Lovely calm seas today.

I’m enjoying the breakfast selection so much in the International Café that I may never bother with the buffet again.

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This morning’s learning opportunity was a session billed as Behind the Seas: Meet The Culinary Ambassadors upstairs in the Princess Live studio space, which is also where Trivia happens in the afternoons, and Karaoke late evenings. Our Cruise Director Allie’s “guests” (L to R in the photo) were the Director of Restaurant Operations, Neville Saldanha, originally from India but now living in Poland; the Executive Chef, Russell Clarke, from Brisbane Australia; the Bar Manager Oana Casagicu from Romania; and Food and Beverage Director, Konrad Lewandowski (a Pisces who likes long walks on the beach 😂) who says he has been in the industry since his first job as the maitre d’ on the Ark.

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Chef Russell talked about the challenge of being an Executive Chef with a strong Aussie accent leading a team from over 52 countries. He hilariously talked about feeling as if he were on the menu in the “always available” section, and how over the years he has changed his “beverage intake” during work hours from Australian “traditional” drinks (beer!) to water, which according to him “just rusts your pipes”. He described himself temperamentally as a cross between Russell Crowe and Gordon Ramsay, just ever so slightly toned down. He answered questions about the challenges of cooking in a galley during rough sea days by telling us about securing heavy objects and using extra pots to ensure they don’t overflow when the ship tilts.

Oana talked about her biggest challenge on the ship being Russell!!

Konrad answered questions about provisioning, and told us that for a transatlantic crossing, the Fort Lauderdale to Lisbon provisions weigh 10 tons!!

In response to a question about the temperature of food served at dinner, Neville talked about the challenges of delivering food to 3600 guests, sometimes 1400 at once in the dining room, but the inadvisability of issuing roller skates to serving staff. He said the aim is for food to spend less than 90 seconds at the pass, but mentioned that modern plating trends also cause food to cool more quickly as it is carried from the kitchen. Chef Russell gave some perspective into the challenges faced by his staff finding themselves cooking on a ship as opposed to the cooking experience they may have had on land. He described the learning curve as “daunting”, but was clearly very proud of his staff.

We learned a bit about food storage, for instance that bananas (one of the biggest challenges on a long cruise) have to be stored away from all other produce, and are purchased as three different ripeness grades, each of which must be stored separately. The inventory and provisioning staff look after all of that in conjunction with galley staff.

Konrad shared that menus are developed at Princess’ head office, leaving little opportunity for menu development at the individual ship level. Chef Russell reiterated that, as for any good franchise, menus must be consistent, although there are a few destination-driven menus on long cruises. An Executive Chef gets occasional events where they can create something new, but needing to do mass food ordering limits doing too much of that.

I had a chance to talk to Oana a bit after the session, and hear how she is both “mom” and boss to her bar staff while they are so far from their own families. She shared that the ship on this crossing is not quite at full capacity (“only” 3000 of a potential 4000 when every cabin, including those which can accommodate 3 or 4, is fully booked), which is a huge relief to staff coming off spring break cruises with over 1000 children among the guests! No wonder the bar staff are smiling!

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I think everyone must be discovering the International Café for meals, because at noon there was quite a line for food, even though the specialty coffee line was short.

I managed to finish my second book of the cruise, Kristin Harmel’s The Winemaker’s Wife, while finishing my lunchtime Prosecco. There were no afternoon activities of interest, so I walked a few laps on deck 18 before it started to drizzle. Ted had been doing his own thing, but we met as I was dropping my jacket back into our room around 3 p.m. He hadn’t eaten at all yet, so I joined him for his breakfast/lunch: a Godfather sundae from the gelato bar! I had “second lunch” (which I’m sure would qualify as a legitimate meal description in Mexico), a scoop of pistachio gelato, and we took our treats up to Bellini’s on deck 6, where there was a table from which we could also listen to the live music in the Piazza.

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I continued to read, listen to the pianist, and work on the blog a bit, while Ted worked off his lunch by walking 10 laps (1.4 miles/2.25 km) on deck 18.

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At 6:00 p.m. it was already time for dinner, again tonight in the Concerto dining room. I was intrigued by one of the fish selections, kingklip, because I’d never heard of it before. Apparently it is a “cusp eel”, a fish shaped like a cross between a fish and an eel, very common in South African cuisine and loved for its sweet, meaty flavour. It was another absolutely delicious dinner, shared with interesting couples from Florida and California. Most of us ended our meals with piping hot perfectly baked soufflés.

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In the theatre after dinner we were entertained by vocalist Peter Grant, a young crooner from the UK. I thoroughly enjoyed his show, AND the absolutely terrific 7 piece Princess house band (piano, drums, guitar, bass, sax, trumpet, and trombone) who backed him.

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Not ready to call it a night yet, we headed to the Wheelhouse Bar to catch Luis’ last piano set and enjoy a nightcap.

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Tomorrow is yet another sea day, but without a time change! Hooray!