Life aboard a superyacht is almost always described as a motley of sun, sand, and sea. But there’s another crucial element, food, that often gets overlooked. Ask a seasoned superyacht owner, and they’ll tell you the galley is as imperative to a smooth seafaring experience as any other feature. That’s why it’s essential to involve a professional yacht chef at the early stages of planning; it’s the cornerstone of a long-remembered experience, especially when you’ve spent mega bucks on your boat.
Take the world’s second-richest man, Jeff Bezos, for instance. The Amazon founder owns the world’s largest sailing yacht, Koru. This 416-foot mammoth by Oceanco is a floating paradise, trailed by a $75 million support vessel, Abeona. While the shadow vessel holds the toys, tenders, crew areas, and helipad, the main galley is undoubtedly aboard the $500 million luxury vessel with its 230-foot-long triple masts.
Reason? The tech tycoon and his fiancée spend weeks on Koru and host large groups of friends to celebrate important occasions, from the proposal, engagement party to (who knows) the upcoming nuptials, where Koru may once again be the centerpiece of celebrations.
Even without images or detailed information on the interiors, it’s easy to guess that Koru must have a well-designed, thoughtfully crafted galley. Superyacht News shared inputs by Brennan Dates, who boasts over two decades of experience as head chef aboard charter vessels, galleys cost on average around one percent of the entire vessel’s price. With Koru valued at $500 million, the centibillionaire, worth $186 billion, must have easily spent at least $5–7 million on the galley alone.
It sounds like a lot, after all, $7 million could buy you a modern six-bedroom luxury mansion with views of Lake Washington. But when you consider the conditions and demands of running a kitchen capable of Michelin-level service in the middle of the ocean, it’s a cost that makes perfect sense. According to CEO Today, Bezos prefers Michelin-star-level flair even for breakfast, known to savour wild culinary adventures like Mediterranean octopus with poached eggs, green garlic yogurt, and crispy bacon.
Only someone with real kitchen expertise would know exactly how to design a galley fit for a VVIP owner. If the billionaire wants to whip up his own pancakes on a sunny Mediterranean Sunday, then his kitchen needs to be nothing short of extraordinary. The former McDonald’s fry cook may be better known for making money today than for manning the stove, but he can bake cookies from scratch, stir up a tantalizing mushroom risotto, and expertly fry churros using a recipe passed down from his Cuban grandfather.
Spending $7 million upfront would certainly make sense to a businessman who is not known for cutting corners, whether in the galley or elsewhere. According to Dates, a faulty kitchen can drive chefs away, cause technical malfunctions, and a refit could rack up damages of at least $750,000. Of course, this would directly impact the guest experience, and Bezos and Sanchez have no shortage of guests aboard Koru.
It wouldn’t be surprising if Koru boasts multiple alfresco dining areas and a grand formal dining room to enthrall its visitors. While it would be a real treat to get a sneak peek inside the galley, if not the entire vessel, for now, we’ll let our imaginations do the trick.
