I'd read that, many places, before the eww toobs came to be.
Writers have approached that - fiction and travel journals. Used to be, you could travel on a freight vessel, after a lot of red tape. Pay a fare, they'd put you up in guest quarters or an empty stateroom...only caveat was, you were forbidden to do anything with or for the crew. Union rules. That, and age...under 70 and proven healthy.
I always wanted to try it, after four years at sea the hard way. Join the Navy, see the world - from a porthole!
Anyway. Aside from that I don't much care for Asian food as a steady diet (occasionally, is fine) it looks good. He's right, though - that is CRITICAL to keeping up morale. The easiest, cheapest way to have a contented crew, is with good foodservice.
And men have mutinied for lousy food - a bad or malicious cook, or parsimonious captain.
Out of the Navv, I wanted to try my hands on the Great Lakes ore boats. But I wasn't a deck sailor, but a clerk - a supercargo would be the civilian equivalent (Supervisor of Cargo).
It didn't happen. I had fantasies of six-figure incomes for nine months of work each year, and spending winters in the Florida sun.