Pizza making festival at ACCLA published in the local dailies
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Cruise Line Chef: Life on board
Life of a chef on board a cruise liner
Among cruise ship jobs, working in the culinary section is one of the most satisfying, involving the creation and service of quality meals to suit all types of palates. But what is life like for someone who dedicates much of his/her work life in a floating kitchen for the gustatory enjoyment of others?
The life of a Cruise Line Chef involves touching breath-taking ports, sampling delicious food, meeting new people and experiencing a multi-cultural work environment. But it’s also a hard life and cruise ship employees need to have stamina to work long hours, determination to be away from home for months at a time and the commitment to ensure impeccable service day after day.
Some cruise lines have around 4,000-5,000 guests on board each ship, and cruise ship chefs could oversee the making of up to 20,000 meals a day! Wait staff in restaurants often have to serve up to 2,000 diners at each of the two evening sittings for dinner, not counting breakfast, lunch and resetting of tables.
This means there are no days off for those with cruise ship jobs, but only when at sea for about 4-6 months. Yet, cooking and serving dozens upon dozens of meals a day means that the staff learns new culinary arts quicker than their land-based counterparts.
There are no bills to pay when working cruise ship jobs, but cooks or chefs often work fairly long hours to keep up with demand.It is not uncommon for chefs and service staff to work 10-hour shifts every day, with workers in the preparation kitchen involved in washing, trimming, peeling and slicing vegetables all day. The pay, however, compensates.
After all, this is a job. But it stands out as a wealth of experience and enjoyment. During time off, cruise ship crew know where the best Wi-Fi spots are, enjoy the best local fare on land, and head to beaches and activities little known to passengers. And best of all, they enjoy free or very cheap drinks and meals at parties in the crew bar!
As a cruise ship chef, you might have to serve up exquisite meals to passengers, but you can cook up a wild storm during your time off.
Touching breath-taking ports
No such things as too many cooks
Article about catering business & taking up a fruitful career as cooks on the Herald English daily
The southern part of the state of Goa has always produced a large number of people that have ventured into the maritime trade as well as the catering line and thus taking up a career as cooks, chefs, etc.
Cruise Ship Meals: The Basics
In the early days of modern cruise lines, meals were dreary affairs. They were boringly predictable and consisted mainly of buffets. Today, cruise ships look at dining as a culinary art with great promise.
Many large cruise lines have nearly two dozen restaurants and eateries what with eating one of the most popular activities on board. But despite the many choices, all meals follow a standard description to be considered worthy of being placed in front of a guest.
Without visual appeal, no guest will come back for more. Cruise ship galley staff learn from the beginning to create designs that are literally good enough to eat. One of the most important cruise ship jobs is a food artist who creates sculptures out of fruit and vegetables. But this isn’t all. Each dish must entice guests in such a way that they are impressed even before the first bite.
It follows then that the guest must enjoy the taste of each morsel in their mouth. Ingredients fresh off the market may be hard to come by, but cruise ships often take on stores at each port. Basics such as bread, stocks, ice cream and sauces are sometimes made on the go due to the large volumes required. Taking on ingredients at each port also means offering fare reflective of the port you are in to give guests an interesting travel experience.
Service is as important as the food itself. One of the most important cruise ship jobs is done by service staff since they deal directly with hungry guests. Apart from being polite and courteous, knowledge of food and beverages is key, as well as the ingredients in all the dishes being served. Some guests may have special dietary requests – such as health restrictions, veganism or allergens, and ensuring these are stuck to leaves them with a very pleasant experience.
Above all, hygiene and cleanliness must be maintained at all times. While all cruise ships have galley utility staff to help keep the area clean, all employees are required to maintain the highest standards possible.
Cruise ships are multi-cultural spaces catering to various tastes and offering new culinary experiences to guests. Each dish is expected to speak for itself and be representative of the quality and standards of its cruise line.
No takers for Goan cuisine at Culinary Institutes
Mexican, Thai and Italian cuisines are popular and comparatively, they are eaten all over the world. However there is only a small percentage wanting to eat Goan food. Hence they prefer what is most ordered, says Madhav Punekar, Principal of American Culinary and Cruise Line Academy, Goa unique culinary institute that gets you off onto the cruise chef path.
Career guidance for the youth
Learn & Earn: Why cruise kitchens are the quickest way to get ahead.
There are many careers that offer opportunities to learn on the job, but none as intensive, cost-effective or quick as cruise ship jobs. It generally takes years for a confident, hard-working and forward-thinking employee to get ahead, but on a cruise line, passenger volumes and restaurant diversities ensure unmatched career experience in much less time.
With fresh produce hundreds of miles away and no chance to ‘pop to the grocery store’ for emergency ingredients, cruise line chefs learn quickly how to prepare ahead and make do in times of need. Menus may be planned months in advance but knowledge of great deals and where to get the best ingredients helps keep cruise ship passengers happy.
This means that cruise ship jobs can be great lessons not only in the culinary arts,but also geography, world markets and business. This means knowing it’s better to buy mussels in New Zealand and oysters in Sydney, understanding that short cruises encourage passengers to eat more than usual, or figuring out that Chinese travellers prefer meals to snacks and that Spanish guests opt for a lot more fruit, bread and cheese.
And contrary to regular careers where learning comes with a price tag, cruise jobs allow you to earn while you learn. Positions come in a variety of culinary sub-sectors and include range chefs, commis, demi-chefs de partie, chefs de partie, sous-chefs, executive sous-chefs and executive chefs.
With food and accommodation provided free, cruise ship salaries allow for immense savings. While they differ depending on the company, they are all in enviable ranges, from US$900-1200 (approx. INR 57,000-76,000) for crew cooks or pastry trainees to US$4500-7800 (approx. INR 286,000-496,000) for executive chefs or chefs de cuisine per month.
Cruise Lines International Association earlier forecast that 23 million passengers would sail in 2015, up four per cent from last year, proving a continuing rise. The industry itself supported nearly 900,000 jobs and contributed $38 billion in wages. Moreover, cruise ships are now looking eastward to destinations such as Asia and Australia, and focusing on new passenger-based innovations such as theme cruises and ‘foodcations’.
The market is ripe for you to enter the exciting world of cruise ship kitchens where learning and earning are two sides of the same coin.
ACCLA’s Pizza Making Festival – Media Announcement on Navhind Times & Goa News Wire
Why choose a career as a cruise line chef?
How do you do what you love, see the world and get paid for it? We could say join a travel show, but everyone knows that’s hard enough. Instead, cruise ship jobs prove the ideal match between exciting opportunities available and lucrative remuneration.
Cruise Ship Jobs Network believes there are 400,000 jobs available on cruise ships, with wages totalling up to $6 billion. Many of these vacancies are to be filled in by cruise chefs, who keep the thousands of holiday makers on board fed and happy.
And with the worldwide cruise market increasing 6.9 per cent to an estimated value of $39.6 billion with forecasted increase, there is no dearth of employment opportunities. For those interested in perfecting the culinary arts while traveling the world, cruise ship jobs are the way to go.
With food, accommodation and entertainment provided for free, you can save a lot of money. But what you gain in experience as a cruise ship chef is immeasurable. Depending on the size, cruise ships can carry passengers numbering from a hundred to as many as 5,000 or more. As the chef or part of the culinary team, you will need to ensure that all these people are fed interesting food, all the time. This means non-stop learning with dozens of recipes, large volumes and efficient cooking techniques.
To give passengers endless choice, cruise lines offer specialty restaurants and could run more than a dozen eating outlets on a single ship. So if you think you want to hone those sushi slicing skills or show off your knowledge of wines, there’s always something to choose from. Even food carving and decoration makes it to the list of cruise ship jobs.
Thanks to the volume of food required on the go, most cruise lines opt to make food – like bread, pralines, stocks and even ice cream – in the kitchens from scratch. This allows you to gain experience in the basics before working your way up.
Being a cruise line chef requires quick thinking, dedication and stamina, but once you’re out there, you find life gets more delightful every day.
