Talking Travel With Aesha Scott, Chief Stew On Bravo’s ‘Below Deck Med’

Aesha Scott is the lively, outspoken chief stew on Bravo’s popular reality series Below Deck Mediterranean. The New Zealand native quit her job working at a Kiwi fruit lab after college and moved to Antibes, France with her sister. She spent five years working aboard yachts before joining the Below Deck franchise, and she remains an avid traveler.

We spoke with her recently about the series and about some of her favorite destinations around the world. Here are edited highlights.

Lea Lane: Before we talk about some of your favorite places around the world, what’s it like to be a globetrotting yachtie?

Aesha Scott: I thrive off change and excitement and pressure and new things. Thanks to the show, my life is constantly different. There’s always something fun, and I feel I was just made for it. I’m lucky that Scott, my fiance, is supportive and we’re both independent.

Lea: You’ve been yachting in the Med and down under in Australia. Where are your favorite harbors?

Aesha: I was based out of the south of France for years, and most of my yachting career has been in the Med, so that’s my favorite place to do yachting. I love Barcelona, I love Italy, but my favorite place on the boat was Croatia. Pulling into Dubrovnik and walking around that old city with its beautiful stone walls, and then cruising down the coast — I just found that whole country fascinating.

Places like the south of France are still charming and European, but there’s Gucci and Fendi and sports cars all around. You go into Croatia and it still feels quite relaxed and old-worldly — like how the Mediterranean was. And I love that.

Lea: How much time do you get off?

Aesha: Hardly any, and that’s why it was about my third or fourth year of yachting when I started doing just temp work; I would do two or three weeks on a boat and then take a week off. And then two or three weeks, and take a week off.

I realized, hey, I’ve been to all of these countries but I’ve barely even seen them. When you pull up to the port and you’ve got guests on the whole time, you’d get maybe a two-hour lunch break. I remember I biked to a national park and then I cycled back in under two hours. I would force myself to get out and see it. It’s all very rushed.

Lea: How is a Below Deck yacht charter different from a regular one?

Being with a crew and being filmed is different from a normal yacht experience, but I just pretend the cameras don’t exist, so they don’t really bother me.

On Below Deck we do nine short charters because they want lots of different groups and they want the pressure of reprovisioning and constant change. On a regular yacht the same guests will be on for two weeks, so you only have to order and change the fridges and get used to a schedule every two weeks rather than every three days.

Lea: With so many new guests it must be especially difficult. What’s the worst group that you remember?

Aesha: It was the second season of Below Deck Down Under, and that whole group was just at each other’s throats the whole time. They didn’t show heaps of it, but they were literally walking around the boat screaming at each other and I’m having to stand in the middle like, ‘please, you go over there and you go over there,’ and it’s not a lovely environment.

The groups that I hate are on a yacht for the first time and they’re overexcited. They order the next cocktail when they’ve just started drinking the one that you’ve given them. You’re putting down like eight drinks, and the moment you put them down, they order more. Endless back and forth. You can’t do anything else. And then my heart gets so broken when I’m clearing their glasses and every one of them is half-full of the most expensive tequila, and all these beautiful ingredients. It feels so wasteful.

Lea: What’s your favorite part of being a chief stew?

Aesha: I enjoy being in control of the guest experience because I take my work so seriously. These guests are paying thousands and thousands of dollars to be on board.

I like being the one knowing that all the cogs are turning as they should. And I tend to not take many breaks. You’re working 16 hours nonstop and then by the time you wind down from that it’s time to do a full face so that I look nice for the cameras. I’m only really getting four to five hours sleep a night for two months, so you burn out. That’s why stews tend to have an eight-year lifespan; it just gets too much.

Lea Lane: After each trip we see the captain handed a big envelope full of money from the guests. Are they told what to tip you within a range, or how does that work?

Aesha: I think the standard a show is about ten percent. I think that that’s kind of the minimum that’s expected, although you should never expect what we tend to get on the show. In all my time that I’ve done it, the average would be about 1800 U.S. dollars or euros per 48 hours.

Lea: I was watching when that one group stiffed you. The primary was a second timer and he just left a note in the envelope instead of cash.

Aesha: Even if you aren’t totally happy, it’s just recognizing that we’ve all been busting our asses to try and give you the best possible time.

I was blown away by the first group of guests that we had this season, those young TikTockers: because of a glitch we had no wine, we had none of their provisions, and they still left us a wonderful tip. They were great.

Lea Lane: You’ve traveled all over the world. You’ve mentioned two of your favorite places, the south of France and Croatia. Where else?

Aesha: I went to South Africa last year, and we were based in Kruger National Park, which was just stunning. But when I say I love South Africa, it’s a limited statement, because I didn’t have the opportunity to go down to Cape Town.

Seeing animals that I’d only ever seen in a zoo was mind-blowing. I think everyone should try a safari. And then the produce, the food. The meat, the fruits and vegetables are the most flavorful I’ve ever tried, and I’m from New Zealand, where we have amazing produce. You’ll get this stunning, gorgeous meal for about eight U.S. dollars. I really want to go back and just eat my way around.

Lea: Another favorite place?

Aesha: I’ve just gotten back from Morocco and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. But I went there and the thing that most struck me was the people — the most welcoming, kind, lovely people. They believe that Morocco is a country meant for all peoples.

Lea: Yes, when you travel the people are a huge part of the pleasure. I know you also love New York City.

I grew up watching Friends and Sex in the City. My first time there I was working on a super yacht with my sister and we were standing on the bow and we got to enter New York City on the front of the super yacht and we’ve got the Statue of Liberty going past us, and my sister and I had our arms around each other, bawling our eyes out because we couldn’t believe it.

And I remember walking around, and I was like man, every single thing that people have said about this place is true, because often it’s really overstated. But wow, it’s magic. And when you’re in Manhattan, every block that you walk down, there’s people watching. What’s that restaurant? What’s that shop? There’s just so much to take in.

Lea: You have a nice variety of favorites. You love England as well, full of its own energy.

Aesha: I love nostalgia, and when you’re in England it feels like you’re walking through a calendar. My granny is British, and I remember sitting with her, having a cup of tea, and it fills me with so much joy, the culture and the tradition. I love the little pubs when it’s gloomy outside and you can have bangers and mash and a beer.

Lea: Aesha, with all your experiences around the world, please share one really special memory?

Aesha: I was working on this boat called Phoenix Two. It’s a 96-meter super yacht with about 30 to 35 crew on there at one time. I remember we were right at the end of a really intense season. It was three months straight, and I hadn’t set foot off the boat. We were in the Med and then we crossed the Atlantic, and then we’d been in Florida, then we went down to the Caribbean.

The guests wanted to go down to Cuba, and so we pulled into Havana and the guests were on land for three days. And the captain said that the crew can have the day off and that they’ve organized a surprise for us in Havana. So we get all dressed up, step off the port, come out into the street and there are three big buses.

And the buses suddenly all shift, and behind them are 10 gorgeous, shining Cadillacs in a row. And we all sprint towards these Cadillacs, and we’re sitting up on the back seat, cruising around Havana, the wind blowing in our hair.

It was magical. They ended up taking us to the Tropicana, the old cabaret where Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe hung out, and they got us the best tables in the house, at the very front, with cigars and all you could drink.

And I just remember that night feeling so unreal. I couldn’t believe that this was my life and this was happening to me, and if it wasn’t for yachting, I never would have experienced that. I’ll always be so grateful.

Hear more of Aesha’s conversation on Episode 109 of my award-winning travel podcast, Places I Remember with Lea Lane, wherever you get podcasts; and subscribe to my YouTube channel, Places I Remember: Travel Talk with Lea Lane.