Cruise ship jobs, particularly in the galley, offer a great experience, not just in terms of work but also in terms of life learning. Cruise lines often have at least one multi-cuisine restaurant, no matter how big or small the vessel is. Guests come with different preferences, and this style of menu allows them a variety of choices.

Taking on a job as a cruise ship chef will be easier if you have experience with different styles of cuisine. Getting trained in a reputed culinary institute will also get you up to speed on the latest trends in various culinary cultures. But it isn’t just the dishes that are multi-national. The chefs on board come from a number of different places around the world too.

As a cruise ship chef, your colleagues and work mates could be from your home town, speaking your own language, or from anywhere around the world. It’s possible to have 20 or more nationalities working in the same kitchen every day. Working with people from your own community builds familiarity and comfort, but being with people from different places offers its own share of learning.

Most cruise companies require the chefs they take on to have a minimum level of understanding English, as this is a universal language learnt in most countries around the world. Being fluent in English is an added perk as it ensures you are able to follow instructions with ease and also communicate difficulties and issues without trouble.

Being in close quarters with so many nationalities also allows you to learn about cultures from various places. Often, throughout life, people are restricted to culture from their own communities, barely exposed to cultures even from other states in their own country. Religious norms, social life, and even hygiene practices can differ. Working with people from cultures different from your own will open your eyes to a global culture, an understanding and respect of other people’s beliefs, as well as tolerance.

It’s also a great place to learn a new language – or several if you wish! Hanging out with your chef mates from different places lets you swap treasured recipes you would never have come across even in a restaurant serving that particular style of food.

Influential American photographer Harvey Lloyd once said that “travel is like an endless university; you never stop learning”. With cruise chef jobs, this quote holds true all the more. The learning never stops – not with the pots and pans in the kitchen, or with the people you live and work with alongside.

It’s not just humans who have godparents. Traditionally, godparents take a keen interest in a child’s upbringing, and in many cases in times long gone, played a part in naming the child. The tradition of godparents also exists in the maritime industry, although obviously in not quite the same way.

Godparents of cruise ships reveal the name of the vessel. Ship naming goes back into history, with evidence leading even to the third century BC, of Babylon – in modern day Iraq – celebrating the launch of a ship. Many of the main western civilisations, including the Romans, Greeks and Egyptians, had a tradition of calling on their gods for protection of ships before they set sail.

But it was the Vikings who had a major role to play in modern-day ship naming by godparents. This ancient Scandinavian civilisation would have a sacrifice and mark the launch of their fearsome ships with blood. Later, the Medieval Ages changed tradition to be a little less gruesome, and offered wine instead. It was believed that the godparents would ensure the safety of the ship and its passengers.

Earlier, religious men or officials led the naming ceremony, but now it is mostly women who christen ships. Cruise ships typically have a grand ceremony for the christening with the godmother, godfather – or in some cases, godparents – appointed to officially reveal the name by smashing a glass bottle on the hull of the ship. The ship is decorated with flags and lots of ribbon, and a band strikes up with song as the bottle hits the ship. These days, it’s often a bottle of expensive champagne.

It is usually celebrities or famous people who are called on to christen cruises and become their godparents. The Queen of England was called to be godmother of P & O Cruises Britannia and her granddaughter-in-law the Duchess of Cambridge christened Princess Cruises’ Royal Princess. In both cases, a Nebuchadnezzar, a 15l bottle of champagne, was broken against the hull in celebration.

Actress Dame Helen Mirren is godmother to P & O Cruises’ Ventura cruise line. Sometimes, more than one person is named godparent of the cruise. American dance company The Rockettes christened the Norwegian Breakaway. While most godparents don’t have much to do with the cruise line after the ceremony, The Rockettes featured on a few sailings.

Royal Caribbean cruise line Anthem Of The Seas wanted to do things a little differently and had a contest to select the godmother of the ship. Disney and Royal Caribbean took things a bit further and went fairytale, appointing Tinkerbell from Peter Pan and Princess Fiona from the Shrek series to be godmothers to their cruises Disney Wonder and Allure Of The Seas.

A cruise ship kitchen is unlike anything one has seen before. In the maze of stainless steel fridges, compartments, and cooking stations, cruise ship chefs and others in the culinary department ensure that everyone on board – guests and staff – are well fed and happy. The galley – or kitchen – is divided into sections for ease of management: usually hot galley and cold galley, pastry and bakery.

The hot galley includes all types of cooking such as vegetables, fish, soup and grill. Generally, hot, savoury items are made in the hot galley, while desserts, cakes and ice creams come together in the pastry section.

Various hierarchical positions on cruise liners mean that hard work and experience can take you places. In the hot galley, stocks that will be used in main courses, soups and broths are made from scratch. In the pastry section too, everything is made from the ground up, including the base of the strawberry tart or the filo of a specialty baklava.

A lot of cleaning and gutting goes on in the meat section of the hot galley, and it’s imperative that staff in all cruise ship kitchens keep their workstations impeccably clean. Separating kitchens not only helps with management and division of work, but also ensures that absolutely no aromas get mixed. Nobody wants their exotic dessert catching the strong aroma of garlic.

In both, cruise ship chefs need to have a keen sense of taste to maintain a perfect balance of flavours and a sense of aestheticism to allow for beautiful plating that will tantalise any guests’ taste buds.

Usually, in a hot galley, the work environment is warm and crowded as chefs attend to service requirements during meal times. Since all meals need to be served hot, they must wait until they receive the order before they can attend to it.

In the pastry section, it is usually cool and calm as ingredients such as chocolate and butter must be kept at a low temperature. Many pastry items such as ice cream, mousse or cakes can be prepared in advance and simply plated right before delivery.

Further, chefs in a hot galley often need to make meals according to the guests’ taste – some want their steaks medium rare, others would like their burgers with wedges instead of fries, or their vegetables grilled instead of fried in butter. This is rare in a pastry section – guests hardly ask for a ‘not-so-sweet’ ice cream or a cake that’s been steamed instead of baked!

That said, savoury kitchens – or the hot galley – allow chefs to tweak recipes and they do not have to be perfect with measurements. They can always add salt to a sauce or throw in a few ingredients for a balance of flavours in a soup. Pastry chefs, on the other hand, do not have this luxury. Recipes in this section rely on absolutely accurate measurements. One cannot add more sugar to a pie after it has been baked, or increase the amount of butter in a puff pastry so it flakes accordingly.

Cruise ship chef jobs are unlike land-based jobs in a few respects. One of these that has nothing at all to do with your culinary skills is dealing with seasickness.

While most cruise liners sail in calm, placid waters during excellent weather, a slight swaying of the ship might be inevitable. Seasickness is a type of motion sickness that comes with being on a vessel in the water for some time.

Presumably, it is caused by being on an object in motion, such as a ship, that moves in opposition to our body’s natural inclination for balance. If you feel nausea, dizziness, stomach cramps and vomit while on the cruise liner, you could be suffering from a bout of seasickness.

The severity of seasickness varies from person to person. Often, if you stand on the bridge of the ship and watch the waves, your body anticipates the direction of movement and adjusts its balance accordingly, just as it would when you drive on a twisting road. However, down in the belly of the cruise liner – which is where most staff work and live – you might not be able to see the waves.

Some professional mariners believe that three-quarters of people get acclimatised to the motion of the sea and are naturally cured. But for first timers, a number of solutions have been suggested. If you are close to a port hole or can look out to see from the window of your restaurant, watch a stable object such as the horizon. Avoid reading or using a computer, but if you must, take frequent breaks to look at something stable.

Another easy way is to ensure that you move away from strong smells and take deep breaths of fresh air. Keeping your cabin clean will ensure that you avoid this sea-sickness trigger. Eat healthy, but light food. Cruise ships offer delicious food to crew too, but greasy, high-fat food as well as heavy, sugary treats are unlikely to stay down when you feel nauseous. It’s a good idea to take small sips of water frequently to stay well hydrated.

Although there is no real scientific evidence it, ginger has often been used to alleviate nausea. Perhaps a cup of ginger tea might help. But avoid the milk – as well as other dairy products – as these are known to be harder to digest. Staying away from alcohol when the sea has swells will do you good, as it is known to dehydrate.

If the weather forecast shows swells and you know you are prone to seasickness, ensure you are well rested and hydrated in advance, and eat appropriately. The best foods are light and bland, such as crackers, toast, or a light fruit such as apples. It is also believed that sucking on a slice of lemon can help relieve nausea, as do a few olives.

If you feel comfortable taking medication, cruise ships have an on-board doctor who can help. Stores for crew will also stock over-the-counter anti-seasickness medication. It is advisable to take this before you are actually sick as vomiting will make it hard to keep the pill down.

Seasickness, like motion sickness, normally comes on with a headache and a feeling of general uneasiness. Giving the pill a half hour to work will ensure further symptoms subside. If you are due to go on duty, ask for medication that does not cause drowsiness.

Regular passengers would be baffled by the thought of imagining how a cruise ship kitchen works. A floating hotel that sails over days on glassy seas is indeed an idea of ingenuity in the hospitality world. But over decades, the art of storing, cooking and serving sumptuous food by cruise ship chefs has been perfected to a point that its modus operandi has fascinated all who love good food.

So how does a cruise kitchen serve thousands of meals each sitting and guarantee that every passenger has his or her fill, enjoys the food and often comes back for more? The key is cooking for the masses. While the look and feel says gourmet, the basic preparations are made with numbers in mind. So even though a passenger’s crème brulée might come served in an individual ramekin, the mixture is made – along with a thousand others – in a vat.

Food on a cruise ship is measured by the ton, with some reported figures being 60 tons for a 10-day supply. Staff works in tandem with suppliers to receive the stock on time, and usually forklift the huge load onto the ship at port. At the start of each cruise run, fridges and pantries are filled to the brim with stock, categorised according to type. To ensure, top quality, a specially employed person will check each consignment – of everything from tomatoes, eggs, fish fillets and flour to caviar, liquor, chocolate and sprinkles – so that nothing mediocre even reaches the kitchen.

Freezers and refrigerators are often numbered, with one or two saved for prepared plates. Sides like cold salads are prepared and left in the fridge for the chefs to simply plate up and speed out of the kitchen so guests are not kept waiting.

To make sure ships get their consignments on time, the cruise company selects suppliers at least three months in advance. Come rain, wind, snow or shine, the supplier must ensure his/her stock reaches the port at the time discussed. If consignments are delayed, or even part of the stock is late, the supplier will have to get it across to the ship at the next location on his/her own expenses.

With so many thousands of passengers, the amount of food and number of dishes prepared is staggering. Cruise ship kitchens have transformed from boring galleys serving a sloppy mess of food to spick-and-span operations dishing out meals worthy of reviews. To keep on top of it, staff works round the clock. Due to the volume, there could be a few people solely dedicated to doing a single task – such as cutting onions, boning beef or washing lettuce.

To maintain consistency among chefs in different shifts, some cruise kitchens tape up images of the final look of each finished dish. And to save space, everything is made from scratch, from sauces and mayonnaise to birthday cakes each day.

Some food gets special treatment on board – caviar and foisgras, which can cost quite a bit, are often stored under lock and key. Sometimes, as on the Regal Princess, even much-lovedNutella and Oreos are kept under a watchful eye! After all, they are the ultimate comfort food of all ages.

There’s a growing breed of youngsters straying away from career paths traditionally chosen by their families. Many have a passion for food and travel, which can be expensive as on-the-side hobbies when you work run-of-the-mill jobs you don’t really enjoy. The smart and able ones turn these passions into jobs, and everyone knows that if you love your job, it ceases to be one.

Cruise ship chef jobs are something like that. Working on board offers you the option to indulge in your favourite hobbies of travelling and cooking at the same time, all the time. Being paid wages that are higher than land-based jobs of a similar level is just an added bonus.

The main point here is that cruise ships never go anywhere boring, and they never serve anything boring. Their aim is to give guests the time of their lives and entice them into coming back for more, or at the least, give them a top-notch review. This means, as a chef on board, you get to cook all the dishes you’ve dreamed of and visit places you thought were the stuff of wishful thinking.

Itineraries are often what you’d expect on a celebrity vacation page – the Caribbean islands close to south America, Alaska in north America, Scandinavia and the Mediterranean in Europe, Cape cruises in Africa, the islands of Australasia and delightfully colourful Asian cruises. Each port is as breath-taking as the last, and your social media feed is sure to be the envy of all your friends.

Double that up with your love for cooking and you have a winner! Cruise ship menus are far from ordinary. While they will have staples such as classic pizzas, burgers and other comfort food, you can work your way up to a specialty restaurant, where an experience will carry you a long way in the rest of your career.

Many top celebrity chefs have opened restaurants on cruise lines. America’s Guy Fieri has his Burger Joint on Carnival, Japan’s Matsuhisa Nobu serves his signature dishes on Crystal ships, America’s Todd English has his restaurant on Cunard, America’s Geoffrey Zakarian is on the Norwegian ships along with compatriot Buddy Valastro’s Carlo’s Bake shops, Frenchman Jacques Pepin features on Oceania, Australia’s Curtis Stone on Princess Cruises, as well as Britain’s Jamie Oliver, America’s Michael Schwartzand Devin Alexander on the Royal Caribbean.

Work is hard, but when you love travelling and cooking, being a cruise ship chef is like a dream come true.

For many guests, a great experience with cruise lines is defined in great part by its food. There may be dozens of restaurants on board, but cruise ship chefs only have a restricted set of ingredients to work with. There’s no way they can nip to the store to get that special extra.

But does this mean that a standard menu floats about every day? This may have been (partly) true on the early cruise ships, but chefs on board are very innovative these days. Menus are constructed well ahead of time, and to keep it interesting, there’s something new every day.

Basics such as breads and sauces may not change around too much, but the main elements will definitely be switched up. It keeps guests eager to see what’s on the menu for the day, and also keeps chefs on their toes to serve up delicious meals that are different at every service.

The pantry available to chefs is not small, so the key lies in knowing a variety of dishes using the same ingredients. So with the same chief ingredients, you could either cook up a cider-glazed pork loin with fennel coulis or a milk-braised loin of pork with fennel and cabbage.

Bread is versatile enough to make crumbs for vegetable toppings to pan puddings. Cheese is equally helpful. If you’ve got chicken, bread and pears at your disposal, you could make an orange-glazed chicken with pears and parmesan toast or a pear bread pudding and curried chicken with pears with basically the same ingredients.

Using sweet potato, pork and oranges, you could have a custard with rum-marinated oranges and a caramelised pork with sweet potato or orange pork and broccoli stir-fry and a spiced sweet potato cake with custard sauce.

Being a cruise ship chef doesn’t mean making boring dishes. It means you can use your creativity to whip up a variety of dishes that will blow your guests away. While these decisions are generally taken by the top echelons of the cruise line, it helps to know your options and keep your creativity going all through your cruise ship career.

Working on cruise lines is as hectic as a job can get. Cruise ship chefs literally live at the office. On board, the hours are long and work is often tiring – imagine feeding as many as 3,000 people or more three meals a day, every day for the duration of your contract!

But there’s always time off, and it depends how you would like to use it. When the ship is sailing, time off work is spent engaging in activities that come to be known as ‘cruise life’ or ‘ship life’. Most crew have three to five hours to themselves every day to do as they please. This excludes the time spent sleeping.

It’s in the belly of the cruise line that memories with colleagues are made when the ship is sailing. Each cruise ship generally has two decks reserved for those who work on board. In the upper crew deck, there’s a mess or dining room where everyone eats. Many cruise ship chefs enjoy time in the game room where there are a host of games such as football and ping pong, and even board games.

Some ships open the cruise Gift Shop to crew members at certain hours where you can buy things at special discounted crew rates. You could also catch up on shopping for necessities such as toothpaste, snacks and even cheap beer. There’s a pool where you can relax or sunbathe and even a 24-hour gym to keep fit, all available to crew free of charge. The crew lounge is where the fun happens with crew events such as karaoke and dances. However, it is important to note that all companies are very strict regarding responsible conduct while on board, and you are expected to turn up for duty on time.

To keep their crew happy, cruise lines often appoint a crew officer who looks after the well-being of everyone under his or her care, organises training programmes, crew changes and quality control. Ships also elect a welfare committee that organises entertainment especially for those working on board, such as movie screenings, games, crew parties, and even friendlies. Some cruise lines even hand out an activity calendar that lists all the events scheduled in solely for crew during each cruise.

While in port, cruise ship chefs can get out and about like many of their other colleagues, based on their work schedule. Many like to make calls to loved ones over the cheaper land-based internet, or go shopping for folks back home if they are due to leave soon. Some go on local tours, relax at a beach nearby depending on the port, or take in the local culture and food by visiting pubs and restaurants.

It offers one of the perks of working on board a traveling hotel – where cruise ship chefs can visit exotic countries as part of their jobs. It is expected of crew to be responsible and report back to the ship well before departure – generally an hour before cast off.

In land-based jobs it’s easy enough to know what time you will start work, when you will end and how many hours off you have. Cruise ship jobs might be a little different in this regard since you are not always stationary and often sail across different time zones throughout your contract.

Cruise ship chefs must always know what time it is since guests will arrive promptly for meals and you can’t have them waiting! Time zones have more of an effect if the cruise line is sailing from east to west or vice versa, rather than north to south. But long distances, over a few days, will definitely call for adjusting clocks, whichever way you’re headed.

On board, it is the duty of the vessel’s navigator officer (or first officer) to calculate the time of sunrise and sunset every day and hand the information over to the cruise director and information deck. This information is then relayed across crew and passengers accordingly.

Generally, it is up to the captain to decide whether the cruise ship runs on ‘ship time’ or local time in port. Different cruise lines have varying regulations. The Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruise ships have been known to follow the time of their home port and generally follow this through the entire voyage. If you are working with a ship like this, you will not have to worry about changing time zones, except during free time in port.

On Norwegian cruise ships, the time changes according to the port they are going to, so clocks on board will change accordingly. While sailing, captains generally keep to the same time zone to avoid confusion about work, meals and service. When in port, everyone is notified of any time changes.

As a crew member you will receive information about the timings of your shifts and it is your responsibility to ensure you adhere to these timings. It’s best to clear any doubts with your manager as soon as possible to avoid confusion.

Cruise ship chefs lead a complex life – they must make food that looks good and tastes good from a variety of ingredients available to them on board. Most guests would like to taste a little bit of everything but also not feel hungry even after they’ve eaten.

It’s important to try and incorporate dishes that will give them energy to sustain themselves through the hundreds of activities on board and in port without feeling like they haven’t eaten at all. One key to main meals is to ensure they are balanced – carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Proteins like fish, poultry and meat keep stomachs full and can sustain even the very active guest comfortably. For those with dietary restrictions, beans and legumes are healthy and equally filling substitutes.

Nori or seaweed is known to make people feel fuller after a meal and less likely to indulge in between, so Japanese dishes such as sushi incorporating this wonder food can help slow down binge eating. Potatoes – baked, steamed and boiled – are healthy alternatives to fries and chips that keep the stomach happy.

To make soups and salads more filling, add some chia seeds to bulk up the fibre and protein content. They are so versatile they make a delicious addition to breakfast cereals, vegetable and rice dishes, or even as toppings for smoothies, yogurts, sauces, drinks and baked items.

Another wonder food that can help guests curb hunger pangs is avocado. From the dipping sauce alongside nachos or salad additions or even as a vegetarian or low-calorie substitute for mayonnaise in burgers, avocados do a lot of good.

One of the best ways to ensure your guest’s day gets off to a fulfilling start is to offer a variety of eggs. This is easily one of the most common requests for breakfast on board and can be incorporated into snacks or salads to add some weight to the dish.

Soups are also the perfect way for guests to ensure they fill up and don’t go overboard on the eating. Boosting it with fibre-rich vegetables or beans could even turn it into a meal substitute for older folk and little children, while ensuring those in-between have the choice to take it easy on some nights without waking up with midnight munchies.

Nuts are a quick-fix hunger management system. Throwing in a handful into salads, garnishing main dishes or smoothies, offering nut bread or spreads, and even simply using them in desserts helps keep guests full and satisfied.

For those who are also watching their weight, it is ideal to offer filling grains through the day, such as oats for breakfast and brown rice for meals. Some nutritionists even suggest swapping brown rice for black rice, which can be added to wraps such as burritos too. Green vegetables and fresh fruit are excellent options for low-calorie snacks that keep guests full.

One way to ensure that guests don’t leave a cruise feeling unhappy about weight gain is to ensure you serve delicious food that keeps them full for longer.