Daisy Kelliher Spills Superyacht Secrets & Teases 'Below Deck' Season 4 Drama

0:00Daisy Kelliher:Hi, and welcome to Snacks, the podcast where we talk about the crazy food habits of your favorite stars. I'm Jo Salt, the editorial director of Delish, and I'm super excited to be here today. Today, we have a really great star for you, someone who knows more about luxury sailing and champagne than probably most of us will ever know in our entire lives. She's the star of Bravo's Below Deck, a fan favorite, and she knows how to manage perfect chaos with absolute class. Please welcome Daisy Kellier. We'll be right back. I am so excited that you're here because I, well, first of all, I'm going to be honest that like I've watched Below Deck.

0:44Daisy Kelliher:I wouldn't say I'm like an aficionado, but I have never seen so much stuff sliding off of tables onto the floor than I do on that one show. Like literally. And it happens like almost every episode. first of all tell me i i have so many questions so i'm really sorry if i'm gonna like annoy you on this but how did this begin how did you find yourself on a yacht so this my way back when yeah my dad was before he had me was in yachting and his sisters did season where was that oh god he worked in like the meds like he'd met like princess grace he'd been on a young monaco I think he mainly did the med and a bit of Caribbean.

1:26So this is back in like, I guess, like the 70s. The med is Mediterranean for those of us who like don't yacht in the med.

1:33Daisy Kelliher:Just letting everybody know. OK, got it. So he's in the med. Yes. And he so then he went and had a family and moved back to Ireland and raised us there. And when I came to kind of figure out what I wanted to do with my life, he suggested yachting. This was pre Instagram, pre really like the Internet as we know it. so i was like this sounds awful i thought it was like the merchant navy i was like this is not me so i knew i wanted to travel so he then suggested hotel management oh yeah so i went and studied hotel management which i love that's a great yeah loved it yeah um but then i went to london and i was poor i was like this cannot be my life um so i did two years in london after right a year i was like i this is not my future um i i love the job but it was you know it's not well paid and yeah it was it was a lot of hard work for not great return yeah yeah so he also probably very cutthroat in london i'm sure yeah yeah for sure yeah and um so then we he kind of revisited yachting and this time instagram was more of a thing yeah so i was like oh this is not what i envisioned so at 25 i went down into antip and got myself a job and a sailboat so that was like 13 years ago hold on oh my gosh so what okay so you're on these yachts and you're like managing you're basically keeping everything like moving you're you know i mean what what would be the on land version i mean because i have like a chief stew is what your actual title is is that correct Yeah, well, I think it's like, you know, I essentially say it's like being a hotel manager on the water.

3:16You're running the hotel, so you're doing everything. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, house keeping, laundry, guest relations, concierge. And then my job is to oversee all of those. So it is essentially what I did just on a smaller scale. And I do everything.

3:32Daisy Kelliher:Oh, my gosh. And so like here, but also like at such a high level. And that's the thing that, like, since we're on snacks, I feel like the thing that always gets me is, like, the elaborateness of the food. Like, it's so, it's at, like, the top, top, top tier, right? These people really expect the best of the best. Is that right? Well, I think definitely in chartering because the difference between chartering a boat and owning a boat is owning a boat, they want soup and sandwiches. Because they're just, like, chilling. Exactly. They've eaten at the best restaurants. Exactly. They just want, they're just at home.

4:07They just want simple. But when you're chartering, it is going on this. I like to compare like a private boat is like owning a holiday home in the Hamptons. Right, right, right, right. To going to rent a home for a week. You're eating out every night. Whereas if you own your home, you're probably just eating from the refrigerator. So people who charter a boat are definitely looking for their money's worth. And it's really important that we deliver.

4:33Daisy Kelliher:What do really rich people eat at two in the morning? But I feel like, I mean, yeah, I guess it's really rich people who are chartering boats. I think everyone at two in the morning wants fries. I think that's like a universal thing, no matter what's in the bank account. It's like greasy. If you're asking for food at two a.m., it's universal. You want greasy, carvy. What's the wildest request you've gotten from someone on one of these yachts? I was once on a boat in Alaska and we went and picked up Glacier Ice. and my owner wanted to bring it back to LA because she was hosting a dinner party, which actually, small world, Kathy Hilton was on.

5:12Oh, God. So 10 years later, I'm on the same network as her.

5:18Daisy Kelliher:She's like, I remember your ice. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm pretty sure she does not remember me. She probably remembers being on the boat, but not me. Yeah, yeah. And the owner wanted the ice to bring back for her birthday party to drink margaritas out of this glacier ice, which the chef was not happy about because we had to keep the ice in the freezer for many months. I just, that is, by the way, that is my nightmare in my house where I'm like, what is this stupid thing in here? My daughter's always freezing some weird project or something. I know, something she's like looked up on TikTok. Yeah, oh yeah, like literally I just moved a Nutella jar, an empty Nutella jar that she had put Cool Whip in that she saw on TikTok and it's just like in the way in the freezer.

6:04Daisy Kelliher:Could you imagine if it was ice? Is it like you're like, get this ice out of my face. I know, but it was that is one of my parents favorite stories. That is a good story. Yeah, it was cool. I also I do feel, though, like because of your show, there is it's almost like a catch 22 of like they're not the expectation of service and luxury is like definitely reached a new standard because people are seeing it come to life on Bravo every week. I mean, do you feel like you have to, like, one-up yourself every time you have people on now? I mean... Like, do the standards get higher and higher? I think so.

6:34You know, I think... And that's not just even with the service. I think the show as well. Like, the audience is expecting more. The guests are expecting more. And my producers are expecting more. I'm like, I don't know how else to make this cocktail look pretty. Like, I'll put, like, a ribbon on it and, like, gold sugar rim. And I'm like, I'm out of ideas, guys. Oh, my God.

6:55Daisy Kelliher:but also you're like i'm just like trying to get through the day like i just need to like get my work done and it is you know the show is such high intensity and it's um we're moving at such a high pace that even the simplest things like putting a ribbon on a cocktail to make it look pretty can take so long because we don't know the boat we don't know where things are so these really simple things actually take a really long time like even this season and i'm not sure if it gets aired but ben asked me for tabasco sauce at really late minute and i was so mad because i was like this boat is so huge do you know how long it's going to take me to find tabasco oh my gosh because there's no you know on a boat when you're working full-time you make it your own there's a system you've got an inventory and but part of this kind of pressure cooker on below deck is we don't know where anything is you're kind of throwing stuff to get it out of the way to get ready for the guests coming so these really simple tasks can take up a lot of time but also like where are you getting if you don't have it like where are you getting tabasco sauce from oh yeah it's not coming yeah if we don't if i can't find it you gotta you gotta figure it out your like i it's stuff like that that i never think about because honestly you know obviously we see the edited version but like this is real life drama you're really dealing oh yeah no we you know it's so funny when people are like you know make comments about it being scripted or and anything like that i'm like i have never ever in my life worked as hard as i have on blow deck and you can ask any cast member that um and on top of me having one of the hardest jobs between you know the hours we're pulling the amount of information you're trying to consume at such rapid yeah fire in those first 48 hours you know by the end it's a lot easier of course but those first 48 hours like trying to learn the boat trying to learn the guests trying to learn the crew trying to teach the crew trying to know where the plates are and your brain is just computing so much like it's it's impressive it's simple you know i'm not doing computer coding right no but we're moving at a fast rate consuming a lot of information i mean also like you have to do it all with like by like still maintaining a smile oh yeah yeah yeah everything's great it's gonna be great um wait i do have to ask though what when you see a group coming what group of people when you see them coming you're like this is gonna be a nightmare like is it bachelorette girls groups of women i hate i hate to shame women because we love women this is a pro women's trope however we are we are i am a pro woman i am a girl's girl but some stereotypes stick and groups of women are just so annoying so insane they are their next level um and i put myself in that category they i know i was just gonna say my husband's listening being like yeah yeah keep chatting it up but not you know five years doing the show i have learned not to judge a book why it's covered of course i used to do that at the beginning i was like oh these look like they're gonna be a bad group and honestly usually the ones that look like are gonna be a bad group are usually the nicer ones and then the quiet you know you think like oh you're gonna have it smooth are usually the more difficult so yeah try not to and i tell the crew that as well because you know they'll look at the preference sheet and i'm like guys there's not even any point in trying to work them out because until we see what they're like we just don't know it's such a good point and a good lesson for all of us honestly don't i tell my i mean i tell my children that all the time and then i'm the worst i'm the worst okay i don't want to start a fight and i'm definitely and start a fight in the comments however i feel like the irish get a bad rep for food do you feel like that's true yeah the irish are terrible at food did you grow up in a good food house yes i grew up my parents were um very well traveled and i right of course your dad yeah what is your mom what was your mom doing uh she was also a yachty oh wow yeah so we grew up a big hobby of our household like it's so cliche when people are like oh what do you like to do i'm like travel and I'm like no seriously we travel a lot so I was very fortunate to be very well traveled as a child and we're very well fed and so while other people you know were getting potatoes and I was getting you know like fish and ratatouille and you know all lots of delicious stuff so really lucky to have been brought up in a household like that.

11:20Were they cooks? No no but dad loves to cook mom's great cook dad's great cook and but not in any kind of professional capacity but yeah i love to cook and you know obviously now we're more advanced but i would say like ham and cabbage is a real thing but also delicious it is delicious i'm like i'm

11:42Daisy Kelliher:not irish i am lithuanian but like cabbage like is a very big i love cabbage i like i could like eat it all the time and i even like it just boiled like it's delicious i agree 100 is guinness a snack i think for a lot of people it is i mean it's a bit more of a snack it's more like a meal that is so heavy it is so heavy oh my gosh like my friend the other day i was in bangkok visiting him and he's a man and he was like i don't understand how men go out for meals yes and then drink eight guinness yes on the side yeah i work it so we're gonna level it up and go with it's a meal that it's a meal i would say i mean it's pretty intense okay so then you are growing up you get to eat lots of great food what do you what's like the food that you remember that of your childhood that was like what like what were your snacks in ireland well the running joke is i once had a boyfriend and he he came over to my house my parents were away and my mom was like i was like oh we're we're going back home and i was like is there any food in the house and she was like oh well there's sancerre and foie gras in the fridge and he was like what the he he came from outside of dublin he i was like this was so normal i was like yeah foie gras and sancerre like what else did you have in your fridge and um that's like still to this day like 20 years later it's a running joke with my friends so that's kind of what we grew up with p.s like i just learned what both of those things were like 10 years ago okay so that gives you an idea wild um and like another one would be another kind of running joke is we were in bed super hungover one day and my mom comes in and this is so irish and she's like she wants some smoked salmon and brown bread and i was like yes yes i do and my friend was like is this what your mom makes you for like your hangover snack and i was like yes smoked salmon and brown bread though and irish butter irish soda bread oh my god one of my favorite snacks i mean why do we say iris don't know food those are delicious food they are oh we do some great sausage irish sausages they are the best in the world so the two things when i go home i have to have smoked salmon and brown bread so good and this year my parents came over for christmas and they packed the smoked salmon and brown bread because you cannot get it in the uk and the other thing is irish sausages oh my gosh and we'll be right back wait so where do you spend your full time now like where do you live in london yeah i say full time it's definitely a part-time how long you've gone for usually i'm usually in london about six weeks of the year and i've never been i've been living there four years and i've never spent more than two months there consecutively wow i still travel a lot yeah so i love it but it's it's hard and then how much are you shooting what like what's the season the season six weeks okay it's about two months in total um but we fly out to la you know new york for watch what happens live and things and any opportunity i get to travel i say yes to but obviously the u.s i when i was working on boats my life was worldwide and more exotic but the last few years i spend a lot of time in the u.s now wild okay wait so then two questions best food city outside of where you live like since you travel so much what do you think that is oh that is a tough one i i i was re i do love thailand and i was recently in bangkok and their food scene is seriously impressive and i i'm really getting into my asian food yeah and at the moment me and my roommate have discovered like from the asian shop the dumplings so that is i literally live on dumplings like all the time all the time but also like so good six minutes to boil i'll come in like drunk and she's like are you making dumplings again and i'm like they're so good um so bangkok definitely pretty impressed with for food i like new york's a great i mean new york's a great city we are i literally i am a disgusting example of someone who is in new york all the time because literally the only place i eat is nordstrom across the street and i'm really sorry nordstrom take care of me but also but it happens in your city like i don't need i i the first time you know when i moved to london originally i ate out all the time and it takes the fun out of eating out totally so i eat out a lot less now i like eating my dumplings at home i mean and it just makes it nicer when you get to eat out because it can get too much and then it just takes the joy it's supposed to be like an experience yeah yeah and i think miami's a great food city i like miami a lot like that i was gonna ask you what other places in america yeah i like my army and la is okay like yeah it's it's a good i mean it's a good food city but it's like not like amazing i prefer miami um new york where else have i la you have to hunt to find i mean like there's great places in la but you need like you're looking for yeah i feel like new york it's like it's there wander i agree whatever i agree miami's a good answer though and i really bangkok was what i loved about bangkok as well it was just so different i think over here we get a lot of what we get in europe yeah so i my eyes were open to so many like even their sweet stuff and like just giant waffle stores and donut stores and i was like oh my god this is so instagrammable yes they're very much about that very into it yeah Yeah.

17:03Daisy Kelliher:I do feel, though, like it feels, I feel like in America when we open those kinds of places that are like splashy Instagram-y, they're very like surface. They're not actually good food. I agree. But I haven't been to Thailand. Now I need to go to Bangkok and go to the waffle store. Serious food scene. Honestly, very, very. I knew when I was going there that it was known for its food scene. But experiencing it, yeah, it's impressive. When you travel, is food something that you like dive into when you're trying to like immerse yourself? I'm a huge foodie like food is again it sounds so cliche but I hate when people ask my hobbies because I'm like does wine food and holiday encounter I mean it should if it doesn't it should I mean I feel like you've made a career basically about sort of that yeah like celebrating that for sure we grew up like I said we grew up in a big foodie household like you know Friday night dinners were a big thing in our family and sitting around eating food for three four hours going out for dinner is a big thing me and my friends love to do so our holidays would revolve around that yeah food wine super super important well that's why people travel right i do feel like you never hear of somebody being like oh i went to this place and i loved it the food was not good what american city has the worst food i want to hear where have you not eaten well here do you know what's really random and you think it would be better but i'm not impressed with it is Rhode Island.

18:29Daisy Kelliher:Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I guess it's... I mean, no offense. I felt like... Because I feel like the bigger cities have kind of caught on to, like, the smaller portions and things like that. In Rhode Island, it was, like, these big menus, huge portions. Kind of what we think of, like... Oh, you've got to come to Jersey. Have you been to New Jersey yet? I haven't. Oh, yeah. We love a big menu. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. We're right up there with Rhode Island. Yeah. Big menu, big portion. We do not know what portion... I know. Well, that's just, like, these kind of more, you know, cosmopolitan cities are like kind of more into the european style so i'm used to that and i don't know where else i'd love to try more of the southern states oh yeah yeah new orleans i think as if great food i haven't been so you'll you love it i mean i i feel like i actually do think that and maybe it's just working at delish now it's like every food every sorry every city has its like specialty you just have to know where to find it yeah in some cities it's more prevalent in some cities it's harder to find i mean there was a time where miami was not a food city and like now there's so many great chefs down there there's so many people doing great things people are moving there in locks what is the most overrated high-end meal what is the thing that like people ask for on the yacht that you're always like oh okay for me it's definitely lobster i think it is so expensive and i like it but i mainly like it for the butter yes yes and i'm like i could have bread and butter and save my pennies yeah and i just feel it's really overrated i feel yeah i think this is a really stupid question but like is there like lobster in the mediterranean like where do you get lobster from when you're like sailing around the mediterranean yeah you can get lobster but like are they living there i thought they'll have tried to live in cold weather I'm not a fisher, but I know.

20:16Daisy Kelliher:I'm like, where do you get your lobster? No, because you can get Caribbean lobster. Oh, oh, oh. Yeah, you can get. So there's warm weather lobster. Someone out there is like, this idiot should not be running to Lish. I know. I know for fact, Daphne can get in the Caribbean. In the cold, I'm sure you can get lobster. Oh, no, in the cold, you can definitely get it because it's like really big in Maine. I'm just wondering, like, where do you get it in the warm? I didn't know there was warm weather lobster. No, definitely in the Caribbean. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We're like someone over there's gonna be a giant statement over this video.

20:45Daisy Kelliher:Just like these people talking about. I'm like, oh, OK. OK, but I think lobster is a fair thing because I do think that people they think of that as the ultimate expression of luxury. And because you're a wine person, I want to ask, do you feel like champagne is the same way? No, I think good champagne is delicious. Good champagne to me, cold, dry, crisp is like water to me. Give it to me all day and every day. I like it. Okay. You're speaking my language. All right. You're a wine person. Tell me what the three underrated wines that more people should be drinking. Oh, that's a tough one. Because New York, we tend to settle into our Merlots.

21:29and you know i like i mean you probably like a sancerre for me yeah is always like a go-to like a pule fume is always yeah it's always a solid for me um maybe like a red wine like i've actually gotten which you would be drinking is for some reason my palates change

21:53Daisy Kelliher:and i love a pinot noir oh yeah i used to never really drink them that's like a dark horse yeah I would like a heavier red wine. And the last, I don't know if it's like hormones. Don't hormones change your palate? Yes. The last like two months, I've been like Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir. I do. I have to say I love that answer because I feel like that's one that people wouldn't think of. Okay. I have to tell you what I'm really into right now, which is embarrassing. And I'm sure as a wine expert, you're going to be like, I can't believe you're drinking that. I love Lambrusco. I love a sparkle. I just love a sparkle wine.

22:23You're allowed to like what you like. I know. It's like grape soda.

22:26Daisy Kelliher:It's basically grape juice. You've been around the globe. Most memorable meal. Can you remember? Like, what's the best meal you've ever had? Oh, my God. This conversation weighs more with you because you've been so many places. Like this is a really tough. And it's not even just like I've been so many places. The chefs that we work with are amazing. Like we get like ceviche for lunch. That's like our canteen food. That's so good. God, most memorable. me that's you've really i know it's a tough one well okay here's my question most memorable memorable meal on the yacht what do you think was like the best food you've ever eaten honestly marcos chef marcos was one of the best chefs i've ever worked with i've worked with some really good chefs and he was pulling out some seriously good meals i remember like some homemade pasta in there some paella and he for me was a really top chef there so that i really enjoyed working with him on that front yeah that's cool and then on your travels can you remember like one time that was like i gotta go back there for that okay i'm gonna go with there was a restaurant called mosaic in bali which we went to quite a few years ago it's a very high-end restaurant and i went with there was a group of us that my besties from university so we're all hoteliers and he studied hotel management and my friend find this it's a private dining experience and I remember that meal very very well and it was everything it was the service the the exclusivity being there with like such high-end um you know people who knew service like who knew wine service and yeah it was just being with friends like that and having yeah such a luxury experience who enjoy it not everybody enjoys that kind of experience which is absolutely okay as well but that can definitely take from experience if like you go to somewhere fancy and they're like why you know we all got dressed up and i love and you know the it was an open plan kitchen that was definitely a dinner that really stood out for me and also you're in bali and i'm in bali i mean that can't that can't hurt no when you are treated a certain way i will say um shout out in the if you're in the new york area um and if you haven't been um to blue hill at stone barn it's an amazing restaurant run by dan barber and the service is like something like 27 courses or whatever but the service is exactly what you're describing which is just like top of the line thought of everything think of it before you think of it like like take care of you and it is i mean it must mean something from like for you who knows what good service is who's literally studied it definitely i think actually i have another meal now that i thought now that we're talking about this was my was it my 21st it may have been my 21st birthday and my parents brought me to my first mission star restaurant patrick gebo's in dublin and i think they might have like two or three michelin stars and that was a point where i've been studying you know hotel management and high-end service and luxury service and um fine dining that definitely really stood out for me because that was a an opportunity for me to actually see what i had been learning yeah and about like table side service and sommelier and that was like definitely one of my first experience of experiencing that level and i think people the food is so important but when you're a good restaurant or service like i'm below deck everyone's like it's the food it's the food and i'm like no it's the whole package it's the atmosphere the ambience the um how you're presented how your food is presented the wine to detail exactly yeah so you when you understand that and you can appreciate it it's you know it's a whole experience and i love i will go to a dive bar i will go to a diner i i can appreciate it all i can appreciate the dress down the fastness of it what it's for And I also love the like getting dressed up and being able to appreciate the hours of it.

26:38Daisy Kelliher:I also think, too, and I don't know why this is I've never been to Ireland. I need to go. But I will say that there is that also that even a pub or a, you know, a dive bar like can feel really special when you feel taken care of. One thousand percent. And it does what it's supposed to do. Like if you're in there, you know, to watch a match like you can, you know, we're a big rugby country and some pubs can't do it. and other pubs get the memo and know how to do it. So depending on what you are trying to achieve, if you can do it right, there's space for everyone. But not everyone always gets it right.

27:12Daisy Kelliher:It's connectivity. That's what it is. Okay, I'm going to do a rapid fire. Most dramatic food fight on deck. It's coming up. Oh! Really? Can you give us a taste? A little taste. It's called Shrimp Gate. Oh, shit. And I'm involved. Oh, my God. Have fights really broken out like seriously, though? Oh, this season between Bette and Ellie, which you've seen a clip of, was the most intense. I honestly couldn't believe it was happening. It was serious. And yeah, it was. I had never seen that kind of hostility in the galley in my working career. Oh, my gosh. I can't. And you're in such tight quarters.

27:55Daisy Kelliher:I can't. Notice how this rapid fire turned into a 20-minute conversation. Sorry. Rapid fire. It was going to be really rapid. I know. Well, she answered really good. Okay. Salty or sweet? Sweet. Caviar, overrated or underrated? Overrated. That's what I thought. Red or white wine? Red. Really? I'm a huge red wine drinker all day, every day. Rosé, overrated or underrated? Underrated. That's right, right? Is wine a snack? Oh, yeah. Wine's a snack. Wine's a snack meal on dessert. that's how i feel okay thank you because somebody once gave me a like looked at me cross-eyed okay um thing you'd serve thing you would serve to make someone feel special you know what i recently made chocolate mousse an orange chocolate mousse and it looked so beautiful and when i served it at this dinner party everyone was like you could get this in a restaurant and it was so easy so now i'm making that like my go-to move that's a great party trick yeah chocolate mousse is a thing that's like makes people feel really good.

29:01Yeah, and I'm not a cook, so, like, I think everyone was really impressed by it.

29:05Daisy Kelliher:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's impressive. What are you eating at two in the morning? Dumplings. I was going to ask you if that's your drunk food. Is that your drunk food? Oh, yeah. It's my breakfast, lunch, and dinner are my drunk food. I'm obsessed with them at the moment. But always? Was that always your drunk food? No, we only discovered this in the last, like, kind of eight months. Okay, so what used to be your drunk food? My drunk food. I like, I'll do like pieces of cheese. Oh, really? Yeah. That's really funny, eating your night cheese. Oh, my God. Okay, go to breakfast. Irish do breakfast well, I feel like.

29:41Daisy Kelliher:Well, the sausages. Yes. Yeah, probably a sausage sandwich with not toasted butter and ketchup. Sausage sandwich. Yeah, Irish sausages. Okay. Yeah. All right, we're going to have to get some of those here at Delish. Oh, yeah. I got to say, Irish butter, somebody, Irish butter or French butter? I'm going to have to say Irish. With the French, do do good butter. But I'm going to go with Irish. Okay. I'm curious to hear what our audience has to say. Because I do feel like Irish butter in America has recently gotten, like, really hot. Oh, Kerrygold is everywhere. Like, on a boat, every single boat would have Kerrygold.

30:15Really? Oh, yeah.

30:16Daisy Kelliher:Anyway, you've been a delight. This has been amazing. And I also, like, I just wish you the best with your tight quarters and your big fights and the delicious food. And also, like, don't let anyone get in the way of your, like, traveling and eating and living your best life because, like, you're so lucky. Thank you. It's so great. I'm enjoying it as well. I can't for sure. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Thanks so much for joining Snacks today. Please make sure you like and subscribe everywhere you get your podcasts and follow us on all the social channels at Snacks Podcast.

30:55We'll be right back.