What you need to perform it
Primary qualification
- Professional culinary training — in Spain, Higher Technician in Kitchen Management (RD 687/2010) or an international hotel-school equivalent — plus a full brigade career; the diploma weighs less than the track record (as a guide).
- Ship’s cook certification under MLC 2006 (Regulation 3.2) within the catering structure: the department must have certificated cooks; the specific requirement on the Executive Chef depends on the flag (verify).
- Valid seafarer medical certificate per flag.
Basic STCW
- STCW Basic Safety Training (A-VI/1) to sign on.
- Crowd Management and Crisis Management and Human Behaviour (A-V/2) as a passenger-ship department head (Regulation V/2).
- Security awareness training (A-VI/6-1).
Specific courses
- Advanced HACCP and management-level internal food-safety auditing.
- The CDC USPH/VSP programme for US itineraries (inspection target ≥ 86/100 — as a guide) and EU SHIPSAN ACT as the European framework.
- Allergens under Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 (14 mandatory-declaration allergens) and the line’s special-diet protocols.
- Galley economics: menu engineering, recipe specifications and food-cost control per passenger/day against the company target.
Indicative experience
As a guide: 10-15 years of brigade work with 3-5 as chef de cuisine or executive sous chef afloat before the position; on large ships the role directs 100-250 cooks, dozens of production points and on the order of 12,000-15,000 covers a day. Promotion almost always comes from within the fleet, with sanitation-inspection and cost results as the hard metrics.
Observations
Typical route: cook → chef de partie → sous chef → chef de cuisine → Executive Chef → corporate fleet chef or F&B management; the Pastry Chef and Chief Butcher positions (see profiles) are the specialist deputies, and the natural onboard leap is towards Hotel Director (see profile). Professional judgement: cruise galleys are ruled by three numbers — the sanitation score (USPH/SHIPSAN), food cost and passenger satisfaction — and they are governed with systems, not individual talent. The crew galley is as critical as the passenger one: a poorly fed crew degrades the whole ship’s service.
What this role does
On a large cruise ship the galley is an industry in miniature: dozens of outlets, over ten thousand covers a day and a brigade of hundreds of cooks of dozens of nationalities. The Executive Chef governs that factory: less direct stove work and more direction — standards, HACCP, food cost, sanitation inspections and people management. A failed USPH inspection or a gastrointestinal outbreak has immediate impact on the line’s reputation and operation; that is why this position is considered, alongside the Hotel Director, one of the highest-pressure jobs in the hotel area.
Typical watches
- Continuous management over 24/7 shift production; reinforced presence at peak services, embarkations and sanitation inspections
Key responsibilities
- Direct the ship’s entire culinary production: menus, quality standards and consistency across buffets, main and specialty restaurants.
- Answer for food safety: HACCP system, cold chain, traceability and permanent readiness for USPH/VSP and SHIPSAN inspections.
- Manage food cost against budget: recipe specifications, wastage, inventories with the Provision Master and itinerary-based purchasing.
- Organise allergen management and special diets in coordination with the Maître d’Hôtel and the dining room service.
- Train and appraise the brigade, plan contract-based staff rotations and maintain galley safety discipline (cuts, burns, securing for heavy weather).
Operational scope
- All the ship’s galleys and buffet lines
- Provision stores, refrigerated rooms and stores-receiving areas
- Crew messes and crew galley
Profile reviewed by HydroAbyss (2026). Cited rules and timeframes are indicative: the final requirement is set by the flag State, the Administration and each company.