Cellar & Galley

A chef and a master Sommelier serve up the perfect pairings.

- Andrew Parkinson

It’s the morning of the annual chefs’ competition at the Antigua Charter Yacht Show, and James Howard, first-time participant from the 142-foot (43.2-meter) Palmer Johnson Lady J, is as primed as a fuel pump at the Monaco Grand Prix. He’s been ready for weeks, if not his whole life. The 30-year-old chef has a passion for perfection in cooking technique, and his submission to the judges was a lobster delicacy.

“I’ve been working out that dish in my mind for about a month now,” Howard says. “I spent a great deal of time just with the cooking process, trying to find the exact temperature and timing where the lobster, at its cooking point, turns from translucent to opaque—the precise moment when you want to stop the cooking. I experimented at 45 degrees [Celsius] cooking it sous vide for half an hour. Then 50 degrees … then 51 … 52 … I got to 55. At 56 to 57, it started to get too opaque, so 55 was the magic number. I’d say we went through about seven or eight lobsters. The crew was definitely loving me that day.”

He’s hoping the judges will love him too.

“They are used to seeing amazing dishes; you have to stand out,” he says.

“You’re talking about a month’s work—so much passion—on a plate.”

Originally from Yorkshire, England, Howard became hooked on gastronomy during an apprenticeship in Cannes, France, at age 16. After a few seasons as a chef in the South of France, he participated in a cook-off in Monaco that landed him in the galley of a yacht, which he enjoyed.

But, as the story typically goes at that age, he had to go see about a girl.