PASSENGER PERSPECTIVE
A Taste of
on a cruise. After all, they haven’t imple- mented meetings for Gluttons Anonymous – yet. The family had decided on a Baltic cruise, which left me plenty of choice. I read all the reviews I could, but, when it came to food evaluation, one line stood out. And so, in July, we found ourselves in Copenhagen, boarding Oceania’s Marina. Oceania’s Executive Culinary Director is Master Chef Jacques Pepin, who is quoted as saying: “Food, for me, is inseparable from sharing. There is no great meal unless it is shared with family or friends.” Well, I had my family with me and was ready to go for it. We decided on the Grand Dining
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Room the first night. It is a vast, beautifully decorated room with a sumptuous central chandelier but was half empty. We put this down to dining at 8.30pm as this would be considered fairly late by non-European passengers. The service was a little hit and miss, but this is often the case on the first night of any cruise. However, on subsequent visits, service was often erratic, dependent upon where we were seated. The second evening was in Jacques,
Chef Pepin’s eponymous French restau- rant. We all enjoyed the food, the wine and the service. It is so rare to experience gueridon service these days, where Dover Sole is filleted at the table. We tried, in vain, to make a second reservation but I think those “in the know” had made their reservations as soon as they boarded. My younger son and I were booked for a
Bon Appetit Culinary Class – the only hands- on cooking school at sea. Our class had an Asian cuisine theme and we both thorough- ly enjoyed it and felt we benefited from the expert tuition of Chef Kathryn Kelly. That evening we were booked into
La Reserve, the gourmet 7-course wine and food pairing experience, limited to 24 passengers. We were delighted to see the Cellar Master and sommelier from Jacques, with whom we had previously
y name is Trudi and I’m a gourmand. There, I’ve admit- ted it. And where better to in- dulge my guilty pleasure than
Regular reader and contributor Trudi Joy-Levy provides her insight on a summer voyage aboard the foodie cruise line Oceania Cruises.
Marina
which tasted of absolutely nothing. By contrast, in the evening at Red Ginger, the Asian-fusion restaurant, the food was zingy and full of flavour. We had a lovely full day in Riga, Latvia, and were booked into the Italian restau- rant, Toscana, that evening. Somewhat pre- tentious for an Italian restaurant, offering a selection of Italian olive oils for dipping; nevertheless, the food was very enjoyable.
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discussed the extensive wine list. With such a small number of diners,
everything was freshly prepared and quite delicious. We started the evening at 7pm and didn’t leave until 11. I ate and drank everything on offer – it was irresistible. We docked in Visby, Sweden, the next
morning. We were in no rush, so let the tours get away while we enjoyed a leisure- ly breakfast in the Grand Dining Room, where I tried lamb chops – a novelty – for breakfast. We embarked on a pleasant walking tour, recommended by the Tourist Board and returned to the ship for lunch. The Terrace buffet closed at 2pm so we tried al fresco grill Waves. I had a ‘Kobe,’ or Wagyu beef burger. Very tender beef
he following day we went to the Wine Bazaar, where we selected our wine for the evening at the Polo
Grill. I had been looking forward to this ‘beef-fest’ but, amazingly, the chefs man- aged to get three out of four steaks wrong. Eventually the problems were ironed out, but this was a disappointing evening. The final two evenings we spent in
The Terrace, which was a revelation. I had thought of this as a breakfast/lunch buffet, but it had an entirely different ambiance at night. The food was freshly cooked but it did sometimes mean standing in line. On reflection, perhaps my expecta- tions had been too high. Some meals were exemplary, but not all. The ship is quite beautiful; the service friendly, if not always efficient. With such a port-intensive cruise it was not possible to enjoy the facilities properly and I do wonder if having so many alternative restaurants from which to choose, means less interaction between the crew and passengers.
Winter 2012-13 I WORLD OF CRUISING 45
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