Cruising a la carte

TO dine out in Venice or Napoli? Or simply partake of a lobster tail or two on your private balcony?

Crystal Serenity in Venice

ANDRE Soltner's 79-year-old arms can still beat egg whites stiff, his eyes sparkle like stars from old restaurant reviews and his smile might easily melt the butter he lavishes on his dishes.

 "Cooking, it's a love affair, you know, it's really a love affair between the cook and for whom you cook, even if you don't know them," says Soltner after one of his well-attended cooking demonstrations aboard the Crystal Serenity. "You have to like it: some days it's foie gras and other days grated carrots."

Soltner's four-starred New York establishment Lutece became famous as the best restaurant in the US during its 40-odd years after opening in 1961. It made the front page of The New York Times twice and now features in episodes of Mad Men. The chef, who was a kind of food celebrity before such existed (and without the rudeness), was one of the main attractions of the Crystal Serenity's recent food and wine-themed cruise through the Adriatic and Mediterranean. As guest chef, he presided at three cooking demonstrations during days at sea, chose the dishes and briefed the staff for the Guest Chef Dinner, and offered a hands-on class in the galley to a lucky-draw group of guests.

In his white chef's uniform, complete with toque, Soltner is the embodiment of a trend that has been slowly simmering for quite some time: a sophisticated approach to food on board cruise ships that includes the best quality provisions, a range of dining options from classical French and gala formal occasions to barbecue spreads and signature restaurants, as well as onshore food and wine experiences that cater for the eclectic tastes of passengers.

Soltner is not new to cruising: he has done perhaps 35 cruises, starting back in 1982 after he was bailed up in a lift by a cruise company representative and urged to spend his holidays afloat. As if he needed to do any work on his holidays - Soltner was famous for having only five days away from his job at the stove in more than three decades. He was, perhaps, one of the first superstar chefs, although he spent most of his 34 years at Lutece in the kitchen and focused all his attention on just that one restaurant in Manhattan. He says now that he counts many celebrity chefs among his friends: "If I was 40 years younger, I would do it, too. The only problem is when they are on TV they are not in the kitchen."

Apart from his cooking, Soltner's talent is his charm. You get the impression that a big part of the attraction of his restaurant was that he and his wife, Simone, were always there and wooing the diners, from presidents, kings and ambassadors to those just celebrating an anniversary. This charm power serves Soltner well on board. He can raise up an audience at one of his cooking demonstrations like a souffle; telling stories about how he brought the first food processor to the US in 1965, how his restaurant had to turn away a French president, how Malcolm Forbes of magazine fame once offered him finance, which he declined, only to be remembered with a kind token in his will. All this while turning flour and butter, salmon and pike into a mousseline encased in fish-shaped puff pastry. Or making choux pastry into delicate swans. And serving tastings of beignets aux pommes (apple fritters to you) with caramel creme Anglaise.

The cruise passengers are thrilled to be in his presence, asking questions about his favourite salt, what beer to use ("one you like to drink what's left over" is the sage advice) - and that's the whole point. For in cruising these days, food has become a star on the menu of shipboard life. Among the treasured souvenirs I gathered on my Crystal Serenity cruise are the menu from the Guest Chef Dinner of Soltner's choice in the main dining room, the list of sushi and sashimi dishes from the onboard restaurant Silk Road, a placemat from a wine and food-matching lecture, an apron from the day I spent at a Sicilian cooking class and a printout from a body-composition analysis machine taken by the fitness director on the last day of my 12-day trip that says I should lose the (several) kilos I gained on board but my metabolic rate is not too bad, so that's at least possible.

As mementos of what time on board a cruise ship is about, these items give a pretty good summary: the holiday aquatic is built on food and wine, your choice of onshore experiences, and activities - lots of activities. It's all a long way from the cruise ships of old, where the food was plentiful and often available 24 hours a day but the attitude and certainly the quality was more of the all-you-can-eat variety. I remember as a 15-year-old being impressed by the concept of "all-inclusive" meals aboard the Pacific cruise ship Fairstar. Quantity was king at meals served by the mostly Italian staff.

This time I am in Italian waters, served by a ship's crew of more than a dozen nationalities but with many from the Philippines where Crystal, owned by the Japanese company NYK, trains culinary staff. Executive chef Franz Weiss is Austrian but the menus he presides over are as international as his assistants. On board the Crystal Serenity, Weiss is responsible for the main dining room, the speciality Silk Road and Prego restaurants, the relaxed Tastes restaurant and Bistro bar, the Palm Court afternoon tea lounge, the snack bar and ice-cream parlour, the buffet lunches and the crew's mess.

Food for the close to 1000 guests and 650 staff is served at all hours and, of course, there is room service. In my penthouse room on Deck 10, my personal butler Claus brings unbidden snacks such as lobster tails or delicate sandwiches around to my cabin every afternoon in case I am perishingly hungry after a day's touring.

Weiss describes the Crystal style as "very international. We use only the best ingredients," he says, which entails shopping for herbs in Nice when the ship docks in Monaco, and picking up some vegetables in Barcelona, perhaps, but mostly the food is bought well in advance from trusted sources. Supplies are ordered three to four weeks ahead via a big shopping list sent to Los Angeles. All the meat served on board, for instance, is from the US "because the quality is the best".

A tour of the galley gives an insider's view of the provisions. As well as the slick, scrubbed, stainless steel preparation benches, stoves and storage cupboards, there are cold rooms set at different temperatures for fresh vegetables, meat, wine, cheese, caviar and sushi. The caviar room, which actually stores caviar, berries and cheese, could be a tourist attraction in its own right: here are stored boxes of caviar worth $10,000 (at $1000 a kilo). Only two people have keys to the caviar room, says Victor Conceicao, the food and beverage manager, who also shows us a bottle of the $US2500 Chateau Petrus, the most expensive wine kept on board. But the most impressive "fridge" of them all is a -80C chest freezer bought to store fish for the Nobu-inspired Silk Road restaurant set up by the master chef, Nobu Matsuhisa.

Luxury cruise lines such as Crystal have been partnering with celebrity chefs for years now, adding to the exclusivity and variety of the experience. On some ships, these restaurants charge extra; on Crystal Serenity you simply book in advance as the cost is included in the fare. Ahi Kawai, the Japanese-born executive chef de cuisine at Silk Road and The Sushi Bar, was previously at Nobu San Diego, which he opened in 2007. He has been running the onboard restaurant for two years and says the dishes served here are the same as those served at Nobu on land, with some of his own added to the menu. But with the all-included tariff, you are almost obliged to splurge on the signature Black Cod with Miso, Lobster with Truffle-Yuzu Sauce or Grilled Wagyu Beef Rib Eye Steak. The Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeno served at the sushi bar is typical of Nobu's blending of South American influences with traditional Japanese food.

Kawai goes to the fish market at every port to buy fresh fish, although it is a requirement of health authorities that the fish be frozen before use and then thawed - hence the super freezer which doesn't spoil the texture of the seafood like normal freezing. The fish is slowly defrosted by being placed in warm salty water for three minutes then kept in a refrigerator for several hours. In Venice, Kawai returns to the ship with bags of baby octopus, baby eel and local anchovies. The red clams at the restaurant come from Korea and the larger octopus from Morocco, while the rice is a Japanese variety.

"We do everything 100 per cent the Nobu way," says Kawai, who went to the US as a student in 1995. "Sizes, weight, everything has to be perfect." He offers advice to those new to Japanese food (some Westerners are not keen on anything that has eyes or a face) but there are dishes that will satisfy those accustomed to the best Japan has to offer. The 38-year-old Kawai dreams of having his own restaurant one day. But there's not much to dislike about his position now, travelling the world and cooking famous cuisine at the same time.

The other options for onboard dining are: Italian Prego restaurant, which is linked to the Valentino restaurants in the US and serves traditional dishes such as Carpaccio of Black Angus Beef, Lasagna alla Casalinga and Tiramisu washed down with grappa or Limoncello; or the grand Crystal Dining Room, which has two formal sittings each evening and is popular with passengers who like the formality of a four-course dinner and socialising with other guests assigned to their table.

Weiss, who admits the schnitzel served in his honour at the informal Tastes is still his childhood favourite, says he likes the Captain's Gala Welcome dinner best, with its chateaubriand and lobster. My favourite dish is from the Guest Chef Dinner, Minestrone des Grisons, a minestrone soup with pearl barley, croutons and chicken.

But that's just the dining afloat. When the ship docks for a day at the Sicilian port of Taormina, I choose to take the Sicilian-style Cooking and Gardening tour to Villa Trinita at Mascalucia among the lava stones of Mt Etna. Our small group crowds into the kitchen to watch cook Annamaria Simili create a meal of bruschetta, caponata, carpaccio de zucchini, pasta Eolian, chicken with grapes and, for dessert, a crostata with peach jam. We eat the lot, served with wine made by the family, in one of the large, airy rooms of the farmhouse, built in 1609. We follow lunch with a short walk through the small estate's gardens, but the tour is secondary really. OK, there's a pomegranate tree, and those are persimmons; there is a real project here to grow heritage citrus but I keep wondering about the leftover crostata ...

Back on board the ship, Claus has dropped in to my cabin while I was away. Heaven. Brioche and pate, a fresh cup of tea, served by the butler on the private balcony of my cabin in the warm sun off the Italian coast as the ship sets sail. So this is living in the moment. Pretending there are no bosses, tax, sim cards, iPads, cleaning, no children, pets, digital integration, running cisterns, overburdened parents and chronic disease to worry about. Just stare at the waves and it all slips by like the foam lace decorating the wrinkled dark blue water.

If I squint just a bit I can line up the balcony rail with the horizon. I seem to have put on four kilos in four days according to the scales near the steam room in the spa area on Deck 12. But I can't worry about that now. I have to be present. Here. Now. With another fragment of brioche. And a small bowl of mixed berries and grapes. More tea?

It's time to plan for the next day's port, which was supposed to be Sorrento but ends up being Naples because the threat of windy conditions tomorrow makes ferrying passengers from the anchor point off Sorrento too difficult. And so to Napoli, spiritual home of pizza.

As the placid sea once again swallows the fat sun, leaving just a reddish aftertaste in the sky, passengers' thoughts once again turn to food.

Top 10 food moments
In the cool of one of the myriad tiny streets off the main placa in the medieval, walled town of Dubrovnik, I sit on a rickety chair with a coffee and cheesecake, marvelling at the smooth shine of the paving, worn to a glassy texture by centuries of use. The cheesecake is not too big, homemade with a hint of lime, not overly sweet and tasting of ricotta more than Philadelphia. It's good. I have spent the morning looking for a church marked on the map as St Petra's - my namesake. But the map is wrong and even the locals can tell me nothing. All I find at the spot is a music school, signalled by the sound of violin practice wafting from the window. The closest I have come is a picture of St Petka at the religious icons shop. I think about buying it. But reason steps in and I opt for the commiseration of cheesecake. It will have more lasting significance.

Just as some people mark their travels with teaspoons or postcards, I like to collect food memories: call it "eatourism". Here is my list of top 10 food moments from the cruise.

01 Lunch at Trattoria alla Madonna, Venice. I eat breaded fish and salad at a trattoria frequented by gondoliers under the judgmental eye of a waiter, who appears to size me up before allowing me to sit at the tables set aside for singles. The food is delicious, the attitude, Italian.

02 The melted sunshine caponata cooked by Annamaria Simili at Azienda Trinita in Sicily. The secret ingredients are honey and red wine vinegar.

03 Eating sfogliatelle, a crispy layered pastry with custard filling, dusted with icing sugar from a stall as we explore Naples in an afternoon of getting lost and found again.

04 Wandering through La Boqueria market on the famous Las Ramblas in Barcelona, where you can enjoy fresh strawberry and coconut juice while eyeing the Jamon de Pata Negra hanging in stalls next to fruit and vegetables, nuts, all kinds of seafood, chorizos and sweets.

05 Zuppa del Contadina, a thick bean and vegetable soup served with plenty of bread at Boccadama restaurant in the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, just across from the church containing memorials to Galileo, Michelangelo, Dante and Machiavelli.

06 In Monte Carlo, souveniring a menu from the Cafe de Paris, even though I only had a hot chocolate.

07 Eating lobster tails, prawns and crab on the balcony of my penthouse room aboard Crystal Serenity.

08 Strawberry and pistachio gelato at St Mark's Square in Venice, a croissant and coffee in Antibes, roasted chestnuts in Rome. Why is it that food just tastes better in the right setting?

09 Eating tartufo, the rich chocolate ice-cream dessert, at Tre Scalini restaurant in Piazza Navona in Rome.

10 Tasting the menu at Silk Road on the Crystal Serenity, including the rock shrimp entree, tempura vegetables, tuna and Suntory whisky cappuccino with buttermilk ice cream and whisky foam for dessert.

Petra Rees travelled as a guest of Crystal Cruises. For bookings contact Wiltrans International [phone] or 1800 251 174 or your travel agent. For a similar 12-day Venice to Barcelona cruise in August 2012 prices start at $US6105 per person, double occupancy, for a deluxe stateroom with window. All-inclusive prices include food, premium wine and spirits. wiltrans.com.au; crystalcruises.com.