Below Deck Mediterranean hit the airwaves this past summer, presenting another look at the Below Deck franchise in other waters. Kate Chastain, the awesomely snarky chief stew on Below Deck’s original series, gave Bravo her take on the Med spinoff and its season one cast members. Her basic assessment: They were great! Oh, except for Bryan Kattenburg. Yeah, he still sucks.
Kate especially loved seeing friend and coworker Ben Robinson star in the crossover series, especially enjoying his prowess with the ladies. She jokes, “I was just talking to Ben two days ago and said, ‘You know, [the] next season you do, you need to go for [hooking up with] three cast members in one season – like the Ben Grand Slam.”
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During his time on Below Deck Med, Ben flirted with chief stew Hannah Ferrier (well, sort of…he mostly fended off her advances!), but ultimately hooked up with second stew Tiffany Copeland during the final episode.
Kate told Bravo’s Daily Dish she thinks Ben played up his big-man-on-campus persona, given that he was the crossover “star” from the original series. “I think Ben loved being on the Below Deck Med cast because he felt like a really big God because everybody else was new and looked up to him, so he was the only one who knew what he was doing,” she says, also adding that “the Mediterranean has a stigma of being more sophisticated, so Ben really felt like he could use his accent and his international knowledge more.”
Now that the Med season has wrapped, Kate shares that she actually has ties to some of its cast members. Kate says that Bobby Giancola, who she thinks is great, “is from my hometown [Melbourne, Florida], and I helped nudge him toward doing the yachting industry.”
Kate didn’t know the Med’s chief stew Hannah, but does admit she initially thought there might be a rivalry between them. “I mean, I would be lying to say I wasn’t at all feeling a little bit of potential rivalry because there’s another chief stew and another Below Deck,” she confesses, knowing that the audience would naturally make comparisons between the two.
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But since the show has aired, Kate says it’s all good between the two chief stews: “I would love to work with or just hang out with Hannah. We’ve actually chatted on Skype a few times. I think we’re very similar. We have a lot of the same yachtie friends in the real yachting world. She’s badass.” A major difference between the two? One hooked up with Ben. One did not – despite her many desperate attempts!
Kate also enjoyed watching Jen Riservato (really?!) and Julia D’Albert Pusey on screen. And, surprise, surprise! She even met Tiffany post-filming – through Ben, of course. Says Kate about Tiffany, “I’ve met her a couple times at Ben’s house. I think everyone was great.”
Sure, everyone was great except, perhaps, the hideously arrogant and douchey first mate to ever sail the seas: Bryan. Kate shares that she did have the torturous pleasure of meeting Bryan. “And I’ve met him enough,” she quips.
Luckily for Kate, she wasn’t forced to be trapped on a boat with Bryan for 10 weeks. Although, it might be interesting to see how she would expertly handle him, no? Interestingly, Kate did not comment on everyone’s favorite “people person,” Danny Zuriekat. Ooh – I’d just love to hear her assessment of that man child!
TELL US: DO YOU AGREE WITH KATE’S TAKE ON BELOW DECK MED? WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE ANY MORE ‘CHARACTER’ CROSSOVERS ON BOTH SHOWS?
Photo Credit: Bravo
