JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
Executive Chef Joel Blice, who helped relaunch the Ocean Pines Yacht Club under the management of the Matt Ortt Companies, has recently departed.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Sept. 27, 2018) The Ocean Pines Yacht Club is between chefs, as former Executive Chef Joel Blice apparently served his last dish in that capacity earlier this month.

“We mutually parted ways on good terms,” Thomas Steele, yacht club assistant general manager, said last Thursday. “He was here to help us get started and has since moved onto other things. He’s probably going to get back to teaching is what I heard.”

Steele, stopping by during a clubs committee meeting at the yacht club, said there is not an executive chef “at the moment,” but that General Manager Lewis Sherman “is going to be spending more time in the kitchen, because he has an extensive background [there].”

During the transitionperiod, Steele said he and other management staff would focus on front-of-house operations, while Matt Ortt Companies Executive Chef Stuart Diepold would “be extensively involved with everything yacht club.” The Ortt Companies manage the yacht and beach clubs.

“We still have the rest of the kitchen staff, so we still have our sous chef, etc.,” Steele said. “We are looking for another chef for next year. As far as the winter goes, it’s still going to be well run, the same food and good quality. It’s just we don’t have an executive chef on premises.

“We don’t see any sort of falloff or dropoff in terms of the quality of food. It should still be the same great products going into next year, and then we’ll find someone else to move into a more permanent kitchen role,” he added.

While committee members said they received comments from diners suggesting some menu items had changed, Steele said he was not aware of any changes since Blice departed.

“Items change a little periodically, just based on how they’re doing and feedback. But, as far as significant changes since he’s left, there haven’t been any that I’m aware of,” Steele said.

The broth in a mussel dish, for instance, was at first a little bland and has “changed quite a bit since the beginning of the summer,” Steele said.

“Now it has a lot of flavor,” he added.