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Below Deck Adventure’s Jessica Condy Shares Why She’s “Well-Suited” to Be a Yacht Chef
The Below Deck Adventure cast member runs a tight ship (pun intended) in the galley.
When Below Deck Adventure premiered on November 1, viewers were introduced to an entirely new cast of yachties cruising around the cold waters of Norway aboard Mercury. It didn’t take long for the crew members to get to know one another — and to start in on the drama.
Chef Jessica Condy has high standards when it comes to her food and how she wants the other crew members to treat her.
“People are scared to go in the galley,” Captain Kerry Titheradge says in the teaser trailer, while Jessica herself admits the boat “is not where [she] need[s] to be.” She also has an argument with chief stew Faye Clarke and tells her to get the interior crew’s “s--t together.”
As fans wait to find out why the galley is an intimidating place for the rest of the crew — and to learn why Jessica doesn’t want to be on the boat — they can scroll down to discover more about the chef. including her background, her past yachting work, and her family.
Her background
The Below Deck Adventure chef hails from South Africa, and she has twin sisters named Maryann and Kate. On the series premiere, Jessica shared that she’s long been passionate about cooking and food.
“My grandmother was Spanish-Italian, so I grew up with food around me,” Jessica said during the Below Deck Adventure premiere on November 1. “I was rolling spanakopita from when I was about 2 years old, just hanging out in the kitchen. It was my happy place.”
Her work life
After realizing the kitchen was her “happy place,” Jessica started her real cooking journey when she was 12. On Instagram, Jessica shared that, after studying marketing and finance in college, she “lasted four months in the corporate world” before deciding to take a different path. She eventually did a 12-week intensive study at the Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland, and she also became a holistic health coach after studying at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York.
While Jessica could have taken her cooking talents to a traditional restaurant, she was drawn to yachting because it gave her the opportunity to travel the world. She’s been working as a chef on yachts since 2009.
“I often get teased, especially on Instagram, because I am the wanderlust chef,” she added on the show. (She isn’t kidding, as her handle is @WanderlustChef.) “And people are like, ‘Ooh, wanderlust, blah, blah, blah.’ But this describes me perfectly. I’m well-suited to yachting and to being a chef, because no day is the same. Being exposed to different places, that brings me inspiration.”
Her personal life
Jessica hasn’t shared much publicly about her dating life.
As for her time on Mercury, Jessica will soon be dealing with a serious obstacle in the galley.
In the above preview clip of the November 22 episode, Jessica sustains a serious burn to her hands while trying to cook eggs for the charter guests. Will the injury affect her time on the boat? You’ll have to tune in to find out.
Watch Below Deck Adventure on Bravo Tuesdays at 9/8c and the next day on Peacock. Catch up on the Bravo app.
