Although Captain Jason Chambers believed he was giving head chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph some much-needed help in the galley when sous chef Anthony Bird was added for Season 3 of Below Deck Down Under, that didn’t turn out to be the case when motor yacht Katina set sail on its first charter in the Seychelles.
“I feel like Anthony sees me as like the new stepmom that he doesn’t really want, but has to put up,” Tzarina remarked in Episode 2.
Although Tzarina and Anthony bonded together to take on weevils and maggots in the galley in the Season 3 premiere, that bond quickly dissolved after a disastrous breakfast service on Day 2 of the first charter, when Anthony confronted Tzarina.
Why are Tzarina and Anthony fighting on Below Deck Down Under?
“You need to utilize me a bit more I think,” he told her. “I’m just finding it a little bit chaotic. I work normally with a little bit more organiz[ation] and I just find it a bit overwhelming, that’s all — when there’s like, s—t everywhere.”
Anthony also pushed to work more closely with Tzarina.
“It’s a stressful job but we can definitely implement plans. Even this morning, we could have worked as a team and it would have been easier,” he said.
Tzarina decided to listen to Anthony and asked him to help with the beach lunch the guests requested on Charter 1. But Anthony was soon confused about how much responsibility he had for the barbecue, and asked if Tzarina was prepping for it.
“I am. I’m going to help you,” she said. “I’ll literally do everything. I just won’t be going to the beach.”
“Because that is your position, isn’t it?” Anthony responded, and when Tzarina was confused, he added, “Like to cook for the guests.”
“Yeah, I know,” Tzarina said, as the tension between her and Anthony grew. “I’m not making you do my job at all. I asked if you would like to go to the beach. I’m not going to not cook or anything like that. I was going to completely prepare you, send you on your way, then I wanted you to like have some fun on the beach as well. I’m not making you do my job — don’t worry.”
Although Tzarina said in her confessional she was trying to give Anthony an opportunity, he wasn’t buying it.
“I’m not trying to attack Tzarina here, but suddenly I’m going from being a dishwasher to doing beach canapes. This is a bit weird,” he said.
Anthony grilled all the lamb and salmon Tzarina prepared for the guests at the beach, and the guests were pleased. But he continued to criticize her.
“I do think me and Tzarina have different approaches to being a yacht chef. Hers may be a bit more chaotic, mine may be a bit more structured and rigid, but my meticulous nature just comes from being passionate about food,” he said in his confessional.
Captain Jason checks in with Tzarina on her work with her sous chef
Tzarina admitted to Captain Jason that it wasn’t smooth sailing with Anthony.
“I’m seeing this as like a trial period. It’s just trying to find my rhythm around the galley,” she told him.
But Jason hoped the addition of a sous chef would help Tzarina with her own faults.
“She builds her own hurdles. There’s little bits where she stumbles,” he said in his confessional. “That’s why she’s got a sous chef. It’s her domain. It’s her department. She can manage it the way she wants.”
As Tzarina and Anthony prepared for the dinner theme of Cowboys and Cowgirls, Anthony again disagreed with Tzarina’s approach and choices of food.
“Just because the theme’s basic doesn’t mean the food has to be basic,” he said. “If it was my menu, I would have been out there with the barbecue making it more of an immersive experience. Some short ribs, slow-cooked. We could have even done like a hot sauce platter where you make different sauces. The possibilities are endless.”
Anthony also spoke about what he perceived as Tzarina’s flaws to his bunk mate, deck hand Harry Van Vliet, who worked with Tzarina on previous Below Deck charters.
“Yeah, if she just worked a bit cleaner, it would be nice,” he told Harry. “It’s just like a mess everywhere. Dirty. Just not how I work.”
Tzarina learns her sous chef is talking badly about her to other crew
When the primary of the first charter called Tzarina’s food “exquisite,” Anthony disagreed in his confessional, making a face as he said, “God, that’s interesting.”
At dinner during the first crew night out, Tzarina asked Harry if Anthony had said anything about her.
“He says all he’s doing is cleaning up behind you,” Harry told her, and she responded, “He should. He’s my sous chef.”
Meanwhile, chief stewardess Lara Rigby asked Anthony if he wanted a chance to showcase what he could do.
“[Tzarina would] be missing out on an opportunity if she didn’t [let me],” Anthony replied.
The first charter left a bad taste in Tzarina’s mouth, setting up a battle between the chefs for the rest of the season.
“First charter, I’m already letting him do guest food because he’s complaining, so I have to f—king suck up to him … if you don’t want to wash up then go get a f—king head chef job,” she said. “He has one job to do and that’s to have my back, and instead he’s talking s—t about me to the other crew members? It’s just so disrespectful.”
Watch all-new episodes of Below Deck Down Under on Mondays at 8/7c on Bravo and the next day on Peacock.