With just one charter left on Below Deck Down Under Season 4, the subject of two potential promotions arose within Captain Jason Chambers’ crew. He ultimately denied Chef Ben Robinson’s recommendation to promote Elena “Ellie” Dubaich from assistant to sous chef in Episode 17, and, later, Daisy Kelliher also informed Alesia Harris that she was not quite ready to rise to the rank of second stew.
With the benefit of hindsight, Captain Jason weighed in on Ellie and Alesia’s promotion denials during the Below Deck Down Under After Show, including whether or not he still stood behind those decisions. First, he recalled how Ben had approached him with the request about Ellie.
“I’m just like, what? I don’t think the ending of this book of the galley, the final chapter, is that,” Jason remarked. “It should be a good meal, and it should be good communication. And it definitely shouldn’t be a promotion of someone I’ve reprimanded not long ago.”
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Daisy, meanwhile, suggested that promoting Ellie would’ve been a reward only “for getting through the season.” What’s more, the chief stew claimed that, even though Ellie’s behavior wasn’t “necessarily terrible off the boat,” she had “isolated herself” from the team. Daisy cited examples of how Ellie had “continuously been late for crew drinks” and had also decided to nap, rather than attend a group outing she’d organized.
“I totally agree,” Captain Jason replied. “And, look, hopefully she has a passion for cooking and goes away and becomes better and then learns from everything, what it was like to work in a galley, and is maybe a better sous chef later on. But that’s another story. That’s not this story.”
Captain Jason Chambers comments on Daisy Kelliher not promoting Alesia Harris
Though Captain Jason wasn’t directly involved in Daisy’s decision to not tap Alesia for a recently demoted Jenna Woudberg’s second stew position, he voiced support for the call she made in a separate After Show segment. For him, what it all boiled down to was the fact that Alesia had initially come aboard as part of the galley crew and then threatened to quit amid clashes with Ben.
“She came on as a sous chef, and she knew what she was in for,” Jason explained. “She felt like she wanted a change, and we gave her a second chance. That second chance was being a stewardess. There was no inkling of a promotion there.”
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After she transferred to Daisy’s interior team, Alesia also had multiple conflicts with Mike Durrant, whom Jason fired from M/Y Katina. Though she remained on the job, Alesia had also been on the chopping block, at the time.
Regardless, Jason told Daisy on the After Show, “You actually not providing that promotion isn’t putting her down for the work she is doing. It’s just saying that you’re not at that level.”
Elena “Ellie” Dubaich and Alesia Harris react to their promotion denials
Elsewhere on the Below Deck Down Under After Show, Ellie and Alesia both opened up about not getting promoted.
As Ellie, for one pointed out, “Ben came up with this whole idea of a potential promotion that I never asked for, by the way.”
Separately, Alesia declared that she was “better than Jenna,” but ultimately agreed with Daisy’s assessment of the areas in which she still needed to improve, namely, remaining calm in stressful moments. “I mean, Daisy’s not wrong,” Alesia conceded. “I do get frazzled under pressure. But, like, also, I didn’t have to be under all the pressure, as a third.”
Aleisa also clarified that she did not technically ask Daisy for a promotion, so much as she simply wanted an explanation as to why the chief stew didn’t seem to “value” her in the same way she did in being a “champion” for Jenna.
“The thing is, it’s not even that I want to be second stew,” Alesia concluded, sitting next to Barbara “Barbie” Pascual. “I was just lowkey a little bit chuffed that [Jenna] wasn’t second stew anymore, and if I had my heart on my sleeve, there’s no one else that deserves it more than you, Barbie. … I’m not qualified, but f–kin’ hell, Jenna’s not qualified either.”
As you prepare for the arrival of Season 4’s final charter guests, get more details on why Alesia was nearly fired on Below Deck Down Under.
