How do you feel about cooking on board? Even those that love to cook often don’t enjoy it in the confines of a small galley. The good news is you can make it fun, easy and delicious with a little help from The Yachting Gourmet.
The biggest issue with the galley is space. Very few boaters have a galley the size of their home kitchen and avoid preparing meals on board except those that are extremely simple. However, you CAN prepare gourmet meals in the galley and we are going to explore how.
My business, The Yachting Gourmet, started with a cookbook by the same title. It is a collection of 400 recipes for easy on board preparation. It came to be after many years of boating and working with the challenges of preparing meals on board. After much trial and error, the two-part recipe format found in The Yachting Gourmet was developed and the cookbook published in 2007. By being a little organized, planning ahead, and doing some of the preparation at home, you can turn out great meals for your friends and family. Publishing the cookbook was step one in making cooking on board easy, fun and delicious for boaters.
Step two came one day at a local marine supply store. Having gone there to purchase a piece of equipment needed to do a cooking demo at a yacht club, I found myself standing in the galley section of the store. My reaction was, “this is awful!” There were scant usable tools and most were not stainless steel or other boating friendly materials. After checking a few more marine suppliers, I realized their focus was on other things than the galley, opening up an opportunity to supply a much needed service to the boating community. So, that began a process of seeking out and assembling useful, boater friendly galley tools, equipment and table top items. Combined with the cookbook, we provide a single source for virtually anything you need to make cooking (and eating!) on board a pleasure.
So, let’s spend a little time outfitting the galley. There are certain basics pieces you will need to make your galley functional - essentially a core set of equipment from which you can customize the galley to your specific likes and needs. Newer materials such as Silicone, Melamine, Polycarbonate, etc. have opened up a wide variety of tools and equipment for your galley. And, there are so many multi-functional tools available that reduce storage space considerably. We specialize in collapsible items, tools that serve multiple purposes, silicone bake ware, nesting cookware, etc. Our Galley Outfitting Service is customized to your specific needs, helping you make your galley a pleasure to use, whether you are starting from scratch or simply enhancing your existing equipment. By starting with the core pieces, then expanding to meet your specific needs and desires, we can make yours a great galley.
The tendency is to outfit your galley with castoffs from your home kitchen. Instead, look at outfitting your galley with the RIGHT tools to make it efficient and a pleasure to use. With our Galley Outfitting Service, we will look at what you have at home (or already on board) and build from there by adding just the right pieces for your galley. For example, mixing bowls are a challenge on board. They take up a lot of space and are hard to stow. So instead of using those home kitchen castoffs, the collapsible silicone and nylon bowls we carry store in 1/3 the space, clean up easily and are multi-functional. You can explore these and other great tools on our website, www.yachtinggourmetstore.com.
In our next installment, we will begin the process of outfitting the galley on a Hunter 295. SmarterSail, an ASA sailing school based in St. Petersburg, FL, runs a fleet of Hunters based in Florida and Annapolis, MD. Join us while we go through the Galley Outfitting process on one of their 295s. In our next article, we will take a look at the “before” of the galley and review the process of considering the needs and wants of this particular owner.
For More Information Contact: Mary Maskal at The Yachting Gourmet
371 Corey Ave., St. Pete Beach, FL 33706
727 360-COOK (2665)
www.yachtinggourmetstore.com
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