Prominent Chefs Lend Expertise as Competition Heats Up Galleys

Just looking at the cruise brochures makes you hungry. Lavish buffet tables groaning under mountains of lobster and shrimp, waiters standing ready to serve elegant dishes and smiling chefs anticipating your every culinary wish.

The reality is often very different.

On almost any cruise there is more food than anyone could or probably should eat, but much of it is right out of a hotel banquet--soggy pastas overloaded with sauces, watery caviar and overcooked vegetables.

The sheer size of most vessels--900 to 2,300 passengers--makes fine dining difficult.

“Galleys that turn out 800 meals at a sitting are hard put to do individual items,” says Douglas Ward, author of the Berlitz Complete Handbook to Cruising.

“It’s mainly a function of cost. Lines today spend anywhere from $24 per person per day on food costs, down to as low as $7.50. At the lower end, you’re not going to have a high quality of product and your choices will be more limited.”

While it’s easy to find examples of poor preparation at the lower end of the spectrum--unripe fruit and eggs cooked in an unpalatable coconut oil on American Hawaii’s Independence a few years ago--even the upper end of the market is not immune.

On a cruise touting culinary specialties from the British Isles, chefs on the Royal Viking Sky served canned kippers and made a cold soup from pureed fruit and vanilla ice cream; the result was neither a milk shake nor a fruit soup. On Princess Cruises’ Star Princess, a luncheon buffet featured seven varieties of deep-fried mystery nuggets, their identity yet to be discovered.

As the cruise market becomes more segmented, however, things are changing. “There is a demand for greater quality, at least among better-traveled passengers,” Ward says. “People who pay $500 to $600 per day are going to expect the best cuts of meat, the freshest vegetables, in short, the kind of food they’re used to eating in fine restaurants ashore.”

As a result, more lines are competing on the basis of food and are hiring noted chefs as consultants. Michel Roux of London’s Gavroche restaurant has developed menus for Celebrity Cruises’ new 1,300-passenger Horizon and the newly refurbished Meridian. And Crystal Cruises has hired Michel Blanchet, chef at Los Angeles’ L’Ermitage restaurant, as consultant for the Crystal Harmony, the new 900-passenger vessel that began service in July and already is serving the best food of any large ship afloat.

Instead of catering to a culinary common denominator, Blanchet and executive chef Gottlieb Oberweger have opted to challenge passenger palates with strong flavors and innovative dishes. On a recent cruise, lunch buffets held such surprises as Spanish paella, complete with squid, and spicy chicken curry. Potato salad was given a new twist with black truffles. And if you caught a 20-pound halibut on a fishing excursion in Alaska, it would be on your plate that evening.

The ship that began the trend to culinary excellence was Sea Goddess I, the first of two 100-passenger ships now owned by Cunard. Sea Goddess I & II have no assigned seating; you can dine with friends or alone, and at the time you want.

By our second meal on Sea Goddess I, our waiters knew our preferences and served us with a style worthy of a great restaurant. Food was prepared to order and included such specialties as rack of venison with chestnut puree and broiled veal steaks with sauteed fresh chanterelles.

With a capacity of 212 passengers each, the Seabourn Pride and Seabourn Spirit are larger operations, but the dining experience is equally fine. Passengers dine any time between 7:30 and 10 p.m., and there are plenty of tables for two. Chefs pride themselves on serving fresh local products purchased in the ships’ ports.

On the Seabourn Pride, we ate Florida pompano the night we sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale. And when we stopped in Madeira, the chef cooked espada, a fish found only in the deep waters of the Bay of Funchal. Desserts included a handmade Viennese apple strudel and a silken poppy seed ice cream.

While these are the top restaurants at sea, what if your budget is more modest? Are you doomed to a week of bland vegetables and soggy meats?

In fact, it’s possible to dine well on the larger, more moderately priced ships. Here are some tips for surviving a cruise with your taste buds intact:

First, stick to simple dishes--roast beef, lamb chops. Often the quality of the basic ingredients is high; it’s the preparation that suffers. So stay away from complex dishes that deteriorate from time on a steam table.

Second, don’t be intimidated into eating tons of food just because you’ve paid for it. Most ships offer low-calorie alternative menus, and can fulfill special dietary needs, if given advance notice.

Third, the best food on board will probably be the cuisine of the nationality of the crew. The best meals we had on Royal Cruise Line’s Golden Odyssey were when the maitre d’ offered to have the kitchen prepare simple Greek casseroles the way his mother used to make them. On Royal’s Crown Odyssey, the casual Penthouse Grill offers delicious grilled lamb gyros cut right from the vertical rotisserie.

On the Royal Princess, which has an Italian kitchen, the maitre d’ would prepare special pastas in front of us. We still remember heads at neighboring tables turning in envy as the air began to fill with the aroma of fresh garlic.

On Holland America Line, don’t miss the Dutch and Indonesian specialties. One evening on the Westerdam, we had seafood Zeeland, bay shrimp, scallops and white fish in a lobster sauce, and hutspot met klapstuk, a hearty casserole of boiled brisket of beef with potatoes, carrots and onions.

And we’ll never forget standing on the deck of the ship in Glacier Bay and warming ourselves with rich pea soup thick with potatoes, leeks, green onions and big chunks of ham, served with a heavy Dutch pumpernickel bread--a dish as good as any in Amsterdam.

With a little advance notice, you can order special meals aboard most ships. One day on the Westerdam, we had an Indonesian lunch that included vegetable soup with coconut milk, gado gado --a salad of fresh vegetables in a pungent peanut sauce-- nasi goreng, or Javanese fried rice, banana fritters and chicken and beef sate--skewered meats dipped in a hot peanut sauce. The flavors were authoritative, not watered down for the Western clientele.

We had a similar experience in the Queen’s Grill on Cunard’s QE2 when the chef prepared an Indian lunch of spicy curries, freshly baked naan, or Indian bread, and saffron rice. The Grill also had proper English breakfasts with soft-boiled eggs, bacon, sausage, grilled tomatoes and perfectly cooked kippers. With our toast, the waiter brought to our table a trolley with 20 different varieties of English marmalades and jams. In the continuing competition to attract passengers, several cruise lines have added alternative restaurants to the main dining rooms. “These additional restaurants give passengers the opportunity to break away from their assigned sittings and dine with friends they may meet on board,” explains Ward.

When Royal Viking Line launched the Royal Viking Sun last year, the company hired French chef Paul Bocuse to develop menus for The Royal Grill, an elegant dining room on an upper deck. Meals here are not included in the cruise fare, however, but cost an additional $45 per person.

Similarly, dinner in the Palm Tree Restaurant on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Seaward costs $35. When the line’s Norway completes refurbishment in October, she’ll have a supper club that will offer entertainment as well as meals for a surcharge.

The Crystal Harmony has two alternative restaurants, Prego, serving Italian food, and Kyoto, offering Oriental specialties, at no extra charge. While Prego is a culinary success, Kyoto serves a bland combination of East-West cuisine that lost its way across the Pacific.

Such developments reflect increased interest on the part of cruise lines in providing better food as passengers demand it. Some day, the dining may even rival those legendary meals aboard the great transatlantic liners. In the meantime, no matter which cruise you take, you won’t leave hungry.