“Let your imagination flow as freely as the melted chocolate you are working with.”

Chef Mary Beth Lawton Johnson, CEPC, CCC
Executive Chef, Yacht Rebecca

By Patricia D. Sherman

Mary Beth Lawton Johnson produces her sweet and savory chocolate creations in a galley, not a kitchen. The galley is on the 118-foot Motor Yacht Rebecca, where she is Executive Chef, responsible for al cuisine for up to 14guests and a crew of seven. Although technically based in Savannah, GA, Chef Johnson travels up to 35 weeks a year throughout the Caribbean and to coastal North and Central America.

In her year seventeen-year career as a chef, she has cooked for European royalty, international celebrities, and television stars as well as for groups of up to 250 guests. She is a Certified Executive Pastry Chef (CEPC) and a Certified Chef de Cuisine (CCC) by the American Culinary Federation.

Her chocolate philosophy is ideal for the special demands a professional yacht chef faces: “Keep it simple! Chocolate doesn’t need any influence to bring it into the spotlight, only its taste. Even though my desserts might use chocolate in a manner that doesn’t look simple, if you deconstruct them, it is.”

Chef Johnson sees chocolate in much the same way other artists see their media. “When I look at chocolate, I see it already in the form I want to achieve. Then I try to figure out how to get it from a block of chocolate to its finished form. Chocolate is a blank canvas that you can roll, melt, wrap around, box, do anything to and have it look like something. It is much easier to work with than any other food medium. My favorite chocolate creations are the ones that bring people closer in to view it. They have a smile on their faces and they say ‘Wow!’ or ‘Yum!’”

She has three pieces of advice for cooking with chocolate:

• “Let your imagination flow as freely as the melted chocolate you are working with. Even the best laid plans are shelved for what comes out of spontaneity. That is how all my chocolate dessert creations, like my Molten Chocolate Cake (see recipe), have come into being.
   

• “Don’t be afraid to experiment with unusual flavor combinations and chocolate. You might just develop something that could be the next smash combo. I use chocolate in my barbeque sauces and red wine sauces and I especially love the taste of chipotle with chocolate which is my signature sauce over ribs (see recipe for Chocolate Chipotle Short Ribs).

• “A good couverture is essential in desserts and pastries. I normally order my chocolate from either Albert Uster Imports, a Swiss importer of the finest chocolate, or Qzina Foods.”

Chef Johnson is also a certified Executive Chef/Flood Stylist. She is also a member of the IACP and The James Beard Foundation. She has contributed recipes and columns to many magazines and newspapers.

Visit www.themegayachtchef.com.

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