Fine Palate Collective

A private hospitality house

Two HODs.
One Team.
One Standard.

Head Chef and Chief Stewardess, working as one across the galley and the interior.

50m to 101m  ·  Private  ·  Charter  ·  New Build

Proof

50 to 101mYacht experience
12+Seasons at sea
6×ACREW nominations
30+Years combined hospitality experience

Private  ·  Charter  ·  New Build

From the Caribbean to the Mediterranean to Southeast Asia.

Why we’re different

Before the yachts,
there was the restaurant. Ours.

Fine Palate restaurant, Philadelphia

We didn’t simply work in hospitality. We owned and operated it. Before yachting, we built an award winning fine dining restaurant business, managing everything from the food and service to staffing, sourcing and the guest experience. That experience became the foundation for what we bring to yachting today.

Read our story

We didn’t just work in hospitality.
We owned it.

Restaurant Ownership Fine Dining Luxury Hospitality Superyacht Experience

The Team

Chief Stewardess + Chef
One hospitality team.

Head Chef and Chief Stewardess working together across the galley and the interior.

Individual placements are also considered for the right program.

Services

One team. One standard.
Exceptional guest experience.

Permanent Placements

Two heads of department in a single hire. No second search, no strangers hoping they gel, no recruiter fee. Private, charter, new build and refit programs, 50m and above.

Emergency and Temp

Turnaround specialists. We board mid season, steady the galley and the interior, and hand you back a program on track. When the charter cannot wait, neither do we.

Private Hospitality

Private hospitality and special events, on board or ashore. Michelin level dining for private occasions, from intimate dinners and high end exclusive wine dinners to full event catering.

Consulting

Menu and recipe development, interior service standards, and crew training, for yachts and hospitality businesses ashore. Michelin structure, built for your program.

The individuals

Leadership, not just crew.

Almost two decades working side by side. One standard across two departments.

Head Chef

  • Michelin trained, with three star kitchen experience at Taillevent Paris, Le Louis XV Monaco, Jean Georges and Spago
  • A career shaped alongside Wolfgang Puck, Alain Ducasse, Joël Robuchon, Guy Savoy, Masa Takayama, Nobu Matsuhisa and Jean Georges
  • Executive Chef of Le Bec Fin, Philadelphia, Mobil 5 Star
  • Twelve yacht seasons, 35m to 101m, private and charter
  • Three time ACREW Best Chef nominee, 2024 to 2026
  • Has cooked for the Academy Awards Governors Ball, the Grammys, the Emmys, the Monaco Grand Prix, F1, the Cannes Film Festival, the Wine Spectator Grand Tasting and the James Beard Awards Dinner
  • Has cooked for the Who's Who of Hollywood, Fortune 500 companies and global captains of industry
  • Owner and partner, Fine Palate Group

Cuisine and Technique

Multi course tasting menus, sushi, butchery, artisan bread, pastry, molecular gastronomy, vegan and gluten free, kosher. Mediterranean, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Japanese, Asian, Middle Eastern and Modern American.

“You don't know what the best is until you've had better, so you better make it best!”

Chief Stewardess

  • Service formation at the three star Le Bernardin, New York
  • Ten yacht seasons, 35m to 101m, with purser experience: finances, accounting, marketing, payroll, procurement, budgeting, crew wages, and port clearance
  • Three time ACREW Best Chief Stewardess nominee, 2024 to 2026
  • Owner and partner, Fine Palate Group
  • Reads the room. Knows when to be visible with guests and when to be invisible.

Key Strengths

Wine knowledge and service, silver service, cocktail mixology, theme creations and tablescapes.

Signature Standard

  • Champagne and wine service to Master Sommelier standard.
  • Mastering Russian, French, Silver, Gueridon, and Butler service, tray-passed canapé service, and precise course timing.
  • Cocktail menu design and service training.
  • Known for calm, highly organized service, building interior departments that operate independently to owner, guest, and command standards.
  • Charter conversion and new build expertise: builds the interior operation from the ground up, setting crew structure, service standards and the guest experience before the first guest steps aboard.
  • Turnaround proven: boards mid charter and brings the interior back on track

“Better to be prepared than exposed.”

Film

In motion.

Our Story

Before the yachts,
there was the restaurant. Ours.

Fine Palate restaurant, Philadelphia

Long before we brought our hospitality experience to yachting, we were building and operating restaurants and special events businesses from the ground up.

We pioneered rooftop dining with Le Bok Fin, growing the operation from approximately 100 covers a night to nearly 900, season after season.

Then came Fine Palate.

A 60 seat fine dining restaurant became the center of a much larger hospitality and events operation. We developed sushi and maki programs for some of Philadelphia's leading catering companies and supplied events for the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, Wharton and the Kimmel Center.

We produced private events for the Philadelphia Eagles and the Darren Sproles Foundation, while our events operation extended from New York City through Philadelphia.

But the restaurant was about more than volume.

It was about standards.

We became known for sourcing exceptional ingredients and wines from around the world. Years spent working alongside some of the most respected names in culinary history gave us relationships with farmers, ranchers, fishermen, purveyors and wine producers operating at the highest levels of their craft.

Our guests noticed.

Fine Palate was recognized by guests for Best Contemporary Restaurant, Best Romantic Restaurant, Best Gluten Free Restaurant, Best Vegan Restaurant, Best New Year's Eve Restaurant and Best Brunch.

But the awards tell only part of the story.

We owned the room.

We owned the business.
We built the team.
We sourced the product.
We created the menus.
We managed the operation.
We served the guests.
And every night, we were accountable for the experience.

That distinction matters.

There is a difference between working in hospitality and owning hospitality.

We learned what happens when 100 guests become 900. We learned how to protect standards when the pressure increases. We learned how sourcing, staffing, food, service, timing and guest experience have to move as one operation.

There was no manual to hide behind.

It was ours.

That experience became the foundation for everything we brought into yachting.

We did not arrive on yachts simply as a Head Chef and Chief Stewardess.

We arrived as hospitality operators.

People who understand the guest experience from both sides of the pass. People who understand that exceptional service is not a collection of individual departments. It is one experience, delivered by one team, with every detail connected.

We know what it means to build standards, lead people, manage pressure and deliver an experience when there is nowhere to hide.

Because we have done it before.

At scale.

We did not learn hospitality from a manual.

We learned it by owning the room.

And that experience is now at the heart of how we operate on board.

Yacht lit up at anchor after dark
At anchor after dark

Contact

Looking for a different kind of HOD team?

Let’s talk.

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