Are we eating pre-cooked food?

[cruisen cracker]

I was reading a cruiseing guide at B & N this weekend (I believe it was by Berlitz) and they mentioned that most of the mainstream cruise lines didn't serve fresh food but warmed up pre-cooked food. I assume they were mainly speaking of beef, poultry and seafood items. Is this the case with HAL or is the food cooked from scratch? It also said some lines contracted with catering firms to provide their food onboard. I have always heard the kosher food was precooked on the mainland and microwaved on board but how about the regular food. I believe they also said the pastry items were baked on Celeb but not on the other lines. Any truth to that?

[sail7seas]

If it tastes good to you and you enjoy it, do you care?

Food for thought......no pun intended. ;)We think the food on HAL has gotten better and better the last year and a half or so.

[middle-aged mom]

Cruisen Cracker:

I will let HAL speak for itself. Here is information on Holland America's cuisine from their website:

http://www.hollandamerica.com/onboard/dining.do


http://www.hollandamerica.com/pdfs/media/factsheets/CruiseCuisine_FactSheet.pdf


http://www.experience-hollandamerica.com/dining/index.php

From our one cruise experience on HAL, I can recommend the food in the main dining room as being fresh and well-prepared. The executive chef for our ship, Zaandam, was Marcus Jenni, who was trained in Switzerland. We attended a cooking class with him while on board. He certainly knew his stuff!

[lougee1043]

if you take the kithen tour on a hal ship you will see that the food is made from scratch -- as you said kosher food is cooked ashore and reheated on the ship

[OceanLiner]

I took the galley tour (Volendam) and was able to spend some time in the galley during prep time, and I can asure you that the food on HAL is not precooked. The ONLY thing that was even close were dinner rolls that come frozen, but even these need to be "proofed" and baked.

The galley was amazing and even the soups are made from scratch. They have three huge cauldrons that are on hydralic lifts from which are poured incredible soups. While all the other areas are really interesting, the place that most amazed me was the "cold prep" area. This area is for all foods that are served cold and it is kept around 55 degrees. But the amazing thing is that all the food prep areas, such as the counters, are all chilled and kept around 45 degrees to extend the working time and keep the food safe.

[garydm]

Have had Belgian waffles a couple times in the dining room for breakfast and always horrible. Did the galley tour, and sure enough, they were prepackaged in cello and nuked. Went to the Lido and had the fresh stuff!

We have cruised HAL and Crystal for the last two years, and the food on HAL is generally every bit as good as Crystal.

Gary

[CruiseBumm]

I suspect a few items may be pre=prepared. Next time you have a doc view on disembarking day take a look at what goes on on the doc. You can see them loading lots of fresh foods.

That answers it for me.:D

[Sea King]

I'm sure the executive chefs at HAL and the entire food department in Seattle @HAL will choke on their chicken bones when they read this thread:eek:

if you've ever looked on the dock on boarding day, all you see are trailer after trailer delivering provisions; meat, fish, poultry, produce and fruit

I've never seen a Sara Lee truck pull up:)

then again, I've never noticed a Budweiser trailer being unloaded;)

having pre-packaged Kosher or some other special dietary food on board is another different issue: there would be no way possible for HAL or any kitchen to serve Kosher food from scratch simply because the kitchen itself would have to be entirely Kosher; other than for a specific charter perhaps, that can't IMO happen

don't know what magazine you read but I can just see head Executive Chef Rudy pulling out his hair over this one:D

[Bodger]

To operate a profitable cruise line you must control your costs. Therefore I would suggest that buying pre-processed foods is largely incompatible with that position. Buying food in large quantities and processing it yourself with low cost Asian labour would be more consistent with cost control.

Curiously, I noted on a recent Caribbean cruise that the little wrapped butter pats came from Argentina, which I believe has been suffering a currency crisis and therefore would be a low cost source for some foods. I have also noticed fresh produce being loaded at Caribbean ports of call.

Bodger

[Krazy Kruizers]

Remember that HAL ships do not have a Kosher cook or an area where that food can be prepared fresh - thus it does have to be pre-packaged.

Belgium Waffles - have mentioned this many times over the years that they are the frozen ones!!

But as for the rest of the food - definitely go on a kitchen tour and you will see the various chefs making lots of items FRESH!!! - cookies --- pastries -- desserts -- rolls -- to just to name a few.

[sail7seas]

I'm finding this thread really interesting. Does a fresh cookie have to be baked from dough made aboard? Does the Pastry Chef have to lug out the flour and sugar, vanilla and butter, mix the dough and then bake the cookies in order for them to be fresh?

Do you call them fresh if he slices off the dough from purchased rolls of prepared dough (logs like we find in our refrigerator cases in the grocery market), takes out his cookie sheets and bakes batches of cookies? Do you call them fresh?

[kryos]

But as for the rest of the food - definitely go on a kitchen tour and you will see the various chefs making lots of items FRESH!!! - cookies --- pastries -- desserts -- rolls -- to just to name a few.
They do the dough and stuff down in the crew prep areas ... on the lower decks of the ship. We saw the baker at work during our "behind the scenes" tour on the Zuiderdam ... down on the lower decks. He said he starts work at some ungodly hour like 2:00 a.m. so that he can have everything ready for the breakfast meal. :(

As for other foodstuffs ... of course some of that stuff is prepared ahead of time. All restaurants do that. The meat is cooked in advance to a certain point ... then finished up, based on customer preferences, as the orders come in. If restaurants didn't do that, and had to cook everything from scratch as it was ordered, you'd be waiting a heck of a long time for your dinner. :)

Blue skies ...

--rita

[SnorkelBear]

I have not sailed on HAL, but I hope the food comes out "precooked". When I am on vacation I don't want to have to cook my food. On others cruiselines most of the food comes to the table "precooked".

I like my steaks "precooked" to a nice medium rare and my eggs "precooked" over easy.

The vast majority of the food is prepared onboard. Besides, as someone stated, if you enjoy it, what difference does it make.

[whogo]

I have been quite pleased with meals onboard HAL. However, it was strange to see boxes and boxes of frozen fish being loaded aboard to be turned into fresh fish on the menu. Trout on the menu has been lake trout, which was salmon instead of the little rainbow trout I was expecting. It is all delicious and better than what I eat at home.

[noblepa]

On our Oosterdam cruise last April, I had the lobster on the second formal night. It was definitely fresh, not frozen. To me, frozen lobster tastes distinctly different than fresh.

If they're using pre-cooked food, I want to find out where they get it and how I can get some. Its gotta be the best pre-cooked food I've ever had. :)

Paul Noble

[jhannah]

I have never eaten anything that I questioned as being pre-fabricated then reheated. The quality in my experience is such that I'm sure it was prepared fresh onboard ship.

[SnorkelBear]

Most seafood is frozen. I would be scared if it wasn't. Fresh fish on day 11? I don't think so. Beyond 2-3 days, I would take fresh frozen oven fresh nearly spoiled. Don't even get me started about "fresh" sushi on an 11 day cruise.

[dakrewser]

Most seafood is frozen. I would be scared if it wasn't. Fresh fish on day 11? I don't think so. Beyond 2-3 days, I would take fresh frozen oven fresh nearly spoiled. Don't even get me started about "fresh" sushi on an 11 day cruise.

Be careful you don't trip on the trawling nets when you're on the aft decks... :rolleyes:

[Sea King]

Wonder if pre-cooked and "from scratch" are the same thing

agree with many comments including Sails and Snorkelbear

HAL creates much much more than it "reheats" (guessing 99-1)

the bread, rolls and pastry and are freshly baked daily

all meals in the dining room are cooked that night

all meals in Lido are prepared the day they are served

everything at the burger bar is made daily

think ice cream comes in pre-packaged containers though:p

my only real concern is the ice sculptures .. think HAL may recycle the water once they melt?:rolleyes:

[Frogs]

On our cruise with NCL, we watched them load truck full of cartons of eggs in Roatan. I was sitting on our balcony and really wanted to drop something on them to see what would happen. :rolleyes:

Blessings!

[Giorgi-one]

I have been on HAL twice. First time food was average. Last year it was good to very good. We are booked on HAL Med cruise next summer. Point is we enjoy HAL, but I think Celebrity food is better. The point I wanted to make is in response to those who say food is better than what they eat at home. I would not compare food on a cruise to food I eat at home. This is a vacation and we are paying a decent buck for this. Good value, but still you need to compare the food to what you would have on a similar land vacation at a nice resort or Hotel. Most cruise lines score OK in this comparison, except for my cruise last month on RCL Freedom, where food was not very good.

[newmexicoNita]

I have watched them load food while in port and just prior for all cruiselines (except HAL cause we haven't cruised them is 20 years) all have a certain amount of pre-prepared food. Do you really think they could make everything from scratch daily? Even those who claim their pastries are from scratch will use some prepared ingredients. Does this bother me? No, most restaruants do the same. How do you think any line could serve nothing but totally fresh everything on say, a 10 day cruise? As for the lobster, well I would be willing to bet they were frozen. Again, where would they get fresh lobsters and how would they keep that many tails fresh? As long as it tastes yummy and usually it does, I don't care how much is pre cooked or prepared. NMNita

[Atomica]

If it's pre-cooked, then it's the best pre-cooked food I've ever had ;)

Seriously though, if that was the case, they wouldn't need the massive kitchens they have onboard. I'm sure they didn't just build them for show :)

Have to agree with NMNita - a certain amount of food anywhere is pre-prepped. As long as it tastes good, it really doesn't matter.

[serendipity1499]

I've never had pre-cooked food:confused: on Hal but haven't tried the waffles in the dining room..They can store meat for many days at a time in their walk in Refrigerators..I also believe they do freeze the fish..As far a Lobster is concerned I'm not sure...

Many times we fished in the Atlantic off the coast of Long Island.. DH filleted the fish when we got off the boat & we immediately froze it in Salt Water which was brought in from a few miles off shore..It never tasted frozen to us & our friends would have sworn they were eating Fresh Caught Fish weeks later..:)

Have always seen them loading fresh food in many ports... Haven't taken the galley tour in a Long Time but prior to this I've watched the Cooks & Bakers hard at work preparing Fresh Food...

I'm not a gourmet diner, but we always enjoy most of HAL's food..Sometimes we've had something which we didn't enjoy, but believe that's personal taste..

Happy cruising all..:) Betty

[sail7seas]

The lobster tails are frozen. Have to be. No way to keep them fresh.

DH and I privately toured the galley with an Executive Chef. We saw all areas of the galley, refrigeration rooms, storage rooms.........

It is amazing.

Chicken cannot be stored near meat cannot be stored near fish, cannot be stored near fresh foods. Bakers racks being readied for muffins that would be baked before dawn; croissants. Fruits and veggies maintained at precise temperatures. There are some frozen foods......there have to be.

It is mind-boggling to watch the 'food operation.

We stayed after Chef took us on this tour and watched as first seating dinner was served. We saw the stewards come into the kitchen, go through the various stations to pick up soups, salads, appetizers.....

Then as they went through the line to get entrees.

What an experience it was to watch it all.

[sail7seas]

Ooops...

Double post.....sorry.

[WISCruiser]

The lobster tails are frozen. Have to be. No way to keep them fresh.







Agree, they have to be frozen; I mean, can you just imagine the size of the tank that they would have to have to keep the "Fresh" lobster in so you could have "fresh" tails just like you get out of that small tank that you see in your local supermarket... Phew, talk about "Humongeous"!

[newmexicoNita]

Agree, they have to be frozen; I mean, can you just imagine the size of the tank that they would have to have to keep the "Fresh" lobster in so you could have "fresh" tails just like you get out of that small tank that you see in your local supermarket... Phew, talk about "Humongeous"!And being they serve Lobster tails, what do they do with the rest of the little guy if they are fresh? We only toured one kitchen galley, many years ago. It is truely amazing. I also saw a RCI kitchen on the travel channel a few months ago: same thing. I can't imagine cooking for that many or having that much food anywhere. NMnita

[LuvSushi]

I think that most food that was NOT cooked by me tastes pretty good.:p

Julie

[RuthC]

The food tastes fine to me. As long as it hasn't been pre-chewed I don't care to know what the chefs have done to it.

[serendipity1499]

I think that most food that was NOT cooked by me tastes pretty good.:p Julie

You're right on! Have decided cooking is no longer fun,:( it's much more fun to make reservations! I'm very good at doing that..;)

[SnorkelBear]

Serendipity,

Cooking can still be fun. Just don't cook bacon while naked. Ouch! Learned that one the hard way. :D

[jagsfan]

I noticed years ago touring the Norway galley the signs on the wall.....
"keep thumbs out of soup". I never noticed if waiters on other cruise lines
carried soup bowls with their thumbs in them.
Also, on a galley tour in the Med on a smallish ship, we were treated to
baclava. It was beautiful and tasted like heaven.
It didn't appear on the menu, or in the Lido, so I've always assumed it
was a special treat for us.

[HoneyGV]

I have been quite pleased with meals onboard HAL. However, it was strange to see boxes and boxes of frozen fish being loaded aboard to be turned into fresh fish on the menu. Trout on the menu has been lake trout, which was salmon instead of the little rainbow trout I was expecting. It is all delicious and better than what I eat at home.

Well, on my last cruise I saw some crew members on the stern of the ship with fishing poles and they were catching Mahi-Mahi like crazy....guess what was for dinner that night?

I just couldn't figure out what more crew members were doing back there with lassos in hand though!:D

[HoneyGV]

On our cruise with NCL, we watched them load truck full of cartons of eggs in Roatan. I was sitting on our balcony and really wanted to drop something on them to see what would happen. :rolleyes:

Blessings!

Hmmm, I thought all those live chickens I saw being loaded onboard were for the eggs.:D

[newmexicoNita]

Hmmm, I thought all those live chickens I saw being loaded onboard were for the eggs.:D Thanks for making me laugh. NMNita

[serendipity1499]

Serendipity,

Cooking can still be fun. Just don't cook bacon while naked. Ouch! Learned that one the hard way. :D

LOL...Too Old to cook Naked...:D

Cooking used to be fun when we were working & family was growing up..Now it's much more fun to make reservations..;)

[AAAAmerican]

LOL...Too Old to cook Naked...:D

Cooking used to be fun when we were working & family was growing up..Now it's much more fun to make reservations..;)


*YIKES* Now the naked truth comes out...:eek:








:cool:

[Brad1185]

Unfortunatly the deserts are prepackaged frozen store bought. I saw the boxes. Looked like some of the brands that are sold at Costco. I saw someone working in the back taking various cakes, pies cheese cakes and other desert times out of the boxes for thawing. I always thought there were pastery chefs hard at work making the deserts.

[purr_30]

Curious to know if all HAL cruises serve Lobsters? We are on the Westerdam oct 15 and this would be the icing on the cake for me. :D

[sail7seas]

Yes, HAL offers lobster at least once on all ships. It is customarily on the menu the last formal night for 7 and 10 days cruises. Sometimes on longer cruises, it is offered more than once.

We sailed Ryndam in April for a 14 day cruise and they served lobster tails twice during that cruise.

[purr_30]

Woo hoo!! Boy oh boy am I ever happy. :D


Yes, HAL offers lobster at least once on all ships. It is customarily on the menu the last formal night for 7 and 10 days cruises. Sometimes on longer cruises, it is offered more than once.

We sailed Ryndam in April for a 14 day cruise and they served lobster tails twice during that cruise.

[kakalina]

On our two thirty day cruises last year they served lobster twice each time and also offered it in the Lido. A first for us. DH was thrilled, usually he orders it into the room on formal nights.

[babyher]

As long as the creamed spinach doesn't come from a bag, I am happy:)

[whogo]

Most seafood is frozen. I would be scared if it wasn't. Fresh fish on day 11? I don't think so. Beyond 2-3 days, I would take fresh frozen oven fresh nearly spoiled. Don't even get me started about "fresh" sushi on an 11 day cruise.

I agree with you. But frozen fish shouldn't be called "fresh" on the menu.

[serendipity1499]

I agree with you. But frozen fish shouldn't be called "fresh" on the menu.

I don't ever recall seeing Fish on the menu labeled as "Fresh" by HAL..:confused:

By your post you are inferring that you have seen a menu which read "Fresh _______(fish)"..:confused: I'm interested in knowing when & what HAL ship this was on..I have several menus from our HAL cruises & can't find that label anywhere....Betty

[scott in maine]

Unfortunatly the deserts are prepackaged frozen store bought. I saw the boxes. Looked like some of the brands that are sold at Costco. I saw someone working in the back taking various cakes, pies cheese cakes and other desert times out of the boxes for thawing. I always thought there were pastery chefs hard at work making the deserts.

If true, this is disappointing. Our first sailing with HAL is coming up in a month and our long preference has been with X. While each line has its real strengths and opportunties, we have consistently found the desserts and the array of breads served at dinner to be among the very highlights of our total cruise experience.

I don't suspect that we will dislike HAL's offerings, but frozen and precooked are not what we are used to.

[raadsel]

I don't recall ever seeing fish or seafood labeled on the menu as "fresh". OTOH, in Ketchikan (the day of the salmon bake on the Lido and the Farewell dinner with lobster) there were boxes marked "fresh seafood" being brought on when we left the ship.

[Brad1185]

My understanding of X is almost everything is made fresh, with few premade food items especially the deserts.

Maybe on HAL the frozen store bought deserts are mainly served at the buffet. I rarely have a desert anyway and was turned off on the Maasdam seing the frozen items so did not have any deserts.

[whogo]

My wife agrees with you. The "fresh" fish episode was not the '99 HAL cruise but a '98 cruise on a different company. I no longer have menu documentation from either cruise. My apologies.

[gooselace]

My wife agrees with you. The "fresh" fish episode was not the '99 HAL cruise but a '98 cruise on a different company. I no longer have menu documentation from either cruise. My apologies.

In stores, some fish is labeled "formerly frozen." On Another Unnamed Cruiseline, we had some salmon that could fairly be described as "formerly fresh." :(