Secrets from a cruise ship kitchen
What do you do with 42,000 eggs, 350 birthday cakes and 70,000kg of melons? Run a cruise ship kitchen of course.
The quantities of food required to feed thousands of mouths on multi-level vessels is mind-boggling to the most seasoned of chefs. But do you know how all that food actually makes it to your plate?
Here’s some insider information Josh Becker shared with The Herald Sun. As the executive chef on Celebrity Cruises’ five-star Equinox with nearly 3000 other passengers and 1250 staff, he lets us in on a few secrets.
1. Potatoes are important
“We use about 3200kg of potatoes a day and we have a team dedicated to cleaning, peeling and preparing them,” says Josh. They have an entire team dedicated to cleaning, peeling and preparing them.
2. 15 food and beverage rooms
“We segregate everything: fruit, vegetables, poultry, fish. We have a separate cool room for every food type. There are 15 dedicated food and beverage rooms in all.”
3. The amount of food on board
Ships can pump out 12,000 meals a day. Working backwards, that’s a lot of food to store. Particularly given that 80 per cent of the goods are loaded before the Equinox even departs. “For our ship, there are 26 container trucks that take four hours to load everything onto the ship,” Becker says. Fresh produce is sourced in a major port on the itinerary every seven days.
4. A lot of food is made fresh
From biscuits to sauces, a lot more items than you would think are served just-made. Even the 25 birthday cakes requested for each day of the cruise are whipped up fresh for each celebration
5. They really plan it out
“We have historical data on consumption by nationality,” associate hotel director, Mario Tavares says. “Australians eat the most meat and like a heavier breakfast. Passengers from the UK, Australia and Europe like craft beers. And when we have lots of Latinos we have to adjust the schedules because we know they dine very late.” Of course, they also know that Aussies like vegemite, but they often have to settle for marmite.
Did this information suprise you? Let us know in the comments below.
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