Brooklyn Beckham shocks fans after cooking pasta with seawater aboard luxury yacht

Brooklyn Beckham has sparked debate after a cooking video showing him preparing pasta with seawater aboard a yacht resurfaced online.

The 27-year-old originally shared the video in 2025, but it has recently attracted fresh attention, with viewers questioning his decision to use water scooped directly from the sea to cook the pasta.

Photo: Instagram/@BrooklynBeckham

In the video, Beckham introduces the dish as tomato pasta before scooping seawater from beside the yacht with a container. He then brings it into the kitchen and uses it to cook spaghetti.

The rest of the recipe is more familiar. Beckham prepares a tomato sauce using cherry tomatoes, oil, seasoning and hot sauce from his Cloud 23 brand. He cooks the spaghetti, combines it with the sauce and finishes the dish with cheese and what appears to be a Parmesan crisp.

The use of seawater drew most of the criticism. Some viewers questioned the safety of collecting water from the sea, particularly from an area close to a boat, where the water could potentially be exposed to pollutants, fuel residues and other contaminants.

Photo: Instagram/@BrooklynBeckham

Boiling seawater can kill many microorganisms, but it does not remove every possible contaminant. The source of the water is therefore an important consideration when deciding whether it is suitable for cooking.

The salt content is another issue. Seawater contains considerably more salt than the water normally used to cook pasta, meaning that using it undiluted can make the dish excessively salty.

The choice has also raised questions because Beckham was cooking aboard a yacht, where fresh water would ordinarily be available. This led some viewers to question why he opted to collect seawater for such a simple dish.

Beckham’s interest in cooking has been well documented. He began sharing more cooking content during lockdown and later presented Cookin’ With Brooklyn, an eight-episode food series released in 2021. The series saw him prepare dishes alongside professional chefs.

Photo: Instagram/@BrooklynBeckham

His cooking videos have continued to attract attention, with the seawater pasta becoming one of his more unusual recipes. The video also features Cloud 23 hot sauce, bringing his food brand into the recipe.

The debate has centred less on the tomato pasta itself and more on the decision to use untreated seawater. While seawater can be used in some culinary settings, water collected directly from the sea is not necessarily equivalent to food-grade seawater or treated water.

Beckham has not appeared to give a detailed explanation for choosing seawater in the video. For viewers, that decision remains the most controversial part of the recipe.