I can imagine describing some cruiseline food as airline food, even if it is a bit of an overstatement. The mass market lines (at least NCL and Carnival, can't speak to RCI) are serving basically banquet food--mass bought ingredients, indifferent to good preperations, some time under heat lamps or otherwise waiting.
Celebrity seems to do a better job (I've heard HAL and Princess as well), they seem to get good quality, if still mass-bought ingredients, and have more skill in the kitchen.
The problem cruise lines face is that the culinary revolution in America has really exposed us to carefully prepared and imaginative meals made with the highest quality of ingredients that can be found.
Cruise lines at their best are only reaching the standard of the earlier "fine dining" which was primarily french or pseudo-french food that really relied more on atmosphere, service and classic appeal than on the quality of the food.
And not to be too controversial, but coq au vin isn't much more than chicken stew, chateubriand is basically either a pot roast or broiled beef with a pan gravy (depending on who's version you use). If I dig through my Escoffier long enough I can probably find a French dish which is, after all, meatloaf. A French name (or simple exoticism) ought not to be enough to qualify as fine dining, unless we all want to turn our clocks back to 1979 or 1983 or some such.
Cruise Food Sucks.
in Cruise Foodies
Posted
I can imagine describing some cruiseline food as airline food, even if it is a bit of an overstatement. The mass market lines (at least NCL and Carnival, can't speak to RCI) are serving basically banquet food--mass bought ingredients, indifferent to good preperations, some time under heat lamps or otherwise waiting.
Celebrity seems to do a better job (I've heard HAL and Princess as well), they seem to get good quality, if still mass-bought ingredients, and have more skill in the kitchen.
The problem cruise lines face is that the culinary revolution in America has really exposed us to carefully prepared and imaginative meals made with the highest quality of ingredients that can be found.
Cruise lines at their best are only reaching the standard of the earlier "fine dining" which was primarily french or pseudo-french food that really relied more on atmosphere, service and classic appeal than on the quality of the food.
And not to be too controversial, but coq au vin isn't much more than chicken stew, chateubriand is basically either a pot roast or broiled beef with a pan gravy (depending on who's version you use). If I dig through my Escoffier long enough I can probably find a French dish which is, after all, meatloaf. A French name (or simple exoticism) ought not to be enough to qualify as fine dining, unless we all want to turn our clocks back to 1979 or 1983 or some such.