Below Deck replaced a crew member with an alum from a previous season — but that only led to an unexpected feud.
During the Monday, June 9, episode, Chef Lawrence Snowden decided he couldn’t remain on St. David as a result of the overwhelming pressure. Before Captain Kerry Titheradge could start the search for his replacement, chief steward Fraser Olender suggested they bring back Chef Anthony Iracane, who was fired one season prior.
“It’s a redemption,” Anthony told the cameras in his first season 12 confessional. “I am not a loser and I can be a winner. And I can make all my family proud. It is going to be showtime — it will be the Anthony show.”
Anthony reunited with Fraser at the end of the episode, but it turned out that there was some bad blood offscreen. While Anthony felt like Fraser could be the reason for his termination, the chief stew was completely unaware of his former coworker’s frustrations.
“Anthony and I are like brothers. We get along incredibly well. Him leaving last year was absolutely heart wrenching for me to go through,” Fraser said in a confessional. “So having him here makes me so happy and excited.”
For Anthony, there were issues he wanted to address. “Coming back to the boat, I have a lot of different emotions inside of me,” he admitted. “I love Fraser but I was feeling like maybe he betrayed me? I need to find the right moment to talk about my feelings and to put everything on the table.”
That moment will come two weeks after the crew filmed Monday’s episode. In a flashforward showing what went down “16 days later,” Anthony and Frasier get involved in a heated argument about what took place in season 11.
“Don’t f*** with me and my emotions. I brought you here to work with me because you are my favorite [chef] to work with,” Fraser told Anthony. “I didn’t get you fired. I wanted you back. Forget this.”
Anthony was initially introduced to Us during season 11 of Below Deck. After receiving various complaints from the guests about Anthony’s performance, Kerry decided to let him go following a conversation with Fraser.
“This is not just affecting my team. It is affecting the boat and I just know this tip is going to be s***,” Fraser told the cameras in an April 2024 episode. “Most of my time at the moment is spent with Chef, begging him to do his job correctly and keeping him in line. There’s just no space for me to be looking after him as much as I am. I don’t have time for that.”
Fraser called it “embarrassing” when a charter resulted in a low tip, adding, “Is it because of the food? I am going to say yes.” Fraser told Kerry that Anthony didn’t consider preferences, and his meals lost “any sense of super yacht standard” to them.
Kerry ultimately told Anthony that he was being let go. “Every day that Anthony has been on the boat, I have had to give him guidance. And I’m fine with that if you learn from everything that we talk about,” Kerry explained. “If one person can’t run at the same speed as the rest of us, we have to leave him behind.”
Despite firing Anthony, Kerry wanted to end their working relationship on a positive note.
“I think you are an incredible chef. Your food is absolutely amazing. But you are starting to nosedive,” the captain noted. “You don’t see where things are going wrong with the service? For a start, crew food was not a priority. The food has been late. You are making mistakes and not being prepared. I am seeing guests not being satisfied with what you are doing. This is not the environment for you. You are not flourishing.”
The chef, however, didn’t agree with Kerry’s assessment or decision.
“I don’t know what you are talking about. I know I made a little mistake but I am human,” he said. “Then why do people everyday tell me I am the most amazing chef in the world? So either people [are] full of s*** or …?”
Anthony said he wanted to use the experience as a lesson.
“I love everyone and I’m going to miss them so much. The only thing I need is cooking for people. It is the only thing that makes me happy,” he told cameras at the time. “I am going to come back like a crazy motherf*****. I’m going to be back in the game for sure.”
Anthony was the third crew member to leave St. David after Jared Woodin and Cat Baugh. Before season 11 premiered on Bravo, Kerry teased several cast exits, telling Us Weekly in February 2024, “I think we may have reached the record of firings this season.”
Below Deck airs on Bravo Mondays at 8 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
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