On any given night, Pacific Restaurant on Carnival Cruise Line’s newest ship is a hub of activity. On multiple evenings during a recent sailing, guests lined up at the entrance to one of the main dining rooms on Carnival Jubilee, which gave way to a two-deck space with ornate, twinkling light fixtures and soaring white columns.
How Do Galleries Work?
Lots of planning happens before meals ever hit guests’ plates. Food orders are placed around two weeks in advance and loaded onto the vessel on turnaround days, said Menon, whose food and beverage team includes just under 900 members (Jubilee can accommodate more than 6,000 guests).The ship’s galley staff cooks roughly 5,000 pounds of whole chicken, grills around 5,000 pounds of strip steak and bakes approximately 600 loaves of bread every week.
One morning in late February, fish was thawing in a walk-in refrigerator the size of a small bedroom on deck 3, two decks below the galley. According to a label on its exterior, a nearby freezer housed ice cream, while another room was filled with boxes of cruise essentials like Grey Goose Vodka and Crown Royal whiskey.
Chefs then place orders with the vessel’s storeroom team two days before they need the ingredients. “Pre-prep” – such as trimming and marinating chicken breasts – takes place a day beforehand, with more prep following on the day of service, though the time required varies.
Those chicken breasts, for example, might be prepped an hour prior to service. By contrast, “Prime rib cooks for six hours,” Menon said. “A short rib braises for 12 hours, so obviously that has a huge lead time. So, it depends on the dish.”
Then it’s showtime. The galley provides food for an average of 4,000 people a night between Pacific Restaurant and the ship’s other dining room, Atlantic Restaurant.
Where Does Waste Food Go?
Tracking guest preferences is about more than just providing good service. The line has paid close attention to what goes uneaten as part of efforts to reduce food waste. “We looked at what the guests don’t like, what’s coming back on the plate,” Menon said. Then they can make changes.
Carnival also introduced QR-code menus in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has made it easier to tweak menus (though they have printed ones as well). Other measures, such as adding a charge for once-included room service in 2022, have helped the line move closer to those aims, too.
What is Carnival’s Chef’s Table?
If guests want to peek behind the culinary curtain, they can see the galley for themselves. Carnival’s Chef’s Table experience features a tour and a multi-course dinner for between 12 and 16 people, according to the line’s website.
The sleek dining room that hosts the dinner on Jubilee was tucked deep inside the galley space, giving passengers up-close views of the kitchen. The menus – which can’t be found elsewhere on board – vary from ship to ship but have included items like knotted parmesan herb brioche, black-garlic cannelloni, a “lamb trilogy”
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Source: USAtoday
