Chef Dave Describes ‘Below Deck’ as a Setup for Failure – ‘It Broke Me’

Chef Dave White recounted his Below Deck Mediterranean experience as being one of the hardest things he’s ever done – and he’s climbed, Mount Everest.

White had a brief and messy romance with chief stew Natasha Webb during Below Deck Med Season 7. The harder White fell for Webb the icier she became toward him. At the same time, White dealt with wild guest requests, last-minute demands, and an amped-up charter season – all while being filmed.

Chef Dave said he could have ‘failed miserably’ on ‘Below Deck’

“I’m not gonna lie, it was tough,” White admitted on Malia White’s Total Ship Show podcast. “It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, actually. Mentally it was really, really, really difficult.”

“If I wasn’t good at my job, I would 100% have failed miserably,” he continued. “I love my job and am so passionate about cooking and it really kind of just about kept me kind of sane. It really kind of kept me together. I just could just fully focus on what I had to do.”

“Nobody would really ever understand. Imagine working on a yacht on steroids with lots of cameras following you around with a bunch of people you’d never worked with before,” White said. “Surely that should be enough to explain how hard it is to walk onto the yacht and in 24 hours you pick up charter.”

Chef Dave tried to leave ‘Below Deck Med’ twice

White and the other Below Deck crew go into the experience blind, without knowing each other or the boat, but then have to start working as a cohesive crew almost immediately.

“It’s ridiculous but that’s what happens. Some people think it’s fake, but it is not. You are literally designed to fail. And then with some women dramas or men dramas and just being right on top of it. I kind of got through it and I’m really proud of myself. I tried to leave twice, but [Captain] Sandy [Yawn] talked me out of it,” he dished. The primary reason why White tried to leave was due to his fizzled romance with Webb but also massive miscommunication with the interior department.

“I was like I don’t want to be here because I don’t need to be here,” he said. “I love to cook. I’m so glad I did stick it out,” he said. The main reason he was glad that he stuck it out is because he made new contacts and friends due to being on the show.

‘I was literally broken after the experience’

White recalled how he couldn’t be around anyone after the season ended. “I couldn’t socialize, that’s how broken I was,” he said. “I was literally broken after the experience. And I’ve climbed Everest for f***s sake!”

“It broke me,” he added. “But I came back from that so much stronger. I felt like a new person from it to be honest. Which was cool.”

Also, even though the crew only films for six weeks, White said it felt like a “lifetime.” But he also, “Met some incredible people from a mental side to me to be vulnerable in front of so many people. A lot of people opened up to me,” he said. “They were saying, thank you. And that’s really cool to see on a reality show. The show’s not fake and to show your emotion.”