Welcome back to Below Deck Season 11, Episode 9. In this week’s episode, titled “The Real Housewives of Grenada,” Chef Anthony is overwhelmed and has trouble staying focused, and a demanding Real Housewife on board doesn’t make it any easier for him. Meanwhile, Interior is struggling to keep up while still down one crew member. Here are some of the highlights from Below Deck Season 11, Episode 9.
Anthony’s dyslexia makes focus difficult
Fraser checks in with Captain Kerry. “How’s the chef doing?” Kerry asks.
“I think he’s putting too much on his plate,” Fraser shares. “It’s such a sh*t show in there. Maybe pop your head in there more often,” he suggests.
“People who’re that creative,” Kerry says, “they’ll break. I’ve gotta be careful on how hard I push.”
“Chefs are artists,” Kerry explains in a confessional, “and they can be quite sensitive … Anthony is a great chef, and I don’t want to push him over the edge.”
Meanwhile, Anthony’s galley looks like a dumpster. He’s got trash all over the counter already, and he hasn’t even cooked anything yet.
“It’s, like, the middle of the season,” Anthony says in a confessional. “You know, I’m tired, but revenge is my motivation. Since I was a kid and the fact that I [have] dyslexia, a bunch of motherf*ckers laughing at you because you can’t read, that hurt me inside … For me, it’s very hard to be focused. That’s part of the dyslexia, of course. It makes this job more difficult, I would say. That’s why you need to really love what you do. I cannot give up.”
Preference sheet nightmare
Captain Kerry calls Fraser, Ben, and Anthony to a preference meeting for the next charter. Before getting down to business, he acknowledges that the crew was down two crew members last charter, and everyone had to work harder. “But I was quite impressed,” he acknowledges.
The new Primary is a former cruise director, Melinda Springer. “Oh, my God,” Fraser moans. Additional guests are her husband Noah, along with Gary (a fashion executive), and his girlfriend Jill Zarin (one of the original Real Housewives of New York City).
Melinda has multiple food allergies and doesn’t eat meat, but she will eat fish. She asks for no raw seafood, please (no sushi for her). Remember this.
In addition, Melinda’s hubby Noah dislikes meat and fish, and one of the other guests doesn’t like veggies. This should be fun. Anthony’s practically going to have to cook separate meals for everyone.
“Don’t mix up the plates,” Kerry jokes.
“The Primary is requesting a gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free Piña Colada-inspired birthday cake,” Fraser reads. “And a more traditional birthday cake for her husband.” Wow. What are they supposed to make it out of? Maybe just stick a candle in a Piña Colada?
Captain Kerry is laughing so hard, he’s almost in tears, but Anthony says in a confessional, “I’m very stressed. It’s a lot of restrictions. Each person is something different, like, vegan, plant-based, gluten-free. Maybe it’s not real. [But] it’s real. I’m going to be in trouble.”
It begins
As soon as the boat leaves the dock, Jill goes into diva mode. She wants special ice in her drinks. She wants her Diet Cokes kept in the freezer (won’t they freeze and explode?).
“I don’t care about anyone else,” Jill tells Barbie. “My Diet Cokes, into the freezer.”
“Jill is the Primary in her head,” Barbie interviews. “She’s overwhelming.”
“I just showed them how to make good Diet Coke,” Jill announces to her friends. “Has to be cold soda with nuggets [the special ice].”
In the galley, Fraser’s trying to plan dinner with the chef. Anthony suggests lobster, but Fraser reminds him the Primary doesn’t like lobster.
“I think Chef is really overwhelmed,” Fraser says in a confessional. “I don’t think he’s really paying attention. He’s definitely not focused.” Does Fraser even know about Anthony’s dyslexia? He might be a little more supportive if he did.
“What’s your option for the person who doesn’t eat seafood?” he asks Chef.
When Anthony says he has tofu, Fraser continues, “And what’s your option for shrimp cocktail?” They can’t just serve some of the guests and skip the others. There has to be a substitute for them to enjoy while the others are eating their shrimp.
“I don’t know what to do,” Fraser frets. “He’s just so not there, and that’s worrying me.”
Jill has suggestions – lots of them
To be honest, I didn’t watch RHONY when Jill was on, so I had to Google her. So far, she seems okay, but the charter is young.
“What island is that?” Jill asks Kerry.
“We’re just in one of the bays of Grenada,” he responds.
“Gotcha,” she says. “I have captained a boat myself. But not a boat like this. The furthest I went was Newport, but I wouldn’t go to Nantucket or anything. That’s too much [open water].” Is Jill getting her flirt on with Captain, or is she just being friendly?
Before dinner, Jill’s boyfriend Gary comes up and asks if Jill can have a makeup mirror. She wants to dry her hair, but there’s no electrical outlet in the bathroom.
“It’s in a secret, hidden drawer,” Barbie says, running downstairs to help her find it. “Sorry, Jill. I’m coming!”
After Barbie shows her where the outlet is, Jill says, “I want to tell you something else. I took a lot of yachts before, and every bathroom is loaded with toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash, band-aids, Q-tips. Has anyone ever said that before?”
“No, they have not,” Barbie admits. “But I completely understand what you’re saying.”
In a confessional, Barbie tells us, “I think [Jill’s] annoying, and … it’s too much. You’re free-loading guests who [are] extremely demanding … I need another stew just for Jill.”
“Even Tums,” the former Housewife continues. “You should have Tums in the bathroom. That was all. I’m like the complainer. I’m sorry.” She may be a nice lady, but I can see already that she’s high-maintenance. But isn’t that kind of mandatory for being a Real Housewife?
But Jill has one more question. “There’s chocolates on the pillow, right?”
“Ding dong!”
At breakfast, Jill’s at it again. When one of the guests asks if there’s any hot sauce on the table, Jill volunteers, “I have chili oil in my stateroom. It’s such a big boat, they can’t be here all the time … If you need hot sauce, you have a hot plate of food, you don’t want to wait five minutes for it because it’s gonna be cold.”
This prompts one of the other guests to complain, “I kind of want a drink right now, and there’s nobody around.”
When Fraser returns to the table, Jill asks, “Can I give you another recommendation for the yacht?”
When he says of course, she continues, “I have this on mine … It’s like a doorbell. I used to have a doorbell that would go to the kitchen.”
“Bet they loved you,” Fraser jokes, only half kidding.
“They loved me,” Jill says. “Ding dong! Ding dong!”
“We should always have a crew member around…” Fraser starts.
“There isn’t,” Jill interrupts. “Most of the time there isn’t.”
“Jill is crawling into my brain,” Fraser confesses, “and eating away at my soul.”
“He didn’t like the doorbell idea,” Jill tells her friends, as Fraser makes a hasty exit.
Later Barbie checks on the guests up. As she walks by, Jill pipes up, “Question for you … about the food. Not about the service, about the food. I know I wrote on [my preference sheet] I wanted food out all the time.”
“From now on,” Barbie promises, “there’ll always be some snacks out on the bar for you.”
“Okay, perfect,” Jill says. “Thank you.”
“My greatest pleasure,” Barbie lies.
Jill tells her friends, “That’s what I have to get in bars. I’m a little pushy, but at least you’ll be satisfied.”
Burgers befuddled
For lunch, Chef offers a regular beef burger with cheese, a veggie burger, or a beef burger with a lettuce wrap. There’s also a choice of regular or gluten-free bread. When Barbie brings him the guests’ orders, he gets a little overwhelmed.
Even though she writes the orders on the whiteboard for him, he’s still confused. Dyslexia, right? Maybe he should tell somebody about that so they could better support him.
“This lunch is turning out to be a complete nightmare,” Barbie interviews. She runs one of the burgers back to the kitchen to switch the bun for a lettuce wrap.
Of course, it’s Jill’s lunch, who immediately says, “Burger’s cold. Gary, yours, too? Anybody else? Tell the truth! Just tell them. They don’t mind. I mean, they want you to tell them. They love it!”
When Xandi tries to help, Jill goes after her. “What’s going on with our food? I think they probably should have done a buffet. Where are they?”
When Xandi and Barbie explain to the captain that there will probably be complaints about lunch and what happened, he offers to do damage control and go talk to them.
“Good day,” say Captain Kerry. “So we’ve got some confusion here with the food on our end. But it looks like it’s all out now. Those who have eaten so far, how was it?”
Everyone agrees it was good/great. “It does look pretty good,” Kerry says. “Enjoy.”
“Captain shouldn’t be bothered with any of this,” Jill says. Wow. This lady has an opinion on everything.
“Sorry, sir,” Barbie says, back in the galley.
“No more mistakes,” Cap tells her. “Just focus on doing what you do.”
“Yes, sir,” she responds. I have to give her credit for owning up to her part in the fiasco.
Jill takes a meeting
“When should I talk to the chef?” Jill asks. “Should I talk to him now?”
“We were looking for Melinda,” Barbie says.
“Let’s get her,” agrees Jill. “Since she’s the Primary, I’m gonna let her talk.”
Now that Jill’s stirred the pot, Melinda jokes, she has to step in and take care of it.
“Oh, yeah,” Jill says, “Melinda’s gonna … have a talk. If not, I’ll take care of it. I’m gonna have to be your mommy now.”
Washing dishes in the galley, God bless him, Kerry says he’ll be there to back up Chef. They both walk into the bar and meet with the two women.
“So I’m here to talk with you about the dinner,” Anthony begins.
“I think we’d love to hear what you have planned, cause I don’t want to stymie what you’re doing,” Jill says. What happened to letting Melinda do the talking?
“For the main course,” Chef continues, “curry, and for a similar option, tofu pad thai.”
“Do you have chicken pad thai?” Jill asks. Oh, now Jill’s going to plan the menu. Does she want to drive the boat, too?
“I can do chicken. So, we can do a chicken option or a tofu option. Absolutely.”
“Is it possible to do sushi as an appetizer at the bar when we come down?” OMG. This woman is insufferable. Poor Melinda hasn’t said a word.
“Absolutely,” Anthony responds. “I can do, like, a fresh local ahi tuna and wahoo fish.
“And if you have any crudité left, I would love some,” Jill adds, “because I don’t eat sushi.”
“I’ll see you tonight,” Chef says, making his escape. Actually, Jill just kind of made it easy for him, cause now he doesn’t have to plan dinner.
“Thank you, Chef,” Melinda says, finally speaking.
Who’s running this circus?
While the guests are enjoying a relaxing yoga session on the beach, Barbie’s running around the boat actually doing everything by herself this time, not just complaining about it.
She whines to Anthony, “I have to do all the cabins, cause [Xandi’s] not here. And I literally have to do absolutely everything while [she’s] sitting there doing yoga.” Poor Barbie has such a hard life.
Cheffie’s got his own problems. He made two trays of sushi with raw fish, forgetting that the Primary does not like raw fish.
“This is a disaster,” Fraser says, as he walks down to the galley to talk to Anthony. Even I remembered that Melinda specifically requested “no raw seafood.”
Captain finally says, “What’s happening is that Jill’s rattling our cage too much, and we’re focusing on Jill. We should be focused on the Primary.” Hello! She’s picking up the bill.
“The Primary is who you should be focused on,” Kerry says in a confessional. “They are number one. He’s in charge of that. That’s his f*ck-up. And it’s a major f*ck-up. He’s out of his depth, and he’s just imploding. I can’t afford these mistakes anymore.”
Below Deck continues Mondays at 9/8c on Bravo.
TELL US – WHAT DID YOU THINK OF BELOW DECK SEASON 11, EPISODE 9? DO YOU THINK SOMEBODY NEEDS TO TELL JILL TO SHUT IT? DO YOU THINK ANTHONY CAN GET HIS ACT TOGETHER AND FINISH OUT THE SEASON?
