Bayview Chef Stocks Racing Yachts
By Karen Gould

Sailing aboard the 60-foot trimaran Earth Voyager, which was first to cross the finish line while setting a new Bacardi Bayview Mackinac Race record were (from left) Skipper Ray Howe, Ryan Howe Jr., R. Watson, and Wayne Jurs. Missing from photo are crew members Todd Howe and Bill Henderson.

Joe Dietz has been the executive chef at the Bayview Yacht Club for four years.

“My job’s cool,” he said. “It’s like retirement. You have to understand I use to run 65 motels and travel all the time.”

Now, he lives eight minutes from his kitchen at the Detroit club.

For the Bacardi Bayview Mackinac Race this year, Mr. Dietz prepared provisions for five of the racing yachts, one of them with 27 people on board. For $50 per crew member, he and his staff prepared hot entries that include two lunches, two dinners, and two breakfasts, and they are more than just deli sandwiches. One dinner, for example, included roast tenderloin with wild mushroom sauce, potatoes au gratin, and asparagus.

The club’s relatively new food program for racers is just beginning to get attention from club members. It began two years ago when the junior sailing program, in a fundraiser, auctioned a provision package for the race. With the success of the auction, the club decided to make the provision offering to all club members.

Meal planning for a race event is extensive, demands organization, and requires different food preparation, depending on how the sailing vessel is equipped, said Mr. Dietz. Some boats are stocked with boat-size ovens, while others only have a hot plate available, not even a microwave. The appliances affect how the food is prepared, he said.

If a boat has an oven, it usually is a small appliance about 11 inches by 24 inches, so Mr. Dietz must prepare food in smaller ovenware that will fit inside. For those yachts with ovens, race food is prepared, but not cooked. For boats with a hot plate, Mr. Dietz precooks the food, chills it, places it in sealed pouches, and stores it in space-saver packs.

The meals are labeled with the cooking time, the day the meal is to be used, whether it is breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and the shift the meal is for, since every boat has two shifts.

Meals are prepared in reverse order. The last food to be eaten is prepared first, so it can be packed in the bottom of the cooler.

The food eaten last and packed first is frozen the hardest, he said. The meals eaten early in the race are given a light freeze. Then the coolers are packed with dry ice.

Mr. Dietz said he is proud of the new provision program at the club, especially since no one else wants to provide hot food for every meal to the sailors.