‘Below Deck’: Chef Kevin Reveals the Guests’ Preference Sheets

Chef Kevin Dobson from Below Deck was challenged when a group of charter guests from Charleston, South Carolina gave him a tricky list of “dislikes” on their preference sheet.

The group of eight each had specific “dislikes” when it came to food, which seemed to trip up Dobson. He served pizza to the group, but one guest couldn’t eat cheese. Dobson is seen scrambling to create a dairy-free pizza. He also had to deal with complaints too. The eggs were too salty during breakfast, plus one of the guests, Justine Vastano, is a chef and tried to have a heart to heart with Dobson.

Vastano is filmed suggesting that Dobson go higher end when it comes to meals because the other guests were buzzing about his cooking (and it didn’t sound like it was in a good way).

Courtney Skippon created a special ‘cheat sheet’ for Dobson

Dobson shared to Instagram a special “cheat sheet” stew Courtney Skippon created to help him stay on top of the guests’ dislikes. Skippon cleverly reviewed the preference sheets and then wrote down a list of dislikes next to each guest’s name.

“Here’s a awesome quick sheet dislikes done by @courtneyskippon! What a Sous! ❤️ Competley missed the dairy… But had a back up and was never an issue!Sorry I couldn’t put together a 4 course meal without doing 18 dishes,” Dobson wrote along with a photo of the preference cheat sheet.

Skippon wrote the serious dislikes in red. That included putting “dairy” in red for one guest. Plus two guests requested Dobson not use a Teflon pan for cooking. Two guests also had allergies. One guest was allergic to cucumbers and another guest had a uni allergy.

Dobson was not thrilled with the number of food requests

Dobson said every guest gave a significant amount of information on their preference sheets. “All their preference sheets were like this,” he said, gesturing with his hands during the Below Deck After Show. “The Teflon pan, I can’t cook in a Teflon pan. How am I supposed to make your f**king omelet without like a non-stick pan?”

He adds it’s not a huge problem. “But when they ask for gluten-free things and then they’re smashing the afternoon biscuits at the table, it’s like come on guys,” he continues. “Why am I doing this extra effort for this stuff when you’re just doing that!” Dobson says the requests became ridiculous.

But Skippon said even though she had other jobs to do on the boat, she could easily remember the guests’ preferences. “Whereas that was his only job,” she continues. “And he sometimes wasn’t able to remember.” As a result, Skippon says she started her guest cheat sheet. “I would literally make a bullet form list of what the guests don’t want. Just in case he forgot, I could look at it and be like, ‘they don’t want that.'”

Dobson further explains why he would opt for the family-style. “Like Kate [Chastain] was getting pissed off at the family-style stuff, but instead of doing like four different dishes, I’d be doing eight,” he said. “Or if it was five courses I’d be doing 10 dishes. It was a mindf**k for me.”