Cruise News II

Those of you who know me are quite aware of my passion for cooking and obviously eating based on my size and appetite. It is then natural for me to be keenly interested in all things food aboard a cruise ship. The cruise on the Maasdam included not only many great meals, but several cooking demonstrations ( you can be sure I went to them all) by a master chef and even a tour of the kitchens. I found out that every day over 6,000 meals are served on the ship by a dining room staff of 84. It was interesting to see how they handled that many meals it in the kitchen and what the kitchen itself looked like. Some of us panic when we have a few guests for dinner. Can you just imagine how organized you have to be to handle that many meals. After you finish the tour you begin to think about the quantity of food consumed when you dish out 6,000 meals a day and a total of 84,000 for our 14 day trip. Well, of course I found out for you folks and thought it might be interesting to pass it on.

Here’s the consumption for a fourteen day cruise:

17,000 pounds of meat and meat products
8,000 pounds of poultry
4,000 pounds of fish
5,000 pounds of seafood
2,200 pounds of butter and margarine
24,000 pounds of fresh vegetables
9,000 pounds of potatoes
3,600 pounds of watermelon
36,000 eggs
8,000 quarts of dairy
1,400 pounds of sugar
40,000 individual sugar packages
4,200 pounds of rice for the crew
40 pounds of caviar
5,800 pounds of flour
400 gallons of ice cream

Oh, and I also calculated that they needed 40,000 chocolates to leave on the beds each night. Can you just imagine the consumption on the really big ships. This list doesn’t even take into consideration what the baker produces daily. The baker and his staff of four prepare over 20 different kinds of breads that include 120 loaves of bread, 100 loaves of French bread, 4,000 dinner rolls, 800 croissants and 800 Danish and sweet rolls.

And just think of the dish washing involved. Each evening 3,000 dinner plates, 7,000 dessert plates, 2,000 side plates, and 5,000 glasses are washed, not to speak of ramekins, plate covers, silver cutlery, trays, and other odds and ends. Unbelievable!