Below Deck’s Captain Lee Weighs In on Captain Sandy’s ‘Never Wake the Chef’ Rule: ‘It’s Not True’

Captain Sandy and Captain Lee Rosbach. Arturo Holmes/WireImage
Below Deck‘s Captain Lee Rosbach weighed in on Captain Sandy Yawn saying stews shouldn’t wake the chef up for late night service — and he has a different opinion.

Lee took to social media on Wednesday, June 5, to respond to a fan question, which read, “@capthlr Is it true ‘Never Wake The Chef’ ? You, Sir, are our ‘go to’ on all things ‘superyacht’ We love you, Captain Lee! 🤩💐💖👏🏆💫 @BelowDeckMedTV.”

Lee, who starred on seasons 1 to 10 of the OG Below Deck, didn’t completely agree with Sandy on the subject. “If the guests want it and the stews can’t handle it, of course you wake the chef,” he wrote back. “So to answer in short No it’s not true, at least no on my boat.”

Below Deck Mediterranean viewers were shocked by the Monday, June 3, season 9 premiere when Chef Johnathan Shillingford refused to wake up when guests wanted snacks at night. Stew Elena Dubaich made numerous attempts to get Johnathan to help her in the kitchen.

“I have to wake up the chef. It is too much food that they are ordering,” Elena said in a confessional about the request for grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, nachos and chips with guacamole. “I’m sorry, Chef, they have ordered food. It’s just too much food for me to make. They want a bunch of stuff. I will help you, we can do it together.”

Johnathan opted to go back to sleep. Elena tried to cook the food herself but didn’t want potential negative feedback to affect the interior team.

“I’m going to try to get the chef up one more time,” she explained on screen. “It is not my responsibility to cook meals for the guests. Not only am I not able to provide cocktails for the guests, but I am also looking like I can’t manage guests. Jono’s selfish behavior is making me look bad.”

When Elena returned to his cabin again, Johnathan seemed confused as Elena tried to reason with him, saying, “Look, the only reason I came back is because this is going to be a problem. I don’t want you to do this to yourself because of something silly like that. They want this food and it is going to be a big issue.”

In response, Johnathan fired back: “What are you talking about? I’m not doing anything. I haven’t slept enough. They can have grilled cheese sandwiches. You said you could do that.”

Johnathan elaborated on his frustrations in a confessional. “I hate being woken up. I hate it,” he told the cameras while making it clear to Elena that he wouldn’t be getting up. “Bitch, are you stupid? This won’t be a good experience for you.”

The episode ended with Elena getting worried about how to handle the situation.

“It’s turning into a big problem,” she noted. “I just wanted to give you a chance to reconsider because I don’t want this whole experience for you to become negative because of this. Just think about it.”

In a trailer for next week’s episode, Sandy appeared to side with the chef at a team meeting, saying, “Never wake the chef.”

The comment visibly upset Elena, who didn’t understand why she was at fault. “I bust my ass and it all became about waking up the chef,” Elena said through tears while Johnathan told someone about the drama over the phone, adding, “This bitch is going to drive me crazy.”

Below Deck Mediterranean season 9 airs on Bravo Mondays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.