Cooking at Sea with Captain Jalil
When you imagine learning to sail you may think of the beautiful waters, stunning views, incredible sea life, and unforgettable memories made aboard a yacht. But what about the food? Go Sail’s Captain Jalil wants to make sure every guest aboard Go Sail Virgin Island’s Learn To Sail courses walks away reminiscing about just how wonderful the food was too. 
On Go Sail’s weeklong liveaboard ASA sailing courses all breakfasts and lunches are included, as well as two dinners.
“When [students] wake up in the morning I want to make sure they have a fruit platter and the best coffee,” Captain Jalil explained. However, breakfast is hardly the best part of the culinary experience when sailing with Captain Jalil.
“I have the same menu for the whole season and that lets me kind of perfect it,” Captain Jalil explained. “I have a couple of these things that people really love so I’m kind of known for. My jerk chicken is one of those things, and the hummus. I really do have a side passion for cooking.”
Captain Jalil’s 2024 menu features a jerk chicken dinner and a burger night.
“The burgers you can’t go wrong with that— you pile up the fixings,” he said. “[They are] accompanied by pasta salad— my pasta salad is also off the chain!”
However, the real signature dinner is the jerk chicken served with burbank veggies (leeks, zucchini, and green beans lightly sauteed together with white wine) and risotto with parmesan cheese.
“My jerk chicken is phenomenal. We’ve served it so many times, there has never been a person who doesn’t love it,” Captain Jalil said. “The jerk chicken is also done on the grill so it has that smokey flavor and the jerk sauce is a secret sauce from living 10 years in the Caribbean.
My signature jerk sauce is perfectly adapted to being charred on the grill.”
Surprisingly though, the risotto side is just as popular (if not more popular) than the jerk chicken itself!
“So far there has only been one time we had left over risotto,” Captain Jalil said. “I’ve tried it out on enough people that I know you are going to like it.”
So what’s on next season’s menu? We’re hoping Captain Jalil brings back his famous tuna salad!
“Between you and me it doesn’t have any tuna,” Captain Jalil laughed. “ I prefer fish that is more sustainable and no one knows the difference.”