and next day on Peacock. Catch up on the Bravo app.
Below Deck Down Under is cooking up something new in the kitchen — but it isn’t a trendy new dish.
For the first time ever, Below Deck Down Under will have a sous chef on board to whip up culinary delights alongside head chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph.
Captain Jason Chambers is hoping the extra set of hands will help the crew of the Katina deliver five-star service for even the most discerning of charter guests as they kick off a new season in Africa’s Seychelles.
“I think with a sous chef things can come to another level,” Jason told Tzarina in the Season 3 premiere as he surprised her with the news.
Who is Below Deck Down Under’s sous chef?
The man tasked with taking on the inaugural position is Anthony Bird, a 26-year-old from London, who got his start working in restaurants before transitioning to the yachting industry about four years ago.
After years of practice as a sous chef, Anthony described himself as being in more of a “transition phase” now.
“I’m ready to step it up and get to the next level,” he told producers. “I was lucky enough to work with a Michelin star chef on my last yacht. I feel like I’m on the periphery of becoming a head chef, so I’m excited to showcase my talent and just create some good food.”
Tzarina Reacts to her new sous chef on Below Deck
Tzarina was pumped to find out she’d have someone by her side in the kitchen, especially a fellow Brit.
“Not only do I have a sous chef to help me with cleaning and organization, but he’s British as well,” she said in her confessional. “This could be really, really awesome.”
Although the culinary whiz was already imagining working together with her new counterpart in perfect harmony, signs of trouble were brewing not long after they met.
During his first meeting with his new boss, Anthony struggled to come up with any of his weaknesses, although he had no trouble reciting his strengths.
“Strengths? I would say yeah, just pretty well-rounded at everything, to be honest,” he told her.
When she pressed him again to name his weaknesses so they could determine how best they’d work together, Anthony still came up empty.
“Can’t really think of too many,” he said.
Tzarina had a hard time believing he could be without any faults, telling him: “My weaknesses list is bigger than my strengths.”
But Anthony just told her that it was a “hard one to answer” before pushing back on the entire conversation.
“What’s with the interview process here?” he asked.
“The interview process? I don’t know anything about you and I want to know who I’m working with,” a surprised Tzarina replied. “I want to go through and ... I want to know your weaknesses and strengths and stuff like that and see how I can manage with the galley.”
“Well, I mean, we would soon find out, I guess,” he told her.
Tzarina later described his reaction as a “huge red flag.”
It wasn’t the only awkward moment between the pair. In the same conversation, Tzarina told him she didn’t “do egos.”
“If that ever happens, it’s like get out, like I’m done,” she told him. “I want you to understand I’m not interrogating you, I’m getting an understanding, basically just figuring out how it’s going to work with each other.”
Although Anthony told her it was “cool,” he later pushed back after Tzarina told him that she saw his focus on the boat as primarily helping with organization, cleaning, and the crew meals before he’d be able to tackle more challenging ventures, like preparing the guest food.
“If Anthony plays his cards right with me I’m more than happy that by the end of the season, he can make some guest food, but as a head chef, not gonna trust any random person I just met cooking for guests,” she explained in a confessional. “Prove yourself to me in your skill and then once trust is earned, then of course go for it.”
But Anthony had other ideas.
“So like, how I usually work is between [the] head chef and the sous chef on boats I’ve worked on is like, as long as the crew food is organized, we move on to guest stuff together, work together,” he told her.
Tension between the two nearly boiled over again during their first charter.
While Anthony spent most of his time organizing the kitchen and washing dishes, Tzarina hit one roadblock after another as she worked to smooth out the kinks with new Chief Stew Lara Rigby.
Her frustration only grew when Anthony decided to offer some unsolicited opinions on how she ran the kitchen.
“You need to utilize me a bit more, I think,” Anthony told her, describing her kitchen as “a little bit chaotic.”
“I work normally a little bit more organized, efficient,” he continued before adding. “We can definitely implement plans and structures to make everything easier.”
But Tzarina didn’t seem to be in the mood for the feedback.
“Are you f---ing joking?” she told producers.”Lara has caused me 10 times the amount of work and now I have a new sous chef being a total twat. I just need him to support me as a sous chef, which his position is — second to the head chef.”
This may not be the perfect culinary pairing either had envisioned, but only time will tell whether they’ll be able to blend their styles together to find a recipe for success.
To find out what else will be on the menu for these two, watch Below Deck Down Under Mondays at 8/7c on Bravo or available streaming on Peacock the next day.
