High-Seas Cuisine: Dining Aboard Today's Cruise Ships Can Be an Epicure's Dream (Restaurants USA, April 1999)

April 1999 issue

High-Seas Cuisine: Dining Aboard Today's Cruise Ships Can Be an Epicure's Dream

Restaurants USA magazine's final issue was published in September 2002 but these archived articles remain available for our readers' convenience.

Restaurants USA, April 1999

Guests can find top-notch food, celebrity chefs, multiple concepts and more aboard cruise ships.
By Sarah E. Smith

If you are what you eat, then cruise-ship passengers must suffer from an identity crisis. On a typical day, cruise-ship passengers might nosh on escargot, artichokes, tropical fruits, French onion soup, papaya soup, Belgian-endive salad, tossed green salad, salmon, chicken, tenderloin of beef, rack of lamb, spinach ravioli, mushroom quesadilla, strawberry shortcake, chocolate mousse, baked Alaska and ice cream — and that's just for dinner.

Food has always been an integral part of the entire cruise-ship experience; some have even dubbed cruise ships "floating smorgasbords" because of the sheer amount of food consumed on board. "Food is a big selling point for the cruise line," says Lesley Abravanel, managing editor of Porthole Cruise Magazine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

"Food is quite important to passengers, and usually one of the first questions we get from individuals is, 'How is the food?' " says Shirley Slater, co-author of Fielding's Worldwide Cruises, an annual guidebook she's written with Harry Basch for the past three years. "The importance individual cruise lines put on their cuisine is emphasized in each company's brochure — it's quite rare to find a color brochure from any cruise line that doesn't have one to four pages of color food photos."

Going cruisin'

The emphasis on excellent cuisine has paid off: This year Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), located in New York City, predicts that 6 million people — an 11 percent increase from 1998 — will take to the high seas in 1999. According to CLIA, the cruise industry has enjoyed an average year-over-year annual growth of nearly 8 percent since 1980, when 1.4 million people were passengers.

"It's growing immensely because people are doing really well financially and it's a good deal for the money," says Abravanel.

Ron Ness, a spokesperson for the CLIA, concurs. "The reason business has grown so much is the value versus the amount of things you get for your money," he says. "It's an all-inclusive package: 24 hours' worth of food, entertainment and activities."

The renewed interest in cruising has also lowered the average age of passengers from 65 years old and older 20 years ago to 45 today. To keep up with the increasing number of passengers, cruise lines are investing in larger ships with innovative enhancements such as ice rinks, inline-skating tracks and rock-climbing walls as well as standards like private balconies, driving ranges and putting greens, full-court basketball, volleyball, paddle tennis, jogging tracks, several swimming pools and — of course — multiple restaurants with 24-hour dining and room service.

In the galley

To highlight their commitment to food excellence, cruise lines have started featuring celebrity chefs, highlighting different food themes and employing cutting-edge preparation techniques. Celebrity Cruises, based in Miami, emphasizes the freshness of the food on its six-ship fleet — Century, Galaxy, Horizon, Mercury, Meridian and Zenith.

"Our greatest focus from the beginning is to prepare all food from scratch with the freshest ingredients," says Manfred Ursprunger, vice president of total guest satisfaction for Celebrity Cruises. The cruise line, which started in 1989 with the Meridian, offers 40 cruises with seven- and 11-day programs each year for 1,350 to 1,875 passengers per ship.

"The dining experience, which includes food, service and atmosphere, is integral to any successful cruise," says Christian Sauleau, vice president of operations for Radisson Seven Seas Cruises, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The cruise line, which started in 1992, currently has four ships — Radisson Diamond, Song of Flower, Hanseatic and Paul Gauguin — with two more under construction, Seven Seas Navigator (1999) and Seven Seas Marina (2001). "When people come to the dining room, it becomes an evening affair or entertainment. We attach great importance to food and variety. We send our chefs to different restaurants in different countries to learn and experience ethnic food so they [can] introduce new regional dishes from the areas where the ship sails."

"Food is one of the most important components of the entire cruise experience, because passengers have breakfast, lunch and dinner with you," says Bruce Lesman, manager of marine hotel operations for Windstar Cruises based in Seattle. The cruise line, which was launched in 1986, now has four sailing vessels: Wind Song, Wind Spirit, Wind Star and Wind Surf.

Fishing for compliments

To translate that dining philosophy to the table, cruise lines often hire celebrity chefs to create menus. Celebrity Cruises' chef Michel Roux, a three-star Michelin chef at The Waterside Inn in England, designed menus to reflect multiple dining preferences, such as vegetarian and children's. Entree selections by Roux include "Fresh Alaska Salmon Steak Baked in a Paper Wrap With Crunchy Vegetables and Butter" and "Lobster Stuffed With Crabmeat, Mushrooms, Saffron, Cognac and Cream." Celebrity Cruises updates its menus twice a year to remain current with customers' ever-changing tastes.

To satisfy a broad range of clients, Celebrity Cruises provides a variety of dining options, such as alternative casual dining and afternoon tea served to guests in their suites. The ships offer open seating for breakfast and lunch and assigned seating for dinner in the main dining room.

Radisson Seven Seas Cruises allows the ship's chef to create its menus, which often depend on the vessel's sailing itinerary. Menu selections include "Pusilli 'Primavera' Pasta Tossed With Spring Vegetables in a Light Cream Sauce" and "Oven-Baked Rib-Eye Roll With Assorted Vegetables, Macaire Potatoes and Mushroom Sauce."

"We have a two-to-three-week menu cycle, and chefs are encouraged to create dishes which can be incorporated into the cycle, depending on the vessel's sailing itinerary. The cycle is renewed every year," says Sauleau.

Windstar Cruises hired Los Angeles chef Joachim Splichal, owner of Patina, to create "180 Degrees From Ordinary Signature Recipes" for the line. Passengers can enjoy such dishes as "Grilled Ahi Tuna With Asian Vegetables and a Ginger Pink-Peppercorn Sauce" and "Garlic Gnocchi With Oven-Dried Tomatoes, Pancetta and Asparagus" in two dining areas — one a la carte and the other a buffet or bistro restaurant.

"The food is very trendy and geared towards the [48-year-old] age profile on board," says Lesman, adding that the emphasis is on freshness and foods echoing the ports of call. "Because our ships are very unique, the food needs to be very unique, to fit the entire ship experience."

Part of catering to cruise-ship guests' every need includes accommodating passengers who require diabetic, low-fat or low-salt meals, kosher or other special dietary requests or who just want healthful choices. "Spa cuisine, unheard of years ago because it defeats the purpose of cruising, is now popular with all lines," says Lesley Abravanel. "People are leading healthier lives, and most ships now have a spa menu that allows people to order low-calorie, low-fat and heart-healthy foods."

Windstar Cruises' "Sail Light" menu by author and columnist Jeanne Jones offers several healthful choices for all three meals as well as meeting the American Heart Association's guidelines for healthy eating. Selections include "Grilled Mushroom Quesadilla" and "Vegetable Bouillabase. With an Herb Crouton." Jones also developed a primarily lacto-vegetarian menu, which contains no meat or meat byproducts.

"She's taken [complete meals, such as appetizers, entrees and desserts] high in fat grams and calories and translated them into lower calorie [counts] and fat grams," says Lesman.

Celebrity Cruises chef Roux developed special "Lean and Light" lunch and dinner selections intermixed on its regular menus. Sample entrees include "Scaloppine di Vitello al Limone" and "Broiled King Clip Mauby."

Catching the trendy wave

By emphasizing healthful choices and decreasing the number of buffets, cruise ships have slowly redefined onboard cuisine. "Propelled by the infamous midnight buffet, the floating-smorgasbord image is still prevalent, but not as negative, because the quality of food has improved vastly all around," says Abravanel. "However, all cruise lines have buffets in general," she says. Shirley Slater adds that buffets — especially elaborate midnight spreads — seem to appeal more to first-time cruisers than to veteran passengers.

In an effort to make onboard foodservice ship shape, cruise lines have begun to follow land-based food trends more closely. "By far, ethnic foods, such as Thai, are coming back to cruise ships," says Abravanel. "Also, the more gourmet cuisine is definitely a trend, especially having a celebrity chef sail with the ship." Windstar Cruises master chefs Joachim Splichal and Jeanne Jones will be sailing aboard one of its ships this year.

Slater sees alternative restaurants as one current wave in cruise-ship dining. "Other trends include 24-hour room service, evening utilization of the previously daytime-only breakfast- and lunch-buffet restaurants with simpler menus than the dining rooms, self- or waiter service, and a more casual dress code," she says.

Cruise ships have the same food-and-beverage positions as shoreside restaurants, except on a much larger scale, depending on each ship's passenger-to-crew ratio. For example, Celebrity Cruises uses about 430 crew members on the 1,750-passenger Century in the food-and-beverage department. "Passengers expect food on cruise ships to be comparable to special restaurants on land, and it's getting much more competitive," says Bruce Lesman.

The biggest difference between land-based restaurants and cruise-ship dining is the service, say the cruise lines. "Diners experience more personalized service on a cruise ship," says Manfred Ursprunger.

Lesman agrees. "The staff really connects and bonds with passengers, because they see them seven days a week, three meals a day," he says.

Besides increased customer service, another big difference to working in a galley is the chef's ability to monitor his costs better, because of the set number of passengers at each meal. "But the only thing [a chef] has to be careful about is to make sure the order is properly done, because if you run out of something, it's hard to get," says Christian Sauleau.

On the horizon

Cruise-ship cuisine adds value to and enhances the entire sailing adventure, which might be one reason the segment is experiencing an unprecedented growth spurt. "It's only 11 percent of the vacation industry — and there's so much room for growth," says CLIA's Ron Ness.

Lesley Abravanel also sees more growth ahead for the industry. "Right now, the industry is building and growing enormously. Ships are adding more restaurants, caviar bars, ice-cream shops, and I don't see it tapering off anytime soon," she says.

"The future obviously looks good to the cruise lines, which are investing billions in 13 new ships for 1999 and 11 more for 2000 — all already under construction," says Slater. "As more passengers are drawn to a cruise vacation, the variety and timing for foodservice will increase in importance."

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Sarah E. Smith is an assistant editor with the National Restaurant Association.