Pacific Dawn - Festival of food on the high seas

**Ally** · 05-15-2008, 04:16 AM

Quote:

Turning a ship that has been in the American trade into a cruise liner that suits Aussies' tastes is not just the case of a lick of paint, polish the pots and pans and load the draught beer and Vegemite aboard.

Those essentials were just part of the 120 tonnes of food loaded during an extensive Singapore refit of P&O Australia's now Sydney based Pacific Dawn.

Executive chef Ravindra Jadhav has 123 kitchen staff who, rostered around the clock, produce 10,000 hot meals a day - and even make the ship's ice-cream.

His "United Nations" crew from five countries will also produce 67,000 assorted bread rolls and 120 loaves of bread a day, using 250 kg of flour and a dough mixer that takes a 25kg bag of flour.

And he now knows that when he promises to produce a special curry night for a table, he'd better let Pacific Dawn's captain, Andrew Froude, know about it - and send a serving to the Captain's Lounge.

Soup and suchlike? Six boilers each hold 300 litres.

With 146 waiters - in the old days at sea they might have been called stewards - Pacific Dawn has a very practical method of moving food between decks - twin escalators.

For the average cruise you're also talking 50,000 eggs, 1,000kg of bacon, 3,705kg of coffee - and I reckon with the number of chips the young folk aboard eat the order for spuds has gone up.

Pacific Dawn has introduced the concept of "Your Choice" dining - which means that you eat where and when you want to - (with the obvious caveat that it's best to book in the formal a la carte four course Palm Court dining room or the specialist Steakhouse).

But the Bistro dining in the huge Cafe de Sol (and on the rear deck outside) leads some voyagers not to bother to go anywhere else.

Part of this of course, is the huge range of food on offer - and, (with their preparation one of the most fascinating sights in a galley tour) the seemingly endless and varied sweets, sweets, sweets!

The food is spectacular - a word I generally try to avoid - and the general consensus is that it's above that of many a high-priced city restaurant.

And the way my family tarts up a pizza will forever change after sampling Pacific Dawn's "Aussi" (it has to do with an egg).

It's not all one way - the crew have their own galley, producing exactly what they want to eat.

And P&O has produced a training system with competency certificates recognised within the company and on land - and the galley and bar staff (should that be crew one wonders?) can progress their careers on the ship, within the company, or ashore.

IF YOU GO:
P&O Cruises: www.pocruises.com.auhtml Coming Soon!.

Festival of food on the high seas | LIFESTYLE | TV ONE | tvnz.co.nz