CRUISINE. - Review - book review

Cruise Travel, Jan, 2001 by Lorraine Shapiro, Phil Shapiro

Cruise-Line Cookbooks Bring Tastes Of The Seven Seas Home

Cruising and eating well are almost synonymous. Since the beginning of cruise travel, ships have been renowned for memorable dinners and bountiful buffets. Now, amazing menu choices in the dazzling venues on today's ships take dining to a new level. For those curious about the festive food onboard, some cruise lines offer cookbooks with their best recipes.

While cooking demonstrations by chefs and maitre d's are popular, passengers looking for more than a few quick recipes can get a cookbook giving a greater quantity and variety. The new Crystal Cruises Cookbook and QE2 Cookbook join older publications such as Princess Cruises Cuisine, Cunard's Cruise Ship Cookbook, Carnival Creations and the Buffets Of Carnival, Costa's Cooking And Cruising Italian Style, and Sonnie Imes' The Tastes of Cruising. Early works may be hard to find.

While you'll never stock your refrigerator and cupboards with a cargo of food, plan daily meals for 3,000 diners, or serve around the clock, these cookbooks with family-size recipes can be a guide to ships' specialties. Some signature dishes are meant for entertaining, others inspire everyday meals, and many more have been streamlined for home cooking or can be done in easy steps.

The Cruise Ship Cookbook, Elegant Meals With Cunard is by Rudolf Sodamin, a former executive chef on the line's Queen Elizabeth 2, and now corporate director of food operations for Royal Caribbean International. One of the first cruise-line cookbooks on the market (published in 1988 by Little, Brown & Company, Canada), it provides a wide range of international menus and recipes from the QE2, Vistafjord (now Caronia), and Sagafjord (now Saga Holidays' Saga Rose). Sodamin invites readers to use and enjoy the book, saying, "A culinary trip around the world in pictures and texts awaits you."

This book is an epicurean adventure from Scandinavian gravlax with mustard-dill sauce to orange duck from France, veal stew oriental to roast beef with Yorkshire pudding. Recipes are well-written and easy to follow. We baked the poppy-seed cake, using half a recipe for a nine-inch springform pan to fit the size of our family, and it worked perfectly.

The latest Cunard cookbook, the QE2 Cookbook by food and travel writer Gretel Beer, gathers the best recipes from around the globe as interpreted by the great ship's chefs. This distinguished cookbook author provides detailed directions, even some metric-weight and oven-temperature equivalents. While QE2 passengers may have caviar with the traditional accompaniments every night--morning and noon, too--going through 2,409 pounds of caviar per year, a recipe for smoked salmon Napoleon with caviar shows another use for this luxury item.

Published in 1999 by Andre Deutsch Ltd., London ($31.00), the QE2 Cookbook features photographs by Laurie Evans illustrating a diversity of dishes from elegant herbed rack of lamb to humble braised lamb shanks with beans. Sweet indulgences run from airy souffles and crepes suzette to an entire chapter devoted to sorbets in rainbow colors.

The 1990 Princess Cruises Cuisine from Dorison House Publishers, Boston, was created in response to continuous requests by passengers over the past 25 years. Featuring the best recipes from Princess Cruises' (and, we think, Sitmar Cruises') award-winning chefs' collection, encompassing 166 ports on six continents, Princess's trademark is the classic cucina of Italy. With a chapter devoted to pasta, risotto, and gnocchi, we liked the pasta primavera, which gets springlike color from fresh vegetables tossed in a light, creamy sauce. Corinne Colen's colorful food photos suggest attractive presentations.

Cooking With Flair, Princess Cruises' Cuisine In Your Own Kitchen, by Pietro Corsi (published by Princess Cruises in 1978) is a collaboration by Princess Cruises' chefs and headwaiters who gave cooking demonstrations. Some dishes, such as their minestrone Genovese, still are being offered, although we haven't seen a lobster cocktail in years. Said corporate executive chef Alfredo Marzi, "Princess's new cookbook, planned for 2001, promises dishes to please a growing segment of sophisticated travelers."

Published in 1999 by Crystal Cruises, Los Angeles ($39.95), the glossy 171-page Crystal Cruises Cookbook was prepared by Toni Neumeister, director of culinary operations, and his team of chefs. Showcasing nearly 100 recipes with stunning color photographs by Deborah Jones, this cookbook is one that everyone will want for his or her collection. Says master chef Andre Soltner in the book's preface, "The next best thing to dining aboard Crystal Cruises is owning a copy of this book," with its dishes, destinations, and definitive recipes.

Recipes from the main dining room and alternative venues not only detail preparation and presentation, but their inspiration. Wines that best complement each dish are listed. Recipes by Jacques Pepin, Wolfgang Puck, and other celebrity chefs who have sailed as part of the line's Wine & Food Festival theme cruises add to the appeal. Some recipes are easily made with readily available ingredients and no special equipment. Others require more time and technique. Testing the chocolate banana cream pie, we learned that the cream filling is chocolate, not vanilla as artistically shown in the cookbook.