Dinner at the Chef’s Table

The North Pacific has been rocking and rolling. I would say the waves outside are twenty footers, big enough for the crew to put out dishes of green apples and candied ginger around the ship—both useful to subdue seasickness. We spent nearly an hour before dinner in the Atrium listening to Filip, the ship’s pianist, entertain us with selections from Gershwin, Chopin and Mozart. We had plans to dine with new friends we met yesterday. Unfortunately the wife couldn’t make it—seasickness, but her husband Clancy came, and we had wonderful dinner conversation.

The menu at the chef’s table is an opportunity for the chefs onboard to show off. The fixed menu of the haute cuisine is not just to fill the tummy, but also to delight the senses and the palette. We had five courses with a special wine paired by the sommelier to match each course. First we had an amuse bouche, a sweet potato chip garnished with blue cheese creme fraish, matchstick apples and candied cumquat slices. The second course was a crab cake served on an avocado mash, topped with a carrot slaw and blood orange slices. We cleansed our palette between courses with a Moscow Mule granita. The main course consisted of seared halibut served over a bed of tomatoes and olives in an herbed vinaigrette, and topped with an arugula salad. Finally we had for dessert a mandarin orange panacotta. Coffee followed.

I couldn’t decide if the meandering course I took back to our stateroom was due to the rocking of the ship, or the fact that I had just had a glass of wine with each of those courses. Maybe both. At any rate, we are now safely back in the hooch. The winds are whistling, the waves are dancing and the ship is rocking us to sleep. Sailing west we get an extra hour of slumber tonight to dream dreams of sugarplums dancing in our heads (and maybe another serving of that orange panacotta.)Read more