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Captain Sandy Confronts Chef Jono After a Nearly Fatal “Screw Up”: “I’m Really F-cking Pissed”
Plus, Sandy Yawn and Johnathan Shillingford share new details on the situation in the Below Deck Mediterranean After Show.
Below Deck Mediterranean has been filled with notable highs and lows for Johnathan "Jono" Shillingford, but on Season 9, Episode 13, the chef made a nearly fatal mistake that had Captain Sandy Yawn looking for his replacement.
The episode kicked off with Jono, as well as the other crew members, feeling "a lot of pressure" to make the charter special for their guests even though they couldn't be at sea due to weather conditions.
"Being stuck at the dock, you know, definitely affects people's moods," Jono said in an interview during the August 26 episode. "I've got allergy restrictions, I've got different preferences. The past few charters, the food's been going great."
Jono hoped to continue that trend with his dinner that evening.
"The theme tonight is merpeople. I'm trying to put some of that theme into my menu, like crustaceans and fish, under the sea," he explained. However, he forgot one very important note when planning his menu.
As Aesha Scott brought the group their first course, tuna carpaccio, one of the guests was taken aback.
"It looks beautiful. I would eat it if I could ... I can't eat raw seafood, 'cause it could kill me," she declared. "In my preference sheet, I said it about 15 times that I can't have it."
Understandably, Sandy wasn't pleased when she heard this.
"I'm really f-cking pissed," she said in an interview. "Never in my 35 years at sea have I had a chef feed a guest something that could actually kill them."
"This is a fireable offense," she added. "And so now, I just have to look for a replacement chef."
Sandy immediately confronted Jono about the error, telling him, "One of the guests, it's on their preference sheet: Raw seafood will kill her, and it's in front of her plate. That's a big screw-up."
"I need you to know how serious this is," she later explained, to which Jono responded, "I do. When you put a lot of lime on it, people say that 'cooks' the fish, but you're right."
Jono understood the magnitude of the mistake, explaining in a confessional, "I feel terrible. I don't know how I let that slip. I think I just have too many things on my mind."
Still, Sandy's mind was made up, and she sent a message to request a new chef. While Sandy hadn't yet told Jono of her decision, he anticipated his job was on the line.
"Chefs have been fired for much smaller mistakes," he said. "It's my reputation as well. I'm really disappointed I let this happen."
Aesha Scott reacts to Chef Jono's mistake
When Sandy told Aesha what happened, she admitted she was also at fault.
"This is such a huge f-ck-up because I should be double-checking everything for Jono," she said. "That's a usual thing that I do, but I am just spread so insanely thin right now. I don't know how I can functionally do that."
The next morning, Jono knew he had to bring his A-game for the rest of the charter.
"There's no chance that I can make another mistake again," he said. "Otherwise, I'm not sure what my future might hold."
Unfortunately, things once again went south. While the guests were blown away by their next dinner (celebrating two of the guests' 25th anniversary), they weren't happy about dessert. Upon seeing Jono's "cookie chocolate cake sandwich," one of the guests sent it back and stated, "He missed the mark tonight."
Did Chef Johnathan Shillingford get fired on Below Deck Med?
No. Although Sandy declared, "I have to let Jono go," she received a text saying there was not yet a chef available to replace him.
Therefore, when she spoke to Jono after the charter, Sandy said, "Serving the guest raw fish, that's a fireable offense. I'm not going to do that, but this can't happen."
"I can't let him go, there's no replacement chef," she explained in an episode interview. "I'm in the middle of the charter season. I can't be stuck with no chef."
"For now, I have no choice but to keep Johnathan," she added.
In the Below Deck Mediterranean Season 9 After Show video above, Sandy and Jono shared new details on the situation.
"I was very stressed," Jono explained. "I think by demonstrating to Sandy that maybe I wasn't good enough or that she couldn't trust my decisions as a chef, yeah, for sure, that's very upsetting."
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Get more details on the situation in the Below Deck Mediterranean After Show video above.
