After 12 years as a full-time yacht chef, cooking for some of the world’s wealthiest owners and building a career that took him around the globe, chef Edward Atkinson decided it was time to put down roots. He traded the galley for a kitchen of his own, opening Scratch in Mallorca — a restaurant built around fresh market produce, an ever-changing menu, and, true to its name, food made from scratch. Atkinson shares how yachting shaped his career, what drew him ashore, and what it took to build a restaurant of his own.
How did you find your way into yachting?
My dad finances superyachts for a living. He’s retired now, but he financed yachts. He’s been heavily involved in the yachting industry, and he put me in touch with Peter Quarry, who was a head chef on a prominent motor yacht. I emailed him, and he told me what to do, like STCW and what food hygiene courses I had to do. I did that, two days later I put my CV online, and I was snapped up by a captain in Saint Martin. He flew me out, I think a week later, which was incredible.
What was your journey becoming a chef before yachting like?
I started when I was 14. I was washing up in a pub on the weekends, just for pocket money. The chef said I was so fast at the washing up. He got me doing veg prep, and I got faster at that. He said, you know, you could make something out of this as a career. I think one day I was doing a business studies course, and all of our teachers quit, and we were all told we’re going to fail. So I went back to the pub, washing up, and I decided to just give it a go, and that was it. I loved it. I fell in love with the hours, the industry, the drama, the banter. Yeah, all the bad language and stuff. It just really excited me.
How long were you a yacht chef?
I did 12 years full on and I still have my good clients who fly me out to the Bahamas to do gigs. I still do New Year’s Eve gigs for the owners of the Texas Rangers. Chris and Erika Heule, owners of Gulf Coast Pipeline Services, fly me out to cook for them and their families over New Year’s as well. But that’s not work for me, it’s more like a holiday, because I’ll be with Capt. Warren Techow, Chris, and Erika. They’re like my second family.
What made you join yachting?
When I saw the paychecks, what they were offering, and the tip money. What we were earning on land is just peanuts. At the end of the month, when you get paid, you know you’re almost broke — and you’ve just been paid. There’s nothing left. It was hard times and long hours for not much money.
How did you create Scratch?
We thought about a coffee shop at first, but there were so many of those popping up, and they closed as quickly as they opened. Where I live in Mallorca is a beautiful little beach town, Cala Major. We saw a place come up for sale, and we went in to dine there, and we kept quiet, met the guy, and ordered some food. It was tidy inside, clean, and we saw what he wanted for it, and we could afford it. We made an offer, and he snapped my hand off [agreeing to it.] We gutted it completely. We flew in Pedro Scattarella from Barcelona, who has designed two famous tapas restaurants in Mallorca already. That was massive for us that he wanted to work with us because he’s incredible. Now we’re competing with the two leading restaurants.
How do you describe Scratch?
Because we gutted the place, literally smashed it apart and started from scratch, we thought that was a good name. Every day the food is cooked fresh. I go to the market, buy it all myself. I don’t use deliveries or drivers. I’ll go and hand pick it and it’s all prepped every day from scratch. I can guarantee that our dishes are cooked to order every day — it works with the name Scratch, again.
We’re not overcomplicating things, and the island has so much fresh produce to offer on the doorstep. I hand print my menus myself at home, so I can change them daily if I want. If I see a nice piece of fish at the market, I can have it on the menu within the hour. None of the other restaurants around do that. They all have almost like one menu throughout the year, so that tells me one thing: that everything’s frozen because when the seasons change, the fruits and veg change, the meats change. You can’t catch certain fish like lobsters. When I see it on the menu, I know it’s not fresh, and that’s why that sort of makes me proud that we’re doing something different. I thought tapas was a good way to go — I can keep it small, fast, and effective.
What’s the reality like from having an idea to opening the doors?
It was very daunting. I’d had my last paycheck from the boat, and I’d saved all my career, so I wasn’t too worried about the money, but we put a lot of that money into it. When you start a project, it always goes over budget by a lot, but it went over by more than I thought. The most nerve-racking part was not knowing when we’d get the first paycheck. A lot of restaurants don’t make money the first three years, so we were very lucky to finish in the green in our first year.
What are the differences between being a chef on board versus at your own restaurant?
I think it’s very similar in the respect that the kitchen’s pretty small, but it’s no bigger than a good-sized galley. Now I've got two chefs, which I never had on the boat. I've got people to do a lot of my jobs for me, and I’ll just go in to literally cook and serve, and I'll be on the pass.
I’ve got my right-hand man Facundo Demesa, who does all the accounting, the rotas for the staff, the employment contracts, the holiday pay, and all the payroll. He takes care of all that because that’s never really been my scene — I’ve always been hands-on in the kitchen. I’ve got my waiters, waitresses, my wife Grace, who takes care of the floor, saloon, and the terrace. It’s nice to be back in a team, which is similar to a crew. I’m almost directing it as the captain now instead of just another body.
What do you think has been one of the most rewarding moments since opening Scratch?
The first time I met Gordon Ramsay, I remember him saying to me, “If you can fill your restaurants on a Monday and Tuesday, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” We just broke another record on a Monday, which is just incredible.
What does the future look like for you and Scratch?
I think there’ll be another Scratch. It might be more of a street vibe, like Scratch Street or one on the beach. That would be nice. I'd like to extend the Scratch brand. I’ve started doing Scratch hot sauce, Scratch chili oils, and just trying to develop the brand a bit.
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