Small spaces don’t mean short-sighted food, insists Chef Kelly.
He created Meals Ahoy! – a cookbook made especially for boaters.
It’s filled with tried and true recipes tested over 40 years by Weldon Kelsick, a.k.a. Chef Kelly. His years of experience as a chef at sea and on land around the world are convincing in his collection of galley menus.
“I do a lot of sailing and powerboating. In the winter my wife and I, that’s what we do, go out for months and cook on boats throughout the world,” he said in a phone interview from his Salt Spring Island home. “People can sit down and eat properly, have a gourmet meal. You don’t have to stick to the dogs and hamburgers … You can sit and eat a gourmet meal and you don’t ever have to leave your boat.”
The book was a natural progression to sharing his knowledge gained perfecting his craft in the galleys of yachts and sailboats in Europe, North America, the Caribbean and South Pacific. He launched the full colour tasty tome about six weeks ago during the Victoria Inner Harbour boat show.
“Every meal you find in this book has been cooked in a boat. Of course this can be used anywhere, at home, in a camper … You can use a small galley and not much cooking equipment, few ingredients,” he said.
The simplest recipes include pasta, quinoa or chicken dishes, a good place to start, he said. “The soup is so simple it’s ridiculous,” he added. “I do not have a favourite recipe. When you have over 1,500 recipes it’s impossible to have a favourite.”
With that much expertise to share, it’s not a surprise he’s working on a second cookbook, this time with average household kitchens in mind.
“My cooking has attitude, a lot of attitude,” he said.
From Tent Island mussels to simple meat loaf the hardcover recipe book presents recipes with photos that will tantalize the palate and hopefully make boating a tasty experience.
The book is for sale at Tanner’s in Sidney or online at www.mealsahoy.com.