Modern cruise ships are virtual floating hotels designed by specialized “ship architects”, and built in Finland or Italy. These two countries developed expertise and have the skilled labour to construct using even the most sophisticated designs.
Today’s cruise passengers expect exquisite food, and in most cases they are served expertly prepared specialties.
There are many cruise companies with a range of itineraries. Most sail from Florida, some from California or Vancouver.
In Europe, Barcelona, Genoa, Marseille, Venice and Piraeus are major cruise ports equipped to supply even the most demanding chefs.
Short cruises sailing from Florida to Caribbean destinations and Mexico buy everything before sailing fro a number of reasons; consistency of quality, availability, service, reliability and cost.
Mediterranean cruises of 14 days or longer loads whatever foodstuffs they can before sailing, and fresh produce or fish at certain ports.
A cruise ship with 1000 passers would have anywhere between 1000 – 1100 people to serve three, and sometimes even five meals a day including crew and entertainers.
While around the turn of the century most ships had one or two dinging rooms. Today’s cruise vessels often give a choice between dining room, Italian restaurant, sushi counter, or bistro.
Since cruise ships are “high density” utmost attention must be paid to hygiene in purchasing, preparation and service. Chefs are very meticulous about this aspect.
In Florida federal agencies in charge of monitoring cruise ship cleanliness conduct inspections and publish their findings that can found on-line by anyone interested. The outbreak of a contagious disease can ruin a cruise company.
Everything is produced on the boat, from bread to pastries and everything in between. Chefs are generally European-trained, cooks from many countries accomplish the preparation, plating and serving waiters.
Most cruise ships serve five to six meals a day starting with breakfast, followed by 10 o’clock snack, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and midnight buffet.
Some passengers gain weight due to excessive consumption and little exercise.
Luxury cruise ships offer high quality food; small portions, exquisite and attentive service, and will even cater to special requests like kosher food, vegetarian diet, or even authentic caviar instead of a complete meal.
Inexpensive cruises offer large quantities of food, but of passable or low quality
The daily average consumption of a 1000 passenger and 1000-crew luxury cruise ship is approximately:
Fish and shellfish 385 Kg.
Caviar 2.5 Kg
Eggs 2300
Butter 90 kg.
Milk 345 litres
Flour 250 kg.
Sugar 54 Kg.
Cream 115 litres
Salads 100 Kg.
Mayonnaise 40 litres
Fruit 900 Kg.
Vegetables 900 Kg.
Potatoes 225 Kg.
Pasta 70 Kg.
Beef 225 Kg
Chicken 380 Kg
Veal 70 Kg.
Pork 170 Kg
Lamb 70 Kg
The logistics of calculating daily requirements of each cruise ship is complicated as many factors must be taken into account starting with teh number of passengers, their age, dietary demands, weather conditions and routing.
Experiences chefs manage to keep costs in line; those who fail to do so pay a high price.

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Tags: CRUISE SHIPS, Gastronomy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 06:00 and is filed under Food & Wine, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.