Below Deck Down Under’s Chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph was left high and dry when sous chef Anthony Bird secretly took another job — but did she receive an apology after the dramatic episode aired?
“I don’t think Anthony knew exactly what his job role was, which I don’t think is 100 percent his fault. Anthony comes from very big boats and on boats that size, you have five chefs there and you have someone washing up, you have someone doing crew food and as the sous chef you make guest food,” Tzarina, 30, exclusively told Us Weekly. “On a 60-meter yacht — if you Google what the job role is — the first thing that comes up is exactly what I expected from him and asked him to do.”
Tzarina noted there “was definitely a confusion there” for Anthony, 26, adding, “And [there was] definitely space for growth for the future when he joins a boat. But there hasn’t been an apology.”
Despite not hearing from Anthony, Tzarina didn’t think she “needed” to.
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“Watching [the episode] back is going to be so difficult for him that I think it’s just better that he doesn’t think about me and he looks after himself and goes through the next steps,” she continued. “It is difficult watching yourself back. So I can’t even imagine what he’s going through.”
Tzarina and Anthony were at odds in the kitchen since the first charter when the sous chef felt underutilized. Captain Jason Chambers attempted to smooth things over by encouraging Tzarina to lead her department, but Anthony continued to pick fights and throw shade at his boss’ cooking behind her back.
“[Below Deck] definitely aired the best bits for everyone to understand what it was like. It is so easy to say, ‘Well I did say this or that.’ But it doesn’t really matter. It is what it is,” she told Us. “That’s what happened. And there’s definitely things that I would much rather be able to improve on myself.”
Anthony ultimately started a secret job search after feeling unhappy in his role on the Katina. Before Tzarina could make a decision about Anthony’s future on the boat, he got offered another job and told her he would leave after two more charters. Jason, 52, however, informed Anthony that his services were no longer needed.
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“[I felt like a] damsel in distress [when Jason stepped in]. My Prince came and saved me,” Tzarina quipped to Us. “I felt so lucky to have Jason’s support. But he is also a very sneaky captain. He does hide behind doors and listens. So over those days, I think he definitely heard a lot more than what viewers saw.”
Tzarina assumed that Jason was “actually getting fed up” with how she was “being spoken to,” adding, “So when the opportunity arose — and even though Anthony offered to stay on a bit longer to help me out — Jason knew that, for my mental health, I would probably be better if he just went immediately. And he made that decision for me. I probably would have been like, ‘Oh, maybe we can keep him for a few more days, and I can try really hard and might be able to convince him to stay.’ Jason though was like, ‘Nah, he is gone.’”
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While Tzarina does get help “eventually,” she will initially shoulder all the work in the kitchen following Anthony’s exit.
“I had a challenge while being on my own for a bit. With a galley that size you are going to see a woman break internally,” she teased to Us. “I was already on five or six hours of sleep a night. But without a sous chef, I was running off four hours of sleep a night, so I really just needed some rest.”
Tzarina continued: “This is definitely the first time I’ve experienced something like this on a yacht and since I’ve been a head chef for about 11 years now. But normally I interview my sous chef, and I get to see if it’s a fit. But with this, I was assigned a sous chef. So it was the first time in my career that I’ve ever had that sort of personality around me. That’s why I found it so difficult to manage because I’ve never been put in a situation like that before.”
Below Deck Down Under season 3 premieres on Bravo Mondays at 8 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
