Slicin’ and Dicin’ with Chef Ben Robinson of Below Deck

By Joseph Palmisano

He may have worked Below Deck on the HIT Bravo TV show of the same name but, his food is top deck all day long. Chef Ben Robinson has been slicin’ and dicin’ since the tender age of 5. He credits his culinary curiosity to both his mother and grandmother who he calls fantastic cooks. Living in the rural English countryside, Chef Ben cut his teeth cooking on an AGA oil drip stove where he mastered his family’s sauces. Be it tomato, espagnole, or bearnaise sauce, he was well on his way to a formidable cooking career. His parents allowed him to cook for the family but if he got too adventurous in his cooking, he was cut off from the kitchen so he could cool his heels and reflect upon his actions. Ben talks about the time when he was a young teenager and his father tried to pass off frozen fish as fresh. Ben called him out and said not only was it frozen, it came from our freezer. His pallet was so in tune with what he was eating, he could easily distinguish foods and their origins. Needless to say, his dad was not happy, but Ben was known for pushing the envelope. By the age of 22 he had 4 or 5 years of culinary experience under his belt working in restaurants in England, NYC, and Boston. Unfortunately, he wasn’t making a ton of money and living in these cities costs a ton of money. So, one day his older brother said that he should look for a job on a yacht. They get paid well, travel the world, and always have a place to sleep. Ben didn’t need to hear anymore. So, at the age of 22 he set his sights on the high seas. His first job was that of a deckhand. He liked it. It was not too hard and there were fun times to be had with the other crew members. All was fine and dandy until one day the captain, they’d become friends, said, ‘what are you doing?’ See, Ben was cooking for the crew because the yacht did not have a chef and the captain said, ‘you cook too good to be a deckhand, you should work as a chef.’ At that moment, the captain took Ben below deck and introduced him to his new post, ‘the galley.’ He let Ben know that if you don’t like it, you can leave. Well, that was that. He stayed and embarked on his journey working as a chef on luxury yachts. At this point Ben realized that if he did this for a year, he could leave for another yacht and double his salary. He did this for 4 years and amassed a bounty of cash which he used to invest in himself. He’d hire chefs, that he admired, to teach him what they knew. Now at around the age of thirty he had enough of the yachting life and decided to go to NYC to open a high-end catering company. He did this for a while but realized it wasn’t all that he thought it would be and he didn’t want to be in the cold any longer. So back to Florida, specifically Fort Lauderdale, he went. Now in FLA, he saw an ad for a chef for the Bravo TV show, Below Deck. Being

Steak au Poivre in a Green Peppercorn Sauce

Ingredients:

Two 6-ounce beef tenderloin filets

Fine sea salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Sprinkle the filets generously with salt.

Heat a medium cast-iron skillet over high heat until it starts to smoke slightly. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to the pan. Sear the filets on both sides until browned, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet fitted with a wire rack. Cook in the oven until desired doneness, about 7 minutes for medium rare.

Meanwhile, return the skillet

2 teaspoons green peppercorns in brine, drained

½ beef bouillon cube

¼ cup cognac

1 tablespoon porcini powder

6 sprigs thyme for garnish

Coarse sea salt for garnish to medium heat. Add the heavy cream, Worcestershire sauce, green peppercorns, and bouillon cube. Bring to a simmer and let reduce by about half, about 2 minutes. Add the cognac and porcini powder and let reduce again for 1 minute. confident in his abilities, as he has worked on yachts before, he sent his application in. After some interviewing, screen tests, and general TV back and forth, he was offered the chef position on Below Deck and his adventures on the high seas began all over again. He enjoyed the experience of being on TV and especially being back on luxury yachts.

Remove the beef from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Cut the filets across the grain into 2-inch pieces and top with the au poivre sauce, thyme sprigs and a pinch of coarse salt.

With this, let’s drop anchor and throw some Q&A lines out with Chef Ben and see what we catch.

Q: What did you want them to show more of on BD?

A: My food.

Q: Would you like your own show?

A: Yes! I’d love to do a cooking show.

Q: Who do you keep in contact with from BD?

A: Captain Lee, Kate Chastain, Brian, and Bobby.

Q: If you owned the yacht, who’d be your crew?

A: Captain Sandy, Kate, Bobby, and Kat.

Q: Fav food?

A: Steakhouse food. Oysters and stone crab.

Q: Best multi-use kitchen tool?

A: Chef’s knife.

Q: What should you never order in a restaurant?

A: Seafood medley or bouillabaisse.

Q: What are some must have ingredients in every kitchen?

A: Kerry Gold butter and lemon.

Let’s get our eat on with Chef Ben’s Steak au Poivre in a Green Peppercorn Sauce recipe. Bon appétit!

Chef Ben Robinson: IG: @Benstogram

FB: BenRobinsonChef

Twitter: Benrobinsonchef

Chefbenrobinson.com to book him for private events, to purchase his Nakiri knife, autographed aprons, or any of his other products.