Cruise Convos | Tom Goetter, Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours

Claudine Pohl: 00:00:02

What is currently happening in our cruise industry today? Join me for Cruise Convos as we discover and learn from cruise industry leaders across the globe all within 28 minutes! Cruise community this is Claudine with Lemoneight and we are part of Cruise Convos. Today I am here with a very epic and special guest. We have Tom with us, Tom, please share with our cruise community who

Tom Goetter: 00:00:36

What did you say that already? No, I'm Tom!

Claudine Pohl: 00:00:38

You're Tom! What's your last name? Who are you? What are you known for?

Tom Goetter: 00:00:45

My name is Tom Goetter. I'm currently the Vice President of Hotel Operation for Scenic. And yeah, we know each other from you know, actually I cooked you some food and I think I made a culinary class for you. And since then you bugged me. Hang on to me.

Claudine Pohl: 00:00:58

Yes. I love it. And you know what? This is the coolest thing because you're on TV now. Like besides doing what you do you have your own TV show on Discovery Channel. And you are part of a TV show as well. On World All Stars for cooking, right? Like a chef world All Stars. What is it called? Exactly? It is called?

Tom Goetter: 00:01:23

Top Chef, Top Chef World All Stars? Yes. So basically, the Top Chef community around the world decided to make the first Top Chef where it all starts where they invited winners and finalists from all around the world to compete to each other. The American version, but yeah, America basically invited all Top Chef Winners and finalists be cooking against each other. I was filmed

Claudine Pohl: 00:01:49

You sound surprised.

Tom Goetter: 00:01:52

No you sound surprised.

Claudine Pohl: 00:01:57

This is great.

Tom Goetter: 00:01:58

It is amazing. To be honest, it's a it's a great show has a huge reputation around the world. And the best part is you actually meet a lot of great chefs from around the world. So obviously, I was very honored when I got asked to represent Germany, right. And it never been done before. So representing your country, that's quite a big move. And on top of it, I work on the ocean.

Claudine Pohl: 00:03:07

In the upcoming episode, I think I saw a clip for it. You're going to Chile, right?

Tom Goetter: 00:03:12

Yeah Chile!

Claudine Pohl: 00:03:14

Okay, Chile, but I'll say it in Spanish! It looks really cool. I am going to be watching that one. Now.

Tom Goetter: 00:03:25

Yeah, the whole series is basically going from Salvador to Antarctica. So, you know, every episode is about a big part of the of the costume server. Currently we just about to hit Chile.

Claudine Pohl: 00:03:39

very chilly.

Claudine Pohl: 00:03:41

Tom. I want to talk about how we met. So I got to go. Let's talk about that...

Tom Goetter: 00:03:47

Okay, Claudine was a bit drunk, she had a pretty dress...

Claudine Pohl: 00:03:56

Okay, so I was on Scenic Eclipse. And I for me, what really stood out Tom. And I'll tell you, this is how your team interacted with you and your leadership style. So that was like the first thing that stood out. I was like, This guy is a really good leader. And his team really, really likes him. And then I was like, maybe he can cook. I'm just joking, I knew you were the head chef

Tom Goetter: 00:05:11

Is that the onion chopping machine?

Claudine Pohl: 00:05:13

Yes, yeah.

Tom Goetter: 00:05:19

But it's a true story.

Claudine Pohl: 00:05:20

Yeah, you tell us the story, tell us the story!

Tom Goetter: 00:05:24

Really. Okay. So my mom, my mom and my grandma also really into cooking. So I'm born and raised in a small winery and cooking and wine is a big thing of my childhood. So when I was young, every bloody household had these onion choppers, where there's like eight knives on it and a feather and you hit it up and down and you chop the knife down. You just mash it and the liquid runs out.

Claudine Pohl: 00:06:37

That's awesome. You said your mom and your grandmother, were into cooking? And so tell us how did you get into this?

Tom Goetter: 00:06:45

So it was really from them straight up as a child already, you know, these little books you give to your friends and kindergarten. And they're writing a favorite color and their favorite dish and what they want to be when they're old? Yeah, well, I still have the same friends like back in the days. And then every single book, it's written chef or clown series. Actually, I really went

Claudine Pohl: 00:07:31

I love it epic. When did you start with Scenic? And how did you make that decision to go work on board? Especially because like you said, being a chef, there's a lot of pride that goes with it. And you seem like you really really like what you do. You put your heart, your soul into it. And you bring your team along with it. And like in your mind, did you think that you could be as

Tom Goetter: 00:08:01

To be really honest, I never wanted to work on the ship. And then to make my culinary master Germany I needed about 10,000 Euro really quickly. And someone told me Oh, just go to the ocean four months contract 10,000 Euro of you go! Paid off straight and I said oh, that's a good idea. Well, I did it, I went to a huge ocean liner and I hated it. To be honest, I hate every single

Claudine Pohl: 00:09:44

No way!

Tom Goetter: 00:09:45

Yeah, I was just I thought another cruise line another thing and that's off we go. But while they call back, they said I'm an idiot, which I agree I was. So we had a good conversation of, I don't know 45 minutes an hour and basically bottom line was, Hey, Tom, you young, you, while we don't want to be in a cruise ship, you have eight outlets, you have 10 dining experience, you can do

Claudine Pohl: 00:11:04

That's incredible. Tom, do you feel that the creativity and the openness that Scenic gave you has helped you just really explore and become like the chef that you are because you, you said 10 different restaurants that you could do whatever, or 10 different dining experiences where you could really just do what you want!

Tom Goetter: 00:11:25

Basically it helps a lot to carry it out. You know, when you're when you go to the market as a chef people they say, 'Oh, the strawberry Smiths are great'..

Claudine Pohl: 00:11:33

Do you think they really talk like that? No.

Tom Goetter: 00:11:36

Yes, yes to that, you know, regular people that go to the market, and they're impressed by beautiful polished apples, yes, smelling strawberries, were chefs are different. They're looking for things that don't really know, what is more weird, let's say items. You know, we're like hunters, we want to see different ingredients around the world. So having so many outlets, it makes us very

Claudine Pohl: 00:13:09

Wow, incredible. Tom, you really are good with people and connecting with people. Right? When I saw you on board, you were talking to the guest and not only talking to them, like you were drawing them in into the experience, or talking to them about the food and taking an interest in them. How important is that to you? Like in what you create? Like do you get to know some of the

Tom Goetter: 00:13:40

the one thing has been the other not really much to do talking to the guest is, I would say our biggest dedication as a chef, the days where a cook just cooks your food to fill your stomach I think is over. If you're on a ship like Eclipse, which you know, straight outlines to be a good ship, in the sense of you know, not having a lot of a la carte restaurants using the best fuel

Tom Goetter: 00:15:35

blow your way. And you don't need any lobster anymore, and just going to be the best dinner of your life well you know, we win. And this is this is my main mission, to be honest!

Claudine Pohl: 00:15:43

I love it. I remember when we stopped in one of the little places in Saudi Arabia, you were going like you had it in your mind, I could hear you, you were like, you have to get off and you were you were looking for a certain ingredient. I don't remember what it is. But I remember you were like you were you got off and you were looking for a certain ingredient. You were trying to

Tom Goetter: 00:16:28

I think it's a huge honor. I do obviously when Top Chef Germany started and our top seven all stars, but also Maritime Masters, people send me messages mainly on Instagram, and say, Hey, this is really, really cool. You know, this is really different. And it's beautiful. To be good, Chef, great. When guests tell you that you cook them good food, that's nice, you know, but if you have

Claudine Pohl: 00:17:55

Yeah..

Tom Goetter: 00:17:56

to create inspiration for others.

Claudine Pohl: 00:17:58

Yeah. And it really shows Tom, like you said at the beginning, the amount of people that you brought on the team, and they're still there, like that's a reflection of your leadership as well.

Tom Goetter: 00:18:10

Clearly, I have an impact to it. By now, we have a new culinary department above 100 people, I barely, I think I know almost everybody, we serve a few of their colleagues of colleagues and friends of friends. So that also shows Scenic as a company, we really made a very modern approach obviously comes with me! I allow people to make mistakes, I allow people to have a big mouth and

Claudine Pohl: 00:18:57

Yeah, I remember I was on board and I tried this mushroom thing. But it looked like this mushroom thing. And I'll be honest, I looked at it and I thought what is this thing? Right? It it didn't look like I don't know, it looked very pretty but I touched it and it was like mushy. And I was like, what is that? But it was delicious. But it was like this mushroom moo thing, but it

Tom Goetter: 00:19:44

Thanks Claudine!

Claudine Pohl: 00:19:44

Yeah, you're welcome. You're welcome. Now, let's talk a little bit about Top Chef World All Stars, your top four or should we say three now? So let's say congratulations on behalf of the entire cruise community because you're not only putting yourself out there, you're really representing the entire cruise community at a at that level, right? I liked what you said about, you know,

Tom Goetter: 00:20:33

It motivates me a lot to be honest, even when I came to the show. And I said, I work on a cruise ship. They all kind of had that smile on their face. And I don't judge them. There's a lot of, you know, rumors around there. And I think the cruise industry 10 years ago, 15 years ago was really bad. It's certainly obviously really strongly improving. I think the cruise industry really

Claudine Pohl: 00:21:24

Well, congrats, Tom. That's awesome. And then ask you three questions. First one, who is your inspiration in the chef world?

Tom Goetter: 00:21:33

I don't think I have a specific person I look up to there's a few chefs and a few restaurants where which I always thought they're really cool. And if I combine them all together, that would be kind of my Roadhouse. So there are certain chefs that teach me a lot of basics to the bone and very professional. There's chefs that really inspired me and going out of the way and out of the

Tom Goetter: 00:23:25

reaction, and you should be proud of them making mistakes, because that also aligns them that they trust you to make the mistakes. So you took it very deep. And he teach me a lot about that for almost six months, which I will never forget him. And he certainly changed my kind of leadership. Yeah. So but there's a lot of people I need to honor and I still honor and I call the big decisions to ask

Claudine Pohl: 00:23:50

I mean, that's great. And what you just spoke about the root is trust, he trusted you. Right. And you felt that he trusted you. And I love that, like even leaving you alone.

Tom Goetter: 00:24:04

Yeah. If you ask me in cuisine and kitchens, I would say most Michelin star restaurants I wouldn't say all but a lot of most Michelin restaurants, especially the old ones that worked with a lot of pressure with burning your arm with pellets. I mean, I'm sure there's some chefs out there like to shake their head now because it's actually true. It was a rough time. And there's very

Unknown: 00:25:21

Love it, Tom, spot on. It's been really epic talking to you. I'm going to ask you our last question. And the last question we asked every guest. And the question is, if you look back at your younger self, and you could give yourself any piece of advice, what advice would you give your younger self?

Tom Goetter: 00:25:44

It's a good one. You know, I was thinking about it. Because when I was a young chef, I was really brutal. I had a huge mouth. I fight with everybody. I was never happy with myself, I was pushing myself. And I always try to be better than anybody else. So obviously, that's the hardest way you can choose to go. And probably I should tell myself to stay more humble and calm. But you know

Claudine Pohl: 00:26:47

Love it. Great answer. Where can people follow you all of our listeners, I saw that your social media Instagram account is past 5500 followers right now. So where can people follow you?

Tom Goetter: 00:27:03

I'm mainly active on Instagram. I'm super busy. So I try to jump around to many spots. Obviously I'm on LinkedIn professionally side but Instagram, I'm chef underscore white. That was my nickname. And all kitchens have worked since ever. I am a big cleaning nerd. So whenever I had a dirty spot on my check, check it I immediately changed. So there were days I had like six seven chef

Tom Goetter: 00:27:24

So yeah, that's the that's where the nickname comes from. I always wear perfect white chef jackets. And if they become dirty, I just got really upset and changed immediately because I feel it's really really important to work clean. And trust me the chef who worked with me will shake his head right now.

Claudine Pohl: 00:27:24

No way!

Claudine Pohl: 00:27:40

Really?? How many?

Tom Goetter: 00:27:41

It needs to be clean.

Claudine Pohl: 00:27:43

How many?

Tom Goetter: 00:27:44

Hundreds! Yeah, hundreds. So yeah, Instagram is where I'm mostly active, to be honest. Yeah, I love it. I love to post travels of the make posts of the travels and the destinations. Obviously there's a lot of food pictures there. And you know, a lot of little stories from Maritime Master and just Top Chef right now. But yeah, overall, that's my main focus.

Claudine Pohl: 00:28:07

Love it. Tom, tell us again, what is the name of the show on Discovery Channel so we can all entire cruise community needs to go on and watch the show.

Tom Goetter: 00:28:18

So the show called Maritime Masters. Currently, it's streamed in Discovery Channels in America, it will come to the max middle of the year, all around Europe, it will come out I believe, third of June or eighth of June and UK, Canada and Australia as well. Also National Geographic. It's it's a really cool show. It's really nice to watch. It's really healthy and entertaining at the

Claudine Pohl: 00:28:44

Amazing. So we will make sure we're gonna watch and follow along. Congratulations on making the top three on. I mean, should I say top 4? We can say top 3, come on! I know, I have a feeling. And you know what Seatrade actually started F&B@Sea. So it's food and beverage that the whole show at the same time as Seatrade Cruise Global. I'm sure you'll get an invite. It would be

Tom Goetter: 00:29:22

That sounds exciting.

Claudine Pohl: 00:29:24

Tom, it's been a pleasure. You're epic. I think the world of you and as good as you are as a chef, which is amazing. I love your leadership style the most, because...

Tom Goetter: 00:29:38

Thank you so much!

Claudine Pohl: 00:29:38

I look up to you. You inspire me and you did back then, when I met first met you and you still do. Thank you so much for being part of the show today.

Tom Goetter: 00:29:49

Thanks so much, Claudine. It was really nice to meet you like that.

Claudine Pohl: 00:29:52

Thank you my pleasure!

Tom Goetter: 00:29:53

Keep shining!