5 minute read
Ocean Flavors
from Range - Volume 7
by Ensemble
How setting sail on Oceania Cruises’ Vista turns a journey at sea into a culinary odyssey.
By Jessica Huras
Inever say no to fresh burrata. There’s something particularly magical about the contrast of its creamy texture against a chewy Neapolitan-style pizza crust. As soon as I see this combination on the menu at Waves Grill, I know what I’m ordering.
The pie arrives at my table, its crust beautifully charred from the wood-fired oven, a silky ball of burrata and thick ribbons of prosciutto piled on top. I admire both it and the warm glow spreading across the sky outside my window. Yet the sun isn’t setting over the Italian countryside, which the pizza is conjuring up, but over an endless expanse of ocean — I can’t believe I’m eating pizza this good at sea.
“We do all our cooking from scratch,” says Oceania Cruises’ executive chef Frederic Camonin, as he later leads me through the labyrinth of stainless-steel kitchen galleys that run beneath the decks of Oceania Cruises’ Vista, pots clanging and steam swirling through the air around us. French-born Camonin has traveled the world as a chef at sea for the past 20 years.
I can smell the pastry area before I see it. Croissants, Danishes, baguettes and other baked goods are prepared here for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day, so they’re always at peak freshness. “We have people working in the kitchen 24 hours a day,” Camonin says, adding that the success of Vista’s ambitious from-scratch food program comes
down to people power. Half of Vista’s onboard staff is dedicated to preparing or serving meals, totaling 140 chefs — or one chef for every 10 guests. I mention my fabulous pizza from the night before and he nods: “We brought a chef from Italy on board to teach the cooks how to make pizza.”
That’s the other secret behind Oceania Cruises’ culinary prowess: recruiting experts to train its culinary team. As we emerge at the other end of the galley in Red Ginger, the ship’s pan-Asian restaurant, Camonin tells me that Oceania Cruises also enlisted a Japanese sushi chef to coach its cooks on the art of preparing fresh fish. “We always get someone who knows the fundamentals to come and show us how to do it properly, and which products to use,” he says.
When I dine at Red Ginger later that evening, I learn the culinary team also shares that knowledge with guests. I listen in as a server sets a bowl of edamame down at the table to my right while explaining the best way to pop the soybeans from their pods. Meanwhile, on my left, a sommelier is walking a couple through the origin and flavors of the albariño grape and how it will complement the zesty notes of their next course: bay scallops with makrut lime.
While there are educational moments to be had at every meal, the ship’s Culinary Center is the ultimate hub for fledgling foodies. During a cooking class focused on North Atlantic cuisine, executive chef and director of culinary enrichment Kathryn Kelly brandishes a chef’s knife in front of me and 23 other students, each of us stationed at our own gleaming induction cooktop.
Kelly demonstrates the correct way to hold our knives in order to effortlessly slice through long planks of celery as we prepare lobster salads. As we squeeze our lemon halves, she shows us how to use the opposite hand as a strainer, spacing our fingers just enough to let the juice pass through while catching any stray seeds.
“Don’t touch those,” Kelly says firmly, as our little hunks of Delmonico steak sizzle while we sip bourbon-based Boston Tea Party cocktails. (We’ll never master a restaurantstyle char if we shuffle them nervously around our pans.)
Though my steak achieves a decent flame-kissed finish under Kelly’s instruction, it doesn’t quite compare to the chef-prepared rib eye, dry-aged for 28 days, that I order for dinner at Polo Grill the next evening. I slice into the tender, buttery beef, then dunk it in a creamy au poivre sauce while admiring the glow of the sunset streaming through the window across the restaurant. If it weren’t for the gentle sway of the ocean, I’d think I was dining in a classic New York steakhouse — but here I am, still blissfully at sea.
Vista’s Can’t-miss Culinary Stops
AFTERNOON TEA AT HORIZONS BAR
Horizons Bar transforms into a British-style tearoom every afternoon, with white-gloved servers wheeling carts filled with savory finger sandwiches and flaky scones. Other servers circulate with a selection of teas, while a string quartet sets the tone for sophisticated snacking.
COCKTAILS AT FOUNDERS BAR
From barrel-aged Negronis to cocktails crowned with aromatic smoke bubbles, the drinks served at Founders Bar could go toe-to-toe with those of any cutting-edge bar around the world. Swing by for a pre-dinner drink or a nightcap to close out the day’s adventures.
CHEF’S MARKET DINNERS AT TERRACE CAFÉ
Buffet restaurant Terrace Café periodically hosts special Chef’s Market Dinners, where dishes inspired by the local cuisine of the ship’s port of call bring a sense of place to the onboard fare, including a Bermudian-style spread complete with rice ’n’ beans and codfish cakes.
