Your idea of shipboard cuisine might be cattle-call buffet lines, where quantity outscores quality, or food served by conga-dancing waiters followed by forced conversation between strangers. Cruise lines have a better idea. Most are revamping their menus and offering more choices than ever before. Just ask Marti and Tom Rosenquist of Lahaina, Hawaii. Cruise veterans for the past decade, the Rosenquists’ first order of business after embarkation is to book reservations in as many of the specialty restaurants as possible. “With so many options, there’s something to suit every palate,” Marti says. “And if I don’t like one spot, that’s okay because I always find one that I do.” Simple fact: Food is integral to the cruise experience. Cruise lines understand that. Witness the way some lines are plowing millions of dollars into the culinary options. Holland America is retrofitting its ships with dedicated Culinary Arts Centers for demonstrations and cooking classes. Crystal hosts onboard food and wine festivals, while Celebrity employs a full-time food and wine consultant. Cunard has partnered with Gourmet magazine for its Chefs at Sea program, which brings an impressive lineup of visiting chefs to the Queen Mary 2. Regimented dining room hours and cafeteria-like environments have made way for personal choice, chic restaurants created by celebrity chefs, and even low-cal menus. (C’mon, you really didn’t need that third slice of Baked Alaska.) Name a destination and Elaine Hecht, who readily admits she travels on her stomach, can probably tell you the best places to dine. Last July she made a transatlantic crossing from New York to Southampton on the Queen Mary 2. Lobster, rack of lamb, châteaubriand and duck a l’orange: Hecht tried them all. And the service? As good as any land-based top-tier restaurant. “I like to have iced tea with my meal, and after the first night, it was always waiting for me on the dinner table. I was a regular after one seating,” Hecht recalls. Though Hecht chose to eat most of her evening meals in her assigned Britannia Restaurant, she could have supped in a Mediterranean-themed venue under the direction of Chef Todd English of Olives of Boston fame. English isn’t the only celebrity chef lending his name to onboard restaurants. All three of Crystal’s ships boast the restaurant Prego that features the same signature dishes and wines served at Piero Selvaggio’s Valentino restaurants. Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa designed the menu for Crystal Serenity’s Silk Road restaurant with dishes like black cod with miso prepared by Nobu-trained chefs. Even cruise ships unattached to celebrity chefs have carved out space for specialty dining. At the Portofino Grill on Radisson’s Seven Seas Navigator, guests dine on selections like gnocchi with white truffle and chive cream sauce or grilled shrimps with seafood ravioli and lobster reduction. Several Royal Caribbean ships have installed a Johnny Rockets, famous for its cheeseburgers, shakes and ’50s-style atmosphere. And with ships getting bigger, the options have grown exponentially: French bistros, steakhouses, Tex-Mex joints, sushi bars, English pubs and pizzerias. The only downside may be that many of the “premium” restaurants have per-person food surcharges, ranging from $3.95 to chomp on a burger and fries at Johnny Rockets to $20 at Holland America’s Pinnacle Grill. Drinks are usually extra. Still, with choices like cedar-planked halibut with Alaskan king crab or wild mushroom ravioli in a pesto cream sauce, who can fuss? The Rosenquists had no complaints when approached to join a three-hour wine and food pairing dinner onboard the Crystal Symphony, even if it did cost an extra $150 each. “There were just 14 of us in the Vintage Room. It was like a very intimate party,” recalls Marti, whose eight-course meal included poached lobster tail in lemon oil, duck confit with foie gras and herb-roasted venison loin, not to mention seven fine reserve wines. According to Crystal Cruises spokesperson Mimi Weisband, the quality of shipboard dining has risen because today’s cruiser demands the same caliber of cuisine as on dry land. “Whether we’re off the coast of Zanzibar or docked in New York, we must maintain a consistent quality of excellence for our guests. They’ve come to expect choices such as a large assortment of fresh berries, a large variety of specialty cheeses, various greens, etcetera. We have a wine list of over 230 wines, including rare vintages like 1959 Château Lafite Rothschild. And everything must be cooked-to-order—no more warming trays.” The number-one change being made in the cruise culinary world is choice. Sure, early and late dinner seatings (with the same tablemates) remain, but passengers aren’t locked into just two dining times. Princess, which pioneered the concept, calls it Personal Choice Dining: Dine when and with whom you want. Norwegian Cruise Line offers Freestyle Dining. Again, passengers can choose when, where and with whom they dine in as many as 10 venues on some ships. On Disney Cruise Line, servers and tablemates remain together for every dinner, but the restaurant changes. If you’re not up for dining out, Celebrity will deliver a gourmet pizza (cheese, pepperoni or veggie) to your stateroom at no charge. Forget singing the 10-pound blues when you disembark. Low-fat, low-carb and so-called spa menus figure prominently on today’s cruise ships. Hecht sampled an appetizer of mussels from Cunard’s Canyon Ranch spa menu, proclaiming it “divine.” As part of an alliance with Cooking Light magazine, Norwegian’s dining options include healthy items such as grilled vegetarian lasagna. Those who’d just as soon cook as eat are finding more onboard options as well. Le Cordon Bleu’s hands-on cooking workshops can be found on select cruises on the Radisson Seven Seas Voyager and Seven Seas Mariner. The line also themes a number of cruises to food and wine. This past fall, for instance, Radisson’s 14-night “Spotlight on Wine and Food: Asia” trip featured tours of local markets in Thailand, Vietnam and China, cooking demonstrations by guest chefs from Southeast Asia and special dinners. Likewise, Crystal hosts a food and wine festival on numerous sailings, bringing together celebrity chefs for demonstrations, wine tastings, wine history classes and a sumptuous five-course dinner. On a cruise to Alaska, Rosenquist joined fellow Princess passengers for a food-oriented shore excursion in Skagway. Inside a small bed-and-breakfast, a local chef prepared lunch using such Alaskan delicacies as crab legs, halibut and fiddlehead ferns. Back onboard, the Princess chefs continued the experience by showcasing various Alaskan salmon dishes during the cruise. Whether it’s an ultra-luxe high tea of clotted cream and cucumber sandwiches or satisfying her sweet tooth with a chocolate lava cake, Hecht says cruise ship food can be a wonderful experience. “My cruise on the Queen Mary 2 exceeded my wildest expectations,” she says. “If they would have let me, I could have easily turned around at Southampton and sailed back to New York.” |
