Majority MDR food made off ship and only heated up onboard?

I have read here in the forum a few times that a majority of MDR food is made off ship and only reheated onboard? How true is this? If so, is it true on the Allure? How would they handle things like those with low sodium diets then? Do they have pans of low sodium meals they just reheat also? I would think it would make it really hard to take care of those with dietary restrictions this way. I would also feel the incidence food poisoning would also be higher. I could see where some baked goods like cakes fast frozen then thawed would be OK. But other meals would really suffer. Just how true is this info? Please say it isn't so.:loudcry:

Fake news.

Fake news.

Second that!

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Welcome to Cruise Critic! It is not true. They do not serve Marie Callender's heated up meals onboard.

You might enjoy a galley tour if one is offered on your sailing.

Food is mixed and prepared and cooked onboard. Fresh items such as produce, come onboard fresh. Some perishable items are frozen, thawed and cooked. Just like at home.

It does sort of end up like buffet food because it is being freshly prepared for such a large number of people.

Nope, no way, do a tour, the opposite is true, labour tends to be cheap so they use ingredients and make most things from scratch, bread, pasta etc all from flour water and whatever.

Not at all. Also I have been on this site a fair while and never read anything remotely like that!

I like to watch them loading provisions and have never seen anything that looks like it was premade being loaded on. Everything is always in its shipping cartons from the source. Meats, vegetables and fruits, dairy products, etc. The packaging alone on prepared food would take up an enormous volume and when served, you would recognize reheated food from the appearance.

I like to watch them loading provisions and have never seen anything that looks like it was premade being loaded on. Everything is always in its shipping cartons from the source. Meats, vegetables and fruits, dairy products, etc. The packaging alone on prepared food would take up an enormous volume and when served, you would recognize reheated food from the appearance.

I too love watching the provisioning, 10 million rolls of loo paper, thousands of pineapples, tons and tons of vegetables, great stuff, even if I’m just picking someone up or dropping off I love to sit and watch.

Imagine you are on a transatlantic with 7 straight days at sea.... now answer your question.... 🤣[emoji23]🤣[emoji23]

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If you have Netflix, a show called Megafoods did a documentary on the Oasis of the Seas kitchens. They are definitely not reheating prepared foods.

Don´t believe everything you read on the internet.

People will start telling you to have a look at the galley and how you can see them loading all the fresh stuff.

Now I´ll tell you the truth.

Yes they do those galleytours and show you all the shiny clean equipment in there and in some areas they will have people working on what looks like preparations and baking breads and cakes etc.

Truth to be told, this is just a scenery created for the tours. Think about it for a second, they are often enough not in reach of a port for many days, how could they get fresh products to cook freshly?

Once the tours are done they will stow away the scenery and behind those you´ll find several of these....

They are used to re-heat the frozen TV-Dinners which are then fancily placed on your plate.

BTW the loading stuff is nothing else either. They hide the frozen stuff under the scenery of fresh products.

I have read here in the forum a few times that a majority of MDR food is made off ship and only reheated onboard? How true is this? If so, is it true on the Allure? How would they handle things like those with low sodium diets then? Do they have pans of low sodium meals they just reheat also? I would think it would make it really hard to take care of those with dietary restrictions this way. I would also feel the incidence food poisoning would also be higher. I could see where some baked goods like cakes fast frozen then thawed would be OK. But other meals would really suffer. Just how true is this info? Please say it isn't so.:loudcry:

If you have Netflix watch Mega Foods. They do a whole show devoted to food prep on the Oasis. It is prepared on board and freshly loaded each cruise. Ok actually just found it on Youtube also.

I do know that the Osso Bucco served in Giovanni's is not made onboard. It comes frozen (told to us by the manager after I complained about the quality). That said, food is freshly prepared everyday as you can tell by the tons of food loaded onto the ship at the beginning of the cruise. They rotate through the oldest first so produce doesn't go bad. There's a whole process which you can see by watching the Oasis special.

You guys realize fresh food can be refrigerated for several days to a week or more, especially with industrial refrigeration, right?

That picture with the drop ceiling doesn't even look like it's on a cruise ship.

[emoji19]

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That looks like a work of art.[emoji16]

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We had lunch off the ship with some galley staff last week and were told over the past 2 months more and more of the food is coming in a semi prepared or pre-cooked vacuum sealed format. The objective is to reduced waste, cost and staff plus improve consistency across the fleet. They said as of now all baked goods are made from scratch and there is plenty of food preparations being done but things have been moving toward food assembly which looks a lot like cooking when pots are full and things being mixed and stirred. We were also told they have reduced to number of food options to be offered at lunch and dinner as a cost/waste reduction effort.

Again, only relaying what we were told and it was an unsolicited comment within a more general conversation.

Have done a kitchen/galley tour on more than one ship. Saw lots of food being prepped and cooked. Remember a row of several "ovens" that looked more like front-load washing machines. Tour guide explained they were like big crock pots and showed us how they were loading and cooking beef to be used that evening.

Also saw fresh veggies being washed and readied for cooking. Also breads and pastries being made from scratch on huge "cookie sheets."

We had lunch off the ship with some galley staff last week and were told over the past 2 months more and more of the food is coming in a semi prepared or pre-cooked vacuum sealed format. The objective is to reduced waste, cost and staff plus improve consistency across the fleet. They said as of now all baked goods are made from scratch and there is plenty of food preparations being done but things have been moving toward food assembly which looks a lot like cooking when pots are full and things being mixed and stirred. We were also told they have reduced to number of food options to be offered at lunch and dinner as a cost/waste reduction effort.

 

Again, only relaying what we were told and it was an unsolicited comment within a more general conversation.

I know that a current trend in Europe and becoming more so in America is a water bath method of cooking (do not remember the name) where food is cooked in a water bath in pressure sealed bag. It supposedly gives complete control over the internal temp of food. Fish to exact degree of doneness, beef just as rare as you want it etc... leaves no guesswork. I wish I could believe this is what RCCL is doing. But that is a cooking method. Not a reheating already cooked foods. For those who say all fake news this is type of comment I have seen several of in forums. Anyone who knows more please speak up.

If you have Netflix watch Mega Foods. They do a whole show devoted to food prep on the Oasis. It is prepared on board and freshly loaded each cruise. Ok actually just found it on Youtube also.

I watched that Netflicks show about the Oasis. That was a 2013 show. A lot can change in 5 years. I also saw a huge amount of gaps in the show in certain areas of food prep that were not even touched on. They concentrated on how they stored and cleaned fresh fruits and things like lettuce. I did not see enough about how or where entrees were prepared and cooked for such a large group of people.

I know that a current trend in Europe and becoming more so in America is a water bath method of cooking (do not remember the name) where food is cooked in a water bath in pressure sealed bag. It supposedly gives complete control over the internal temp of food. Fish to exact degree of doneness, beef just as rare as you want it etc... leaves no guesswork. I wish I could believe this is what RCCL is doing. But that is a cooking method. Not a reheating already cooked foods. For those who say all fake news this is type of comment I have seen several of in forums. Anyone who knows more please speak up.

This method of cooking is called Sous Vide. It uses an Immersion cooker to heat and circulate water that cooks food in vacuum sealed bags. We are using this method for Steaks, Chicken and Fish. I can honestly say that it is not reheating prepared food at all. When I want a medium steak I set the temp and withing 45 minutes to an hour I have a perfect medium steak through out. Then I can either sear it on a grill or frying pan and it is perfect every time.

Well the galley and bridge tour are part of my package. Having worked in a commercial kitchen, I will have tons of questions. They will probably want to throw me out.

I too love watching the provisioning, 10 million rolls of loo paper,...

Once the tours are done they will stow away the scenery and behind those you´ll find several of these....

 

Gotta admit, you had me going right up until that picture. And you even said up top "Don´t believe everything you read on the internet."

Well played.

This method of cooking is called Sous Vide. It uses an Immersion cooker to heat and circulate water that cooks food in vacuum sealed bags. We are using this method for Steaks, Chicken and Fish. I can honestly say that it is not reheating prepared food at all. When I want a medium steak I set the temp and withing 45 minutes to an hour I have a perfect medium steak through out. Then I can either sear it on a grill or frying pan and it is perfect every time.

Thanks could not remember what it was called.Thought it was very interesting.

Well the galley and bridge tour are part of my package. Having worked in a commercial kitchen, I will have tons of questions. They will probably want to throw me out.

Have done a few galley tours and always found them very willing to answer questions. Just a heads up - tours that I have done have required participants to wear closed-toe shoes. Always someone who thinks rules don't apply to them and have seen them have to go change shoes, thus delaying tour for everyone. You will enjoy.