Monthly Archives: November 2019

Cruise Ship Chefs Experimenting The Right Way


Experiments are the root of change, of new trends that could possibly become classics. Cruise ship chefs should look at experimenting as ways to understand the ingredients they work with, and how they interact with each other.
But it’s not just a matter of putting two random ingredients on a plate and keeping your fingers crossed. Experimenting correctly involves a lot of research and trials. Here are a few ideas to help you get started

Flavour base ingredients
Often, it is a subtle change that can enhance a flavour. Think of the classic salt with chocolate to bring out the sweetness, or a dash of cinnamon in a cake. Cruise ship chefs can make similar subtle changes to dishes on board – flavouring breads, butter and yogurt with various herbs to introduce new flavour elements into a dish. Garlic butter, for example, is so 20th century. We’re looking at butter flavoured with walnut and blue cheese, Thai curry, salty anchovy, and even chocolate and orange ganache.

Think like a child
Children see wonder in everyday things. They look at the most mundane things with a new perspective. To make food interesting, it can help to think like a child. Make your food colourful and look at creative ways of presenting it. Edible ‘dirt’ is already quite popular. Combine this with edible ‘glass’ made of sugar syrup, peanut butter ‘play dough’ and non-toxic glowing ‘slime’ to create themes of gardens and fantasy worlds. This works well for cruise ship chefs around festivals such as carnivals, Thanksgiving, Halloween and independence or national day celebrations.

Make your food more visual
Experiments with food do not have to involve just taste. Life is more visual now – social media has taken over and images are everything. Illusions can come in handy when presenting food. Think of edible containers or cutlery – bread bowls for dips and soups, flavoured dough fashioned into spoons and forks. Mellower Cafe in Singapore serves a cotton candy coffee that offers guests an unusual way of drinking coffee with a cotton candy ‘cloud’ that melts into your cup using the heat from the coffee.
The New Yorker magazine even discussed how visuals can change the way food is tasted. A study showed how participants rated a strawberry-flavoured mousse 10 per cent sweeter when it was served in a white container over a black, and coffee tasted almost twice as strong but two-thirds as sweet when served in a white mug instead of a clear glass one.

Combine tastes and textures
Cruise ship chefs can experiment with different cuisines that have similar components. Perhaps Mexican and Indian, or north African and European food. There may be interesting matches to be made in flavour fusions here. But chefs can also take a classic dish and switch up textures to be innovative. Perhaps rice crackers with a chutney that reminds you of curry – the flavours are familiar to the Goan palate, but the textures surprise. Deconstructed pies can also be served innovatively. Use local flavours to switch things up – ube or purple yam from the Philippines, Durian in Indonesia, dragon fruit in Mexico, feijoa in Brazil, salsify from Europe, oca from New Zealand, etc. This will help you experiment with interesting flavour combinations and also use ingredients grown in the ports you visit.

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Cruise Culinary Trend For 2020

Cruise Culinary Trend For 2020
Food is a huge part of cruising. Cruise ship chefs jobs require them to not only be proficient with what they do, but also efficient and creative with available ingredients. But all of their success rides on the kind of food guests are expecting and are a current trend.

Sustainability
This is a huge buzz word in the culinary fraternity today, mainly because food waste and the supplements used to grow produce have come into question. Sustainable food is safe and healthy, and is mostly focused around local produce. In many cases, it also refers to ensuring fair trade prices for farmers, fishermen and livestock agriculturists, which can be an issue in developing countries.
Cruise ship chefs are looking at incorporating more wholesome, organic food into menus across eating establishments in the coming year. Cruise ships are also spending more time in ports, allowing them to go to the markets there and procure local ingredients.

Seacuterie
Leading lifestyle magazine Good Housekeeping recently suggested an interesting trend for 2020 that it calls seacuterie. It is a seafood take on the typical charcuterie board, where a variety of predominantly cured meats is served sometimes with accompaniments.
On a seacuterie board, one might find products such as octopus salami, shellfish sausages or swordfish ham, pickled shrimp, smoked salmon rillettes and more. A wide variety of seafood could be pickled, fermented, smoked and aged to curate interesting antipasti.

Upgraded bar snacks
Cruise ship bar patrons are no longer satisfied with a regular bowl of peanuts to munch on as they drink. To keep visits to onboard pubs interesting, cruise ship chefs must now whip up interesting snacks. The trend in 2020 could be gourmet gastropub fare in snackable quantities, with high-quality ingredients and dazzling presentation.
Guests could be chowing down on dishes such as fried pickles with interesting dips, marinated olives, baked buffalo wings with blue-cheese dressing, sliders with crispy fries or onion rings, fondue with bread sticks or pretzels, baby meat pies, yakitori and more.

Healthier children’s menus
Many cruises stick with regular favourites for children’s menus – pizzas, burgers, mac n cheese, hot dogs and sundaes. But with nutritional issues facing many families in the developed world, healthy food is an increasing demand.
Cruise ship chefs now will need to swap out ingredients from all-time favourites to make them healthier. We can expect whole grains such as quinoa and wholewheat bread instead of white bread, and oven-baked potatoes over deep-fried chips. Easy swaps also include Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise, baked fish sticks with marinara instead of aioli, fruit salads and salsas, wholesome granola bars instead of chocolate, and sorbets or dairy-free ice creams.

More vegetables & non-alcoholic drinks
Perhaps it’s the rise of the fitness and health industry, or it’s the sustainable movement taking over. More people are leaning towards plant-based diets than ever before. Cruise ship chefs are now being challenged to cater to these requirements while keeping food interesting and delicious.
There’s also the rising trend of non-alcoholic or low-alcohol beverages that promise various health benefits. Cruise ship chefs and bartenders will have to look into drinks such as kombucha, water kefir, tepache, kvass and toddy.

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