‘Below Deck Med’: Chef Jack Says Interior Drama ‘Gets Worse’ [Exclusive]
Chef Jack Luby revealed that the Below Deck Mediterranean drama between Natalia Scudder and Tumi Mhlongo only gets worse this season. And he said it gets to the point where it isn’t juicy, but instead painful to watch.
“It gets worse,” he teased with Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “It gets better too.”
“I couldn’t believe what was going on,” he said, referring to the drama between Scudder, Mhlongo, and likely Kyle Viljoen. “Like, I couldn’t believe how much fighting was happening, it was ridiculous. Fights happen on yachts, drama happens, but this was a whole other level. It was just so intense. A yacht fight, I’m not gonna lie, it’s enjoyable to watch. Like, give me a box of popcorn. But this wasn’t even enjoyable. This was just pure tension.”
The ‘vibe’ dropped when Tumi arrived on the boat, Chef Jack recalled
Luby recalled that the “energy on the boat just dropped” when Mhlongo arrived on the boat “The whole vibe dropped. Like, I feel energy, I feel a vibe. And it was literally, like a real high vibe in the crew. And it just dropped like this. I don’t know what the issue was, but the whole vibe just dropped.”
“And I was trying my best not to get absorbed with it,” he continued. “Well, I’m only human. It’s hard not to sometimes, like a job my job’s hard enough without all that stuff going on around me. I just wanted to focus on the job and cook. Yeah, and it was very hard to do that at some points. And I don’t want to make excuses but it actually affected my work at times as well. There’s so much crap going on around me.”
Chef Jack teases drama with Kyle Viljoen
Despite the intense drama, Luby said he’d work with everyone from Below Deck Med Season 8, especially Scudder. “Well, some people you just click with. We just had a great chemistry together. She knew how to handle me. She knew how to manage me. She got a bit of a bad rap, but I don’t judge people on a TV program. I judge them on my personal interaction with them. Me and Natalia got on so well. We work well together.”
Viljoen appears to be a good reason why Mhlongo and Scudder had drama from the beginning. While waiting for immigration approval, Viljoen filled Mhlongo in on some of the drama he had with Scudder last season. And that set Mhlongo up to be defensive.
“I would say I have a love-hate [relationship with Kyle],” he laughed. “I won’t get too deep into it. But I think Kyle’s great in small doses. I’d happily go drinking with him. I might do the odd charter with him just for the laughs. I don’t think I’ve got a full season. That’s a whole different story.”
Do Chef Jack and Tumi clash later on ‘Below Deck Med’?
Would Luby say it will still be rough seas ahead with Mhlongo? “I won’t give it in a way, but I would say the worst of our relationship is over,” he said referring to the tension with Mhlongo during her first charter. “Charter two we were just destined to clash no matter if Nat was talking to me or not, we were destined to clash. Just the way it went down, the way we couldn’t leave the dock, the way the guests were so demanding, the whole crew change and dynamic, the whole vibe.”
“We have a good reset, you know? People in yachting, this happens quite a lot when a chef and a chief stew never worked together, and we were put in a big high-pressure situation as we were,” he said about Mhlongo. “Tempers flare, but there’s a saying in the kitchen, ‘What happens in service stays in service.’ We shake hands, we forget about it, and move on.”
Below Deck Mediterranean is on Monday at 9 p.m. EST on Bravo.
