Tag Archives: continental cuisine

Indian Food Gets Trendy : Cruise Culinary

Cruise Culinary Indian Food Gets TrendyCruise booking portal cruisemeout suggested that the demand in India for luxury travel rises 40 per cent each year. And it’s not surprising. Indian travellers are the third most numerous travellers to Singapore – a major cruise market, and were similarly placed in 2005 in the island nation’s top cruise source markets list with 63,000 passengers.

But that’s not all, Indians are cruising around the world too. Enjoying increasing incomes, Indians are looking for adventures to exotic places, turning up on international cruises to Antarctica and Iceland, Galapagos Islands and even the Arctic Circle.

And it’s not just those living in India. The Indian diaspora is also taking cruise holidays, often with the entire family, to places around the world. The cruise industry is slowly understanding the huge potential of the Indian market, particularly with increasing disposable income and an eagerness for adventure.

But the trend remains that while Indians do love adventure, they also enjoy eating Indian food. Many Indian cruise-goers are senior – often the elderly parents of travelling families. The old and the very young often prefer comfort food and familiar tastes over new flavours and dishes. Additionally, a large number of cruise guests from India are strictly vegetarian and a fair number follow Jain dietary restrictions. To cater to their needs, cruise companies are going all out to include authentic Indian cuisine and flavours.

Celebrity Cruises now has sailings to India from the UAE which comes with a special Indian menu, Costa Cruises sails from India to the Maldives and Royal Caribbean’s Spectrum of the Seas is soon expected to touch Indian shores.

Earlier, Indian cruise passengers would get their fix by asking the numerous Indian crew to sort something out for them. Today, many cruise ships – even those that do not come to India – offer Indian food on the menu and in some cases even specialty restaurants. With vegetarianism, veganism and yoga taking the world by storm, Indian food has become a trend offering dozens of options of authentic food that fit the bill.

Superstar’s Virgo boasts the beautiful Taj Indian Buffet Restaurant which avoids pork and lard in the cooking process. Carnival’s Tandoor flagship restaurant is present on two of its ships – Splendor and Breeze. On most ships, guests can request Indian vegetarian as a choice for the entire cruise, alongside other dietary preferences such as low-carb, low-sugar, vegan, kosher, etc.

Staples include fragrant Basmati rice, a variety of dals, pickles, yogurt and papad. Naans and rotis are other popular items. For mains, Indian vegetarian favourites such as palak paneer, malai kofta, aloo mutter and chhole masala are typically included as these are mildly spiced and appeal to travellers of other cultural backgrounds as well.

Among the meat dishes, lamb and chicken gravies are popular while beef and pork dishes are mostly non-existent. Fish and prawn appear tandoor-style or as a Goan curry. Chicken butter masala and chicken tikka masala are among the favourites, particularly on ships that see a higher number of British passengers.

Celebrity Indian chefs like Atul Kochhar and Ranveer Brar are now taking regional cuisine worldwide with their menus on board P & O Cruises and Royal Caribbean. Kochhar’s Sindhu restaurant offers specialties such as the thattukada duck roast, akha gosht or lamb roast, and Coorgi meen kari – a fish dish from southern India.

Brar’s menu for his stint on board Voyager of the Seas and Quantum of the Seas includes some of his own creations such as amla chhole and gongura chicken which feature regional inspiration but have a global appeal.

Indian food certainly has great potential in cruising, particularly with the number of Indian passengers increasing each year. If the domestic cruise industry kicks off as hoped, the demand for Indian food on board will spike along with a need for Indian cruise ship chefs.

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Continental Cuisine vs European Cuisine

Continental Cuisine vs European CuisineYou will find similarities and differences in cuisine from across the world. A traditionally cooked meal will mostly have all the key nutritional elements in them – carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. But the tastes vary significantly.

Between Continental food and European food, not many differences are stark. Much of the food overlaps each other and it is often a case of context, but one that cruise ship chefs must still know about.

The one key difference between Continental and European food is geographical location. Continental food, over time, has come to mean food from Europe, as well as cuisines from Australia, New Zealand and surrounding islands, North and South America, Southern Africa and other places where European settlers made their home a few hundred years ago. European cuisine, on the other hand, purely refers to food from Europe.

The term Continental cuisine can be traced to England, where they used it to refer to food that came from the continent of Europe, distinguished from island food. The term is often used by eastern Asians when referring to the style of cooking vastly different from their own.

Both Continental and European cuisines base their techniques in what might now be termed ‘healthy cooking’. Dishes are mostly baked, grilled, stewed or roasted. Flavours, however, can range from subtle to quite fragrant depending on where the dish has originated from.

European food, for example, spans the smorgasbord from the light flavours of creamy Finnish salmon soup or an Irish stew across the continent to the flavourful Spanish tapas to colourful the Turkish đuveč.

Within the Continental food bracket, you will find the wildly popular fried chicken and Cobb salad from the US, the delightful lamington cake and flaky meat pie from Australia to the well-known pastas and pizzas of Italy and Swiss fondue and cakes. You will also find British food, such as the traditional fish and chips and a Sunday roast with all the trimmings including Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, vegetables and gravy.

A point to note, however, is the stark difference between a Continental breakfast and the English breakfast. The Continental breakfast is rather basic compared to a full English. It consists of hot coffee, muffins or croissants or toast with jam and butter, and some fruit. The English breakfast is a whole spread of hot beverages, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, and eggs made in several different ways.

A Continental breakfast typically does not have hot dishes, save for the beverage, which is traditionally just coffee. The English breakfast includes many cooked dishes and a choice of coffee or tea. These days, tea is more easily available even in Continental breakfasts as the trend spreads across the world.

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How Cruise Ship Chef Keep Food Safe To Eat

How Cruise Ship Chef Keep Food Safe To EatOne of the most important cruise ship chef job is serving hygienic food. This process begins long before the food reaches the kitchen and is then served to guests. Storage and preparation procedures are key factors that affect the quality of food on cruise lines.

STORAGE

Cruise ships place huge orders for food supplies to carry them through days at sea. Proper storage helps keep them fresh for longer and safe to eat. Cruise line companies design ships to have various storage areas for different food items – fresh vegetables, dairy, different types of meat, canned items and even beverages. Each of these storage areas has different temperature settings linked to the food being kept within.

There are various ways to check whether food is safe when the delivery arrives. Temperatures of food items, particularly frozen food, must be checked, and since most food is frozen on arrival each consignment must pass the test, or be rejected.

Certain foods are more susceptible to going bad at warmer temperatures. These foods – such as milk or other dairy products, must be 5 degrees Centigrade or below when the delivery arrives. Frozen food like meat and seafood should be frozen solid when it arrives at the cruise ship. There should be no signs – liquids, water stains or ice crystals – that the food had thawed and been refrozen.

Cruise ship chefs and food handlers must be careful to check for food that has passed its expiration date before storage and before preparation as well. Those that have are rejected immediately.

During storage, food must be labeled correctly. Ready-to-eat food such as potato salad or hummus is clearly marked by these common names and also a date by which it should be used or eaten.

It’s not just edible items that need correct storage. Cruise ship galleys use chemicals and cleaning supplies to wash dishes and keep the area disinfected. These should always be stored away from food and prep areas. After use, these chemicals and even dirty liquid such as mop water must be disposed of according to instructions from the manufacturer.

Utensils and vessels that have just been cleaned must also be stored correctly so they air dry and do not get contaminated before use.

PREPARATION

One of the main ways for food to get infected by microbes and other germs is through cross-contamination. Clear cut procedures and safety measures can help avoid this situation. This is particularly important for cruise ship chefs who handle both raw and ready-to-eat food items – such as say salad leaves and cooked prawns that might go in a prawn cocktail.

For this, cruise ship chefs have separate equipment and workstations for each type of food – meats, seafood, poultry, vegetables, fruit, eggs, dairy, etc. Workstations and equipment are always cleaned thoroughly before and after they are used.

Cruise ship chefs must also be very careful that ready-to-eat food does not come in contact with raw food. For example, beef steaks that need cooking should not be anywhere near a plate of cut fresh fruit that’s about to be served.

They go so far as to not mix different items or multiple batches of the same item when soaking  produce in standing water or ice water. Almonds and sprouts, for example, should not be soaked in the same vessel. Similarly, one batch of lettuce leaves that may be kept crisp in ice water should be separated from a different one that may have been taken out from the fridge later.

Temperatures are critical during preparation. Several guidelines and manuals list out the various temperatures at which to thaw food items, and how to do it correctly.

Food that has been prepped but is not being served immediately should be returned to a cooler as soon as possible.

By following procedure, cruise ship chefs ensure that guests stay safe while eating their favourite food.

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