Every week, more than 6,600 people vacation on board the world's largest cruise ship. All these people need to eat three, four, even eight times a day.
All this has to be recalculated. We have breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as snacks, night meals and 24-hour meals. The work never ends
– admits Allan Gentile, head of culinary innovation at Symphony of the Seas.
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Food on a cruise ship. Logistics are key
The ship's kitchens operate 24 hours a day and are staffed by a culinary team of over 1,000 people. They serve over 30,000 meals every day. meals. They do it all in tiny kitchens on a rocking ship. So how does this food end up on plates?
It all starts on Saturday in the loading zone. On this day, all new food products are delivered on board on level two.
“You wouldn't want to be here while it's loading. It's very, very busy here, says Jaret de Silva, inventory manager at Symphony of the Seas.
This is Jaret, who orders food for 23 different restaurants on the ship. Every week, Jaret has a shopping budget of one million dollars at his disposal. This amount is enough to buy food for seven days.
Sometimes Jaret changes his orders depending on who comes on board. More kids means more chicken fingers.
– This is how the operation works. We monitor every day what has been used and what has not. We then adjust our orders accordingly. When loading in Miami and with the same number of workers, the orders for each cruise are almost the same, admits De Silva.
272 tons of food and 1,000 cooks per week. This is how the kitchen on the world's largest ship works
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On loading day, 30 trucks arrive at the Port of Miami. They are carrying 500 pallets of supplies that must be loaded onto the ship by 4 p.m.
— Any delay in our operations could impede the ship's departure. This is a big logistical challenge for us, says the manager.
Over 272 tons of food and beverages are expected for the week of the cruise. Once loaded on board, everything is transported along a secret “highway”. The I-95 “highway” runs the entire length of the ship on deck on level two.
— All supplies are distributed to different locations. We have about 20 different warehouses, divided into freezers, refrigerators, cold stores and dry warehouses – he lists.
Seafood, meat, vegetables and fruit are divided and stored in separate refrigerators.
— By the end of the cruise, these boxes will be almost empty. There will be a few fruits left that will be needed for the next two days and which we keep as supplies, he explains.
There are six freezers on the ship. They store 317 kg of ice cream that will be eaten within a week. Dry products are stored on deck on level one.
The elevator transports food downstairs. Jaret's team checks the quality of all food products every day. If produce ripens faster than expected, his team tries to use it in another meal.
What is it like to work in the kitchen on a cruise ship?
For example, overripe broccoli may end up in broccoli-cheddar soup instead of the trash. After storing supplies, the restaurants on the upper decks place their orders with Jaret. The cooks come downstairs, pick up their orders and take them to the kitchen. That's when this guy steps in.
— I am responsible for all the food on board this beautiful ship, for everything you eat. When you eat delicious baked potatoes, it's because of me. Rice, pâté, cookies – I'm responsible for everything. Salad or shrimp, I am responsible for everything you eat, says German Eladio Rijo Rijo, chef at Symphony of the Seas.
Rijo's team of 280 chefs work in the kitchens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Each cook works 10 to 12 hours a day. Contracts typically last four months, with not a single day off.
Rijo's team of 280 chefs work in the kitchens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
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Some people start work at 8 a.m. and work until 2 p.m., take a break, come back at 5 p.m. and finish at 9:30 p.m. Another group starts work at 10 p.m. and works until 10 a.m. This is how we operate the kitchen day and night
Rijo explains.
The chefs on board prepare almost 100 different versions of the menu every week. All menus are conceived at Royal Caribbean's headquarters in Miami. Each week, chefs stick to the same rotating menus.
They prepare everything from lamb loins to hand-rolled sushi. The food needs to vary to suit Symphony of the Seas' international passengers who vacation at different price points.
“We try to please everyone and make sure everyone finds what they are looking for,” says the chef.
Food must vary to suit Symphony of the Seas' international passengers
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Vacation on a cruise ship. What can you eat with the purchased ticket?
All dishes are prepared in 36 kitchens called galleys on the ship. There are 12 specialty restaurants on board, with prices reaching up to $50. per person. Each restaurant has its own little galley. In these tight spaces, chefs prepare the same dishes every day.
At Jamie's Italian it's fresh pasta. At Hooked, that's more than 2,000 oysters opened during each cruise. The largest amount of food, however, is reserved for the main dining room, which covers three decks and serves up to 6,000 people a day.
Meals here are included in the ticket price. Before the food reaches the main kitchens, it begins its journey in one of the prep kitchens along I-95. This is the meat plant.
The plant processes approximately 6.8 tons of beef and 4.4 tons of chicken per week. There is also a room for cutting vegetables and a chest for defrosting fish. Lobster is the most popular dish in the main restaurant.
The ship uses approximately 950 kg of lobster tails per week. Finally, the food goes upstairs to the main galley.
The ship's largest kitchen is divided into categories – desserts, bread, cold dishes and hot dishes.
In the dessert department, chefs prepare cakes, chocolates and 100 different types of baked goods. The bakery bakes 40 different types of bread from all over the world. Everything is made from scratch.
In the dessert department, chefs prepare cakes, chocolates and 100 different types of baked goods
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The real hustle and bustle begins just before dinner. There are 6,000 hungry passengers waiting in the main dining room. Do you remember Rijo? Before starting preparations for dinner, he must approve all dishes. Rijo tries each dish and rates it.
The chefs write down their comments and start cooking. They can see all the ordered dishes on the screens. The system also tracks how much inventory has been used. Salads and appetizers such as carpaccio are prepared in the cold room. In the hot kitchen, chefs prepare soups, sauces, side dishes and main courses.
We have two types of cooks. The cooks working here, near me, put the food on plates and the cooks cook at the stove. We cook everything in batches. We grill steaks there. We hand them over to guests. The serving person waits until the dish reaches the required temperature. Guests always receive fresh food, and from an operational point of view, we are never at risk of overproduction
– explains Andreas Dymke, culinary manager at Symphony of the Seas.
Finally, waiters deliver these dishes to hungry passengers in the main dining room. Cooks, warehouse workers, waiters and dishwashers. It takes a team of 1,085 people to keep this huge operation running. Together they prepare almost 11 million meals a year. And all this on a moving ship.
“The ship is rocking, so all the equipment is adjusted to that. At any moment the ship may move, someone may not apply the brake on the trolley and the trolley may fly away. It happens. That's why all chefs always pay attention to this, Gentile explains.
However, if crew members do their job properly, passengers will not even notice that anything is happening. They will simply go back to eating their eighth meal of the day.
