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Cruise Ship Chefs on Show

If you thought that cruise ship chefs jobs meant slogging it behind closed doors for hours on end with guests having no clue who the creator of their delicious dish is, you’re partly mistaken. Yes, you will be slogging for long hours, but you knew that already. However, cruise ship chefs today are not entirely hidden from the public gaze.

Food is a quintessential part of the cruise experience, and today, has become a huge part of the travel industry. In fact, the Food Travel Monitor for 2016 by the World Food Travel Association stated that as much as 93 per cent of travellers can be considered ‘food travellers’, or travellers who participated in a food or beverage experience other than dining out. This means gourmet store visits, cooking schools, food tours, tastings, etc.

Cruise ship companies are not too far from cashing in on this exciting statistic. On the high seas, guests focus on the experiences on board, and food comes with a high social media-friendly factor. Think Facebook live feeds, Instagram pictures and Twitter updates.

Cruise ship chefs jobs call upon individuals to do more than just cook a meal. They often put on a show. One of the easiest ways cruises do this is to host live cooking demos on board. This involves the chef demonstrating his cooking skills in a particular cuisine style or theme.

Cruise ship chefs are required to have an interactive session with guests while doing so, explaining the ingredients being used, asking and answering questions, offering tips on techniques, etc. Guests then get a chance to enjoy the meal that was demonstrated before them. It offers them a chance to learn more about the food they love, and the people behind their meals. In turn, chefs get a chance in the spotlight and an opportunity to share their passion for food.

Disney Cruise Line offers complimentary on board cooking demonstrations, showing just how popular these experiences are. Many other cruise lines have hands-on cooking sessions, where guests who sign up cook alongside the staff. Chefs teach them how to make the perfect salsa or how to cook risotto just right, the ideal way to roll sushi. It often takes place in the galley, or kitchen, and chefs offer one-on-one technique tips before participants enjoy the meal together.

Another programme offered by companies that greatly involves cruise ship chefs is the Chef’s Table. This is usually an event with the executive chef who heads the entire food and beverage operation on board. It is often a special, formal affair, priced quite high. Guests get a private tour of the galley with the executive chef with Champagne and hors d’oeuvres, following which they share a meal cooked by him or her with a chance to spend some time with the top chef on board.

Cruise ships also offer cooking classes on board. Holland America, for example, has a state-of-the-art Culinary Arts Centre specially created by Food & Wine magazine for its cooking classes. The demonstration theatre features auditorium-style seating and plasma screens so minute observations can be made. Celebrity chefs make guest appearances and cruise ship chefs take over culinary events such as wine or chocolate tastings.

Luxe line Silversea holds its L’École des Chefs by Relais and Châteaux cruise, which is an entire voyage dedicated to cooking demonstrations, “lunch and learn” sessions, market tours and classes, knife skills workshops and more. Celebrity Cruises even hosted a Top Chef At Sea competition in 2015 and 2016 in which guests watched the reality TV show contestants battle it out on board, and also got a chance to take private cooking classes or dine with them.

Today, cruise ship chefs are more than makers of meals. They are a major part of the reason the industry keeps growing.

Prevent Contamination as a Cruise Chef

Health and safety is paramount on a cruise ship. Chefs and other staff working in the galleys must ensure that high standards of cleanliness are maintained at all times to avoid contamination and the spread of disease.

Prevention of contamination begins from the source. Cruise line companies ensure that the vendors of various food items comply with safety and hygiene laws during preparation (if any), packaging, storage and transportation. Staff in charge of receiving goods have various procedures to follow to ensure that only produce that adheres to strict standards is accepted. The rest is simply rejected.

During storage on board, a number of guidelines are followed. The major ones include storage of meat and vegetables – raw meat must always be stored below vegetables to avoid any liquids from dripping into fresh produce. Recent deliveries are usually stored at the back so that those with earlier use-by dates leave the store first.

Food items are also stored in a different area from chemicals such as cleaning liquids and other sanitisers used in the galley.

The threat to food is greatest from the people handling them. In this regard, everyone from the storage staff to the cruise ship chef to the wait staff must follow strict personal hygiene procedures. All staff is required to wash their hands frequently and in the correct manner, particularly between tasks, after using the restroom and after an interruption such as answering a telephone call. It is even required to wash one’s hands after scratching an itch to ensure that no germs whatsoever can make their way into the food being prepared.

Galley staff must have short nails, tie long hair – even beards, wear clean uniforms and aprons, properly cover wounds and cuts, use properly fitted single-use gloves when handling ready-to-eat food, and remove all jewellery when working in the prep areas.

Importantly, cruise ship chefs are expected to report when they are feeling ill, particularly if they have experienced diarrhea, nausea and vomiting in the last few hours. These are the symptoms of food-borne diseases, such as norovirus, which are extremely contagious and can cause an epidemic if not contained properly.

One of the main ways to prevent contamination of food on cruise ships is controlling the temperature at which a food item is stored at and the length of time it remains at that temperature.

It is virtually impossible and quite impractical to ensure that every last spoon of a particular dish is consumed in one sitting. Unfortunately, bacteria and germs tend to proliferate easily at warm temperatures – not too hot, not too cold. Guidelines are available to show chefs the proper temperature to store different food types at to slow the growth of harmful bacteria.

This is extremely important on a cruise ship as the population includes many individuals who could be at a higher risk of contracting diseases, such as old people, toddlers, or people with compromised immune systems such as those with HIV.

Dishes and utensils are expected to be kept cleaned and sanitised at all times. There are particular procedures to follow when washing, cleaning and sanitising, and specific food-grade solutions to use during these processes.

Each cruise ship has its own set of guidelines, but overall, most remain the same. Guests are key to the survival of the cruise ship industry, and to maintain high standards, companies have spot checks as do government authorities. Failing health and hygiene checks can cause the ship to be put out of service causing the company huge losses in revenue.

The first and primary responsibility of a cruise ship chef is always to ensure his or her food is safe for consumption.

How to Create a Signature Dish

When cooking is a creative passion, it becomes an extension of the self. Today, the world is full of gourmets and foodies, the latter enjoying all food and dish in general while the former being a connoisseur.

For gourmets, old-world cruises may have meant dining on standard fare, with nothing ‘exciting’ being served. Today, cruise ship companies tie up with top chefs to offer exquisite, one-of-a-kind food worthy of a special meal. They serve signature dishes that identify with a particular chef. This means, that both gourmets and foodies have their souls satisfied – the former are able to relish finer tastes on a cruise ship, while the latter can expose themselves to a variety of top-notch cuisines within easy reach.

Signature dishes are almost like an artist’s style or author’s voice where discerning viewers or readers can name the individual just by looking at the piece of art or body of text. Similarly, connoisseurs of food can often name the chef simply by tasting the dish – some even without visual cues of plating.

A few of the most well-known signature dishes include Gordon Ramsay’s Beef Wellington and cappuccino of white beans with grated truffle, Heston Blumenthal’s Snail Porridge and Franz Sacher’s Sachertorte. Chefs can have more than one signature dish.

Some signature dishes are created by accident. Jean George apparently created the now famous chocolate molten cake after he took his dessert out of the oven too soon. His cake has a brownie-like crust with a warm oozy centre that has the consistency of chocolate pudding.

Most often, however, well-known signature dishes are the product of hours of painstaking effort and in-depth knowledge of ingredients, tastes and techniques. Blumenthal’s Meat Fruit, for example, sings of his love for technique – using a bain marie to cook chicken livers, creating silken meat paste using sieves, and the additions of four alcohols to infuse delicate flavours into a dish that looks like a sweet-tart mandarin, but tastes savoury and rich.

But it’s not just top chefs who can make signature dishes. As cruise ship chefs on the rise, you can make one too. Recipes are available by the thousands, but you probably have your favourite way to make your favourite food item – it could be a bruschetta, a pasta, a vegetable bake, a grilled beef steak, a kulfi or even a gin and tonic.

The beginnings of a signature dish lie in your love for the basic dish or key ingredient. Perhaps you love making pasta with tomato sauce. Start by studying flavour combinations or go with your gut feeling on what you could add to your dish that might make it different or better. Experiment with spice, herbs, additions like vegetables or meats and other condiments.

You can also try different ways of cutting vegetables or meat, as well as presentation that will make it visually more appealing so as to be able to serve it at a more formal dinner party rather than just a family meal.

Go with a different way of preparing the dish – if it is usually fried, try steaming, grilling, poaching or baking. Choose serving dishes that complement the way you want your dish to look. How hot or cold you serve a dish can also affect the way it tastes.

Many small details go into creating a dish that speaks for you. You’ll find butter chicken in any restaurant across India, but perhaps there are moments when you close your eyes and you can almost taste the distinctive flavours of the one your grandmother made. It’s still butter chicken, but it’s her signature dish because you would be able to identify from any other.

Career Prospects: Cruise Ship jobs and land-based hospitality jobs

On many fronts, cruise ship jobs and land-based hospitality jobs are rather alike since they deal with the same premise – hospitality and service – but in other ways they are vastly different.

One must first understand the hierarchy of working in a galley or a kitchen to strategise a path towards progress within the industry. In both, cruise ship jobs and land-based hospitality jobs, you will mostly begin at the bottom of the pyramid. Depending on the kitchen you choose, you will be a line cook in any one of the various departments – pastry, buffet, sushi, etc.

On board a cruise ship, you will be required to have educational qualifications in food and beverage, or hospitality, and perhaps some experience too. For land-based jobs, experience is not compulsory, and smaller restaurants may not require you to have an educational qualification in the culinary arts. Larger establishments, such as five-star hotels particularly in big cities or tourist destinations, will expect previous experience but you might be able to win them over with a great interview even if you do not have a certificate to match. This would not happen for cruise ship jobs.

Once you have a foot in the door, things change. On board a cruise ship, there are hundreds of line cooks owing to the vast volumes of food required. As you go higher in the hierarchy, the number of vacant positions dwindle and you can spend quite a bit of time in a single position before moving up. At the lower end, people quitting owing to the jobs being a financial stop-gap option or moving back home to their families helps open up vacancies.

Cruise companies are far more likely to promote a chef from their own ships than one with similar experience from elsewhere as they will have better feedback on work ethic and personality. This is not so important in land-based hospitality jobs where moving up between different companies is frequent.

Theoretically, cruise ship chef jobs offer excellent variety in terms of experience. With so many restaurants of diverse cuisines on board, you could be a sushi chef one contract, work the teppanyaki bar on another, whip up Continental dishes on a third and put your fingers in the Asian pot the following time. Even the open buffets serve such a huge variety of food that within a few years you will have quite a repertoire on your hands.

This would be an impossible scenario in land-based hospitality jobs, where you would work in one type of kitchen or cuisine for a significant portion of time. Still, this offers the opportunity to get an in-depth understanding of that particular type of cuisine, and work with superiors on changing menus. On cruise ships, unless you are in a position of management, you will have to follow recipes created by others with no chance of personal tweaks.

It is generally much easier to get top jobs on land compared with cruise ships. Indian food is taking the world by storm, but not many chefs find their way to the top spot on board. Things are changing, however, slowly but surely. The Q Experiences has recently launched an exclusive luxury cruise to Antarctica with Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar on board.

In the meanwhile, cruise ship jobs are creating more and more great chefs from India who go on to make a name for themselves in land-based jobs. Vicky Ratnani, for example, worked on board for 14 years, including on the Queen Elizabeth 2 training with Todd English as his executive sous chef. With the skills and experience they receive on board, others become trainers and fulfill high-level positions in leading hospitality firms and hotels around the world.

Weighing the benefits and disadvantages of cruise ship chef jobs and land-based hospitality jobs, and combining this with a target for the future will help you chart out your trajectory for success in the industry.

Campus Interview American College of Culinary and Language Arts

American College of Culinary and Language Arts (ACCLA) is a one of its kind ‘Culinary Academy’ in India, specialized in Professional Cruise Culinary Education and distinguished for high level of Quality Culinary Training.

ACCLA reshapes careers by molding one’s personality with positive attitude and discipline desired, which grooms a candidate to be an all-round personality, making one suitable for Industry’s need of Quality Professionals.

ACCLA practices a unique culture of providing Quality Education, in the world of hospitality, specialized in Cruise Lines Standards and Culinary work environment. Discipline and professionalism are elements that enlist American College of Culinary & Language Arts as one of the most reliable, exquisite and Unique Culinary & Cruise Line Academy in India.

ACCLA ensures Quality of Education by providing hands-on practical exposure in Cruise Line Galley Procedures and Practices by training the students in a Recreated Cruise Line Galley Facility. Assured Industrial Training with Top Most Hospitality Brands are the main strengths of ACCLA.

Situated in the smallest state of India’s hot spot of the Tourist all around the world, well known ‘Goa’. Tourist are mainly attracted towards the state’s sun, sand, night life, cuisines and lifestyle. Goa has the highest concentration of famous international brands of hotels mainly like Taj, W-Hotels, Leela’s, Radissons, Club Mahindra, Grand Hyatt and a many more. Culinary is a growing field and many aspire to make a career as it provides a wide range of job opportunities on Cruise liners as well as overseas.

We at American College provide training to students who aspire to make a career into international culinary. With increase in cuisines from around the world, we provide training in continental cuisine. Continental food refers to the kind of food eaten in European countries. Though the foods are based from France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, America, they have their own distinctive features, as a whole, the food from all these countries is famous as continental food. It is also known as international cuisine.

At the American College the students are not only trained into this cuisine they are trained according to the cruise line standard and also follow a ship board menu. The students are also given the opportunities to get trained in 5 Star Hotels in Goa gaining the further exposure into the production department for a period of six months. The college is more inclined in providing training to the students into cruise line standards. The students are more aspired to join the cruise liners as they can avail a number of benefits like travelling

around the world, entertainment, food and accommodation which are all being taken care by the cruise company.

The college also provides campus interviews for famous and luxurious cruise liners like Regent Seven Seas, Oceania Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Lines, TUI Cruises and other luxurious cruise liners. We have a track record of 100% in placing our student for various cruise lines and international hotels. We have students coming from various states of India like Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttrakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and many more including Goa. The last cruise line interviews held were on the 21^st of July 2017. We had a score of 91% of the students being selected during the interviews.

Cruise Cuisine: Food with a Twist

Food is one of the most important experiences on a cruise ship. Chefs must constantly serve delicious cuisine to keep guests coming back year on year. But today, it is not only comfort food, such as burgers, pizzas and ice creams that have a huge fan following on board. New age dishes, fusion food, and experimental cuisine are seeing many cruise-goers take adventurous steps in the world of food.

Cruise ship chefs want food to be an experience rather than an indulgence. Companies are hiring top chefs including famous British restaurateur Jamie Oliver and noted Japanese culinary celebrity Nobuyuki Matsuhisa to revamp menus and create an inspired experience for guests that leave a lasting impression.

Celebrity restaurateur Charlie Palmer designs menus for Seabourn cruises and brings his experience from years of tantalising tastebuds to the ship’s Aureole dining room. Guests can enjoy innovative appetisers such as citrus-marinated flukes, sautéed escalope of foie gras, eggplant relish and hummus. There could be pink-roasted rack of veal, or scallops wrapped in smoked bacon as well.

Chefs on board are equally conscious of guests’ preferences and many include vegetarian-only options, such as entrées like toasted angel hair pasta with black trumpet mushrooms and a stew of braised artichokes, with white beans, thyme-roasted tomatoes and diced saffron potatoes.

Wonderland on the Royal Caribbean cruises serves what it likes to call imaginative cuisine that includes buffalo chicken eggs, slow-cooked baby beets and liquid manzanilla olives. It also has a dish called Vanishing Noodles with chicken, duck and truffle; and another called Liquid Lobster which features bone marrow and olives.

It isn’t just the ingredients used in the dishes that makes them different, but the way they are presented and eaten. Each dish is meant to be an experience in itself, that uses all the required senses – taste, smell, sight, touch, perhaps even hearing, as one listens to the sizzle of hot dishes or the sigh of steam rise.

Let’s take the Vanishing Noodles, for example. It appears before the guest as a bowlful of delicious udon noodles ready to be eaten. But when a savoury hot chicken broth is poured gently over them, the magic takes place. The noodles dissolve, and the dish becomes almost a soup with a variety of tastes – Nueske bacon, sous vide capon, black truffles and root vegetables. The chefs created the noodles themselves from an emulsion of duck liver, cream and chicken broth, which each bring their own game to the dish.

The Wonderland restaurant also serves an edible balloon on a string. The balloon is made of taffy, and once popped in the mouth releases a breath of helium with a green apple infusion. This ticks all the boxes for innovative cuisine as it appeals to all the senses, and is fun, memorable and exciting for the guest.

Innovative cuisine blends a deep knowledge of ingredients and how to cook them with imaginative ways of presentation. This requires cruise ship chefs to have intimate knowledge of the basics so they are able to recreate these dishes as designed by their creators. Every member of staff in a galley that serves dishes like these is usually hand-picked, chosen for their skills, experience and ability to work with precision.

It goes without saying that work experience in restaurants that serve innovative cuisine, headed by celebrity chefs, goes a long way in boosting your own career profile.

How Cruise Ship Chefs deal with Dietary Restrictions

Today, cruising is becoming increasingly inclusive, with people across ages and dietary needs coming on board to have a good time. This makes cruise ship chef jobs that much more skilled as many dietary restrictions, such as allergies, can be harmful to the guest.

Voluntary restrictions include diets such as vegetarianism, lacto-ovo vegetarianism, veganism, pescetarianism and others, in which people do not eat certain food items or meats. This is mostly prompted by personal or religious philosophy and many can be quite strict about it. This means that any mistakes on the chef’s part can lead to complaints to the cruise line, so staff in the galleys must be careful.

Here is what the most popular diets include:

Vegetarianism: A diet that excludes meat, including products that result from animal slaughter, such as gelatin and rennet. Hindus, Buddhists and Jains often follow this diet, although some may be lacto-vegetarian. Jains additionally do not consume root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, etc, as well as mushrooms, fungi and yeasts. Strict Jains may not consume fermented foods either such as beer, wines and other alcohols.

Fruitarianism: A diet that consists mostly of raw fruits

Lacto-vegetarianism: A vegetarian diet that includes eggs, but excludes dairy.

Ovo-vegetarianism: A vegetarian diet that includes dairy, but excludes eggs. Many Indians follow this diet, and as such, a lot of north Indian cuisine adheres to it

Lacto-ovo vegetarianism: A vegetarian diet that includes dairy and eggs

Veganism: Vegans extend the vegetarian diet to exclude any items produced by animals, including bee honey, dairy and eggs

Pescetarianism: A diet that includes fish but not meat

Flexitarianism: A diet that is mostly vegetarian but occasionally includes meat

Halal food: Many Muslims strictly adhere to diets that consist of halal food or food allowed to be eaten under Islamic law. Those not permitted are called haraam, and include alcohol, pork, and meat from any animal not slaughtered according to Islamic ritual methods

Kosher diet: Cruise ship chefs catering for Jews on board must learn more about their Kashrut laws which requires food to be prepared a certain way for it to be considered Kosher. It prohibits alcohol, caffeinated beverages and certain shellfish.

In some diets, such as the variants of vegetarianism, chefs use substitutes, such as vegetable oil instead of butter, soy or almond milk instead of cow’s milk, or a mixture of baking powder, oil and water instead of egg.

Cruise ship chefs must also consider diets for guests with food allergies. Any food can cause an allergy, but the most common ones are cow’s milk, eggs, peanuts, fish, shellfish, tree nuts like cashew or walnut, wheat and soy. Peanuts, fish, shellfish, soy, tree nuts, and gluten from wheat can cause severe reactions including anaphylaxis characterised by swelling and breathing problems, which must be treated using epinephrine.

Typically, guests fill out a form ahead of the cruise, or on the first day, noting their dietary restrictions and allergies. Main dining rooms and specialty restaurants often point out the main allergens on the menu card itself, and kitchens ensure they are equipped to handle such cases. For example, dishes made for people with tree nut or peanut allergies will in no way come in contact with those containing the allergen.

Many other diets exist, such as Paleo diets, macrobiotic diets, organic food diets and Mediterranean diet. Because any hospitality venture, including cruises, are rated mainly on service, cruise ship chefs and other kitchen staff must go out of their way to ensure standards are met, particularly when the health of a guest is concerned.

Cruise ship chefs should constantly read about the various diets and allergies, what to include and what to exclude, so they are better able to help guests with specific culinary requirements.

How Cruise Ship Jobs put Hygiene on top priority

Thousands of people need to be fed on a regular basis each day on a typical cruise line, and with the volume of food being prepared, cooked and served, the number of dirty dishes also piles up. The danger of dirty dishes and raw food stems from the buildup of dangerous bacteria and viruses which can make people very sick.

One of the most contagious illnesses that strike cruise ships in particular is from the Norovirus bug, which causes symptoms like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. It is easily transmitted through person-to-person contact, through food, water and sometimes even via air-borne particles of vomit. With so many people on a cruise ship in close proximity to each other – both guests and staff – this virus can travel extremely fast and cause an epidemic. The main method of prevention of food-borne illnesses on cruise ships is cleanliness and hygiene.

All cruise ship kitchens maintain a high standard of hygiene and cleanliness to prevent food-borne illnesses from being spread. All staff working in the galley, including cruise ship chefs, must wash their hands thoroughly as often as required, particularly before and after working with different types of foods, and after using the toilet. They are also expected to use single-use gloves when handling items like raw meat, poultry and seafood.

They also have high-standard personal hygiene rules, including having short, neatly cut nails at all times, hair tied away from the face and beards trimmed, and clean uniforms. Staffs involved in preparation and cooking of food are even prohibited from wearing jewellery, including wrist-watches.

Shipments of food go through a thorough check on delivery for standards of cleanliness before being stored in areas that are sanitised on a regular basis. Before preparation, raw food, particularly salad leaves and fruit, are washed thoroughly. Some cruise ships have their own industrial-size salad washing machines that allow them to efficiently wash large quantities of leaves in a shorter period of time without compromising on cleanliness.

Restaurants, cafés and other food service areas are constantly kept clean by staff specially assigned to the job. Self-serve stalls, such as beverage or ice cream machines, pasta or dessert counters and sandwich bars, are areas that need constant attention and regular cleaning.

Cruise ship galleys have strict guidelines for dealing with dirty dishes and utensils. Most follow the process of rinse, clean and sanitise, in which remaining dried bits of food are first scraped off the dish or utensil, which is then rinsed in potable water, then cleaned with a food-grade detergent and finally sanitised with a food-grade chemical solution or hot water before being left to air-dry.

Regulatory authorities, such as the United States Public Health department and Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, require that galleys are in order before closing for the day, so staff are often working late into the night to ensure every last fork is cleaned, every piece of equipment and service area is wiped down with sanitising solution, the store rooms are in order and food is labelled appropriately.

Even though the lowest level of kitchen staff – the utility assistants and cleaners – may not require prior training to land cruise ship jobs, they receive thorough training on board and are constantly supervised to ensure they follow the correct procedures. Spot checks by management are common as are frequent unannounced inspections by health authorities.

Cruise companies can be fined heavily or lose licences if they fail government health checks. This means that all levels of kitchen staff must comply with high-quality strict health and safety standards at all times.

Unraveling Secrets of a Cruise Ship Kitchen

Coverage received on Navhind Times: The Article can be read here…

Safety in Cruise Ship Chef Jobs

While most people view the physical safety of passengers as a priority, what happens deep in the belly of the cruise ship can also gravely affect them. Cruise ship chef jobs lay as much focus on cooking as they do on safety in the galley to ensure the smooth functioning of the food service operation.

The two main kinds of safety in the galley are food safety and personal safety

Food safety

With thousands of people within such close proximity to each other, it is easy for germs to spread, even bacteria from food. Food-related illnesses such as norovirus or E.coli have spread to epidemic proportions on ships as cross-contamination occurs easily from one passenger to the next. So it is ideal to reduce risks at the source itself.

All food on board ships are required to meet certain safety standards. Your culinary institute will teach you the best practices to keep edible items fresh and germ-free. Temperatures in the galley and more importantly storage areas are vital, as ships go into port once every few days. Food must be stored at temperatures that kill, or at least discourage, the growth of germs that can cause illnesses.

Cruise ship chefs learn how to prevent cross-contamination through good cooking and hygiene practices. Consistently keeping the work space clean ensures food that’s ready to be served is safe from germs that may be on raw produce.

Safety measures also need to be taken when handling food during service, and also when cleaning and sanitising dishes, equipment, storage containers and food preparation areas.

Personal safety

Staying safe while at work allows for better efficiency. A cruise ship chef’s job requires full attention when using knives and choppers so there is less chance of serious injury. It’s also important to ensure that your hands are dry when using electrical equipment such as blenders while dangerous parts such as blades are secure before switching the device on.

On ships, chefs have a few more safety measures compared to their land-based counterparts. Pots should never be filled to the brim so hot liquid does not splash around. Chefs are also advised to never heat grease in an oven in case it overheats and catches fire.

It’s important for chefs to wear their uniform so they are protected from accidentally spilled hot liquids or burns. Proper footwear is also important to keep feet and toes safe from hot gravies or heavy vessels. Any spills are cleaned up immediately to avoid people slipping and falling.

Cruise ships add an additional layer of safety by avoiding any open flames in the galley. All stoves, ovens and even grills are electric as fire is one of the biggest hazards on board. In addition, fire extinguishers are within easy reach in all galleys and food preparation areas, and all staff are trained how to use them.

There are many measures that cruise companies insist on regarding safety on board, particularly in the galleys. Staffs receive regular training to keep them up-to-date with new regulations and also to refresh their memory when joining on new contracts. This ensures fewer injuries and better work efficiency.

American College Of Culinary & Language Arts

Cruise Life