Oriental Cooking On Board Cruise Liners
It seems to be a trend with Asians taking over the world in all fields. Cruise Lines International Association reported that 1.4 million Asians enjoyed trips on cruise ships last year, up an annual compound rate of 34 per cent since 2012. This means that cruise ship jobs will increasingly gravitate towards catering to these passengers.
Cruise ship chefs have a plethora of opportunity, particularly when it comes to Asian cuisine on board. Most cruise lines now offer everything from Indian and Chinese to Japanese and Thai, which are the most well-known Asian cuisine styles around the world. Britain’s P&O Cruises recently started ‘The Pantry’, a concept food service that is set to replace the traditional buffet. One of the eight stations is Curry House featuring Indian cuisine and an Asian food bar.
Carnival Cruises has specialty chefs from Asia whip up goodies at the Mongolian Wok, and on the Britannia – targeted at British cruise passengers – there’s Sindhu, where Michelin-star chef Atul Kochhar creates contemporary Indian dishes. World renowned master chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa has also taken to the seas with his Silk Road and Sushi Bar restaurants serving classic Japanese, Peruvian and European cuisines.
Cruise ships have also begun offering cooking demos or classes to passengers while on board. Among its repertoire, Oceania Cruises has ‘Rock the Wok’ that shows its guests how to use Asian cooking vessels and techniques, as well as introducing them to the variety of ingredients used.
All this means cruise ship chefs in Asian restaurants today must know the cuisine like the back of their hand. On a daily basis, they prepare high quality Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian and other types of Asian cuisine, and must be able to identify and use the cooking media and equipment typical of these styles.
Cruise ship jobs offer a great opportunity to fine tune various styles of cooking on the go. With the Asian cruise market rising, demand for knowledge of this sub-set is only likely to increase.
