Cooking Demonstrations Are A Great Cruise Ship Activity
Oceania Cruises is known for its great cuisine. The overall menus and recipes are overseen by the Executive Culinary Director Jacque Pepin. Executive Chefs onboard each ship ensure the quality is always high and add a touch of their own skill to menus and preparation techniques. When food arrives perfectly plated and delicious, you marvel at the work it takes. Oceania offers cooking demonstrations onboard a cruise as part of the sea day itineraries. On some designated cruises, there is an even broader cooking school.
The cooking demonstrations onboard a cruise ship provide insight into some of the house specialties. You get tips from the chefs. While you get copies of the recipes, don’t count on the chefs always using the recipe. A crowd favourite moment always occurs when the menu gets shredded!
Learn Something At the Cooking Demonstrations Onboard a Cruise Ship
When we cruised in the Caribbean with Oceania, the cooking demonstrations were one of our favourite activities. On our 51 day awesome cruise adventure, we had the bonus of cruising with two different executive chefs (Mario Santoro and Jorg Becker). This gave us a chance to see two professionals at their entertaining best! Â Cooking demonstrations onboard a cruise ship can be both educational and fun!
During the cooking demonstrations, the chefs provide explanations of what they are doing and why. Sometimes the chefs will ask the audience “why” certain things are done. Why do you add butter to hot oil? How long do you let pasta dough sit after it is made? Why don’t you add salt when you are cooking (except in copious amounts to the water you boil pasta in)? The lucky person who answers the question correctly may get a glass of wine from Chef Mario!
The executive chefs always recognized their team and brought a guest chef to share the stage with them. The banter between the chefs helped to emphasize key points about the ingredients or preparation. It was easy to see that they enjoyed this part of their duties!
Cooking Classes As Entertainment
You will get lots of cooking tips when you attend cooking demonstrations onboard a cruise ship. But we were lucky to be entertained whenever we went to these demonstrations. They were well attended and anticipated.
The chef’s banter was amusing. It often brought laughter from the audience. We had sailed with Chef Mario before. The funniest part of his cooking demonstration the last time we cruised was the pasta elasticity demonstration.
As soon as we knew that pasta making was on the agenda, we knew that the cooking demo would offer lots of fun. Having taken a cooking class in Italy, we knew that the simple ingredients belied the practice that was needed to make perfect pasta shapes.
We were not disappointed! We got a great lesson on how easy it was to make fresh pasta. But bundled with the science we learned the “art” of pasta making.
A Taste Test When Done
After the food was prepared and plated, the guests got a chance to sample the food. This was the perfect ending to cooking demonstrations onboard a cruise ship!
The ship serves food for the better part of 16 hours. Most of the dishes prepared in the cooking demonstration are on a menu somewhere in the ship. So it always surprised me when the guests crowd the cooking table the second the plates are put down.
Look For Great Food Aboard The Cruise Ship
If you are not prepared to fight for a plastic spoon taste test, you can just wait to get your full size portion from the menu. There is no shortage of great food onboard an Oceania cruise! Often when there is a cooking demonstration, the food prepared at the demo will be highlighted in the coming days. When the cooks do an Italian cooking class, you can head right up to the Italian Buffet. A few times a new recipe was tried in the cooking classes before it was introduced in the main dining room.
If you are on a cruise ship, check out the cooking demonstrations. You will pick up great cooking tips and see how the chefs bring you such great food. You may also find that cooking demonstrations onboard a cruise ship are one of the best entertainment you will find!
Have you done cooking demonstrations onboard a cruise ship? Did you learn some cooking tips? Was it great entertainment?
I thought I was the only one who enjoyed stuff like this. I actually got to participate on stage in one when I was on a Celebrity ship. Great fun, right?
Marian, It was indeed great fun. Awesome when they involve the guests in the show. We have had quite a few sea days on our 51 day cruise adventure. The sea day activities broke up the days. Linda