Chef Dave White Wants to Clear Something Up About His Stance on Preference Sheets

On the July 25 episode of Below Deck Mediterranean, as chef Dave White made octopus for guests who didn’t like seafood, he declared, “I don’t follow preferences… It’s always a bit of a gamble.” However, Dave is now clarifying that comment and sharing more details about his culinary approach. 

“So I can make it quite clear, I do follow preferences,” Dave told BravoTV.com in a recent interview. “But what I was trying to get at is the fact that if, for example, seven people order a dish and you do something different for someone else, it [has] happened so many times in my career where they actually go like, ‘Oh, I will have that, actually.’ So what I was trying to do, and trying to say, is obviously I put so much passion into my food, and it’s like a journey. So I want the guests to get on that bus with me, and so I’m just trying to get them to taste some new things. Obviously, if they’re not allergic to it.”

On the show’s July 11 episode, Dave stated, “I don’t follow recipes,” but as he explained in the recent interview with BravoTV.com, that’s not exactly the case. “With regards to recipes,” Dave clarified, “they’re just all in my head. I just don’t read recipe books. I’ve done them so many times, and so I just know what to put into the recipes that I’m doing, basically.”

“I mean, sometimes I do definitely wing it,” he continued. “When I said I don’t follow recipes, [I meant] I don’t like to look at recipe books. I like to try and grab stuff from my experience and have fun and play around with different flavors. And then, obviously, with the preferences, I do follow them. I just want to try and make it a bit more fun and a bit more of a journey to the guests.”

Watch Below Deck Mediterranean on Bravo Mondays at 8/7c and the next day on Peacock and the Bravo app.