Greg Little is the chef aboard 68m deep-sea fishing trawler Amaltal Enterprise, which featured on the television series Chef on a Mission last month.
The reality programme places celebrity chef Simon Gault in challenging situations, where he has to prepare a meal to feed hungry workers.
In the first episode of the programme, Gault and a television crew joined the Amaltal Enterprise for six days on a hoki fishing trip to the Chatham Rise in February.
"We normally have 38 crew, but there was 49 with Simon and the TV crew on board. It was very full on.
There's not a lot of space to work in a small galley," Mr Little said this month.
"We spend around $30,000 to stock the boat for a six-week trip. But you have limited equipment working on a vessel.
"I start work at four in the morning and finish about seven at night. The crew get three main meals a day and they need it, because it's extremely hard work and they need energy. It's a 24-hour operation," he said.
"The TV crew were very lucky with the elements. It was very, very calm. We fish a lot in the Southern Ocean and it can be pretty challenging. You can go for two or three days with no sleep at all if the weather's bad. But you still have work to do."
Gault made the crew a breakfast of bacon macaroni cheese fritters with a poached egg, avocado and smoked paprika bearnaise and a baked bean cassoulet. Lunch was smoked fish pie, curried vegetable salad, couscous and European coleslaw. The day concluded with a three-course dinner of warehou and crab mousse, roast eye fillet with hash browns and veges and chocolate pudding.
"He's a talented guy. What he did was fantastic," Mr Little said.
"But we just couldn't make the sort of meals he was making. At one stage, I went to make a meal, but I couldn't because there weren't any trays left. He'd used every single one of my trays."
Mr Little has another mission, now he is back on dry land.
He will be making mussel patties for the Port Chalmers Seafood Festival, on October 8, to raise funds for the Dunedin Community Salmon Trust.
Chef on a Mission also featured Tarras, Cromwell and Bendigo Station last month.
