"Mamma Mia!" You think you've got problems fixing dinner
for eight guests?
Try a multi-course Italian dinner (with at least three choices per
course)
for 2,600 guests. That's the task that faced the Star Princess'
galley staff
during a recent cruise.
As the baker was pulling the bread for afternoon tea from the oven,
Alfredo Marzi, Corporate Executive Chef for Princess Cruises, took
me through the Italian dinner preparations. I looked at the menu,
told him what I would choose for dinner, and he walked me through
the work schedule step-by-step, giving me a few cooking tips and
recipes along the way.
The evening's bread would be mixed and proofed at three in the
afternoon. It would be baked an hour before each seating.
From the antipasti menu, I selected shrimp, squid and mussels
in a
Mediterranean marinade with lemon mayonnaise. The fish had been
cleaned in
the fish preparation area yesterday. Two hundred pounds each of
squid and of
mussels were cut up. At 7 a.m. today, the seafood was cooked, then
cooled in
a blast chiller. At two in the afternoon it was marinated in olive
oil and
herbs and would remain refrigerated until 10 minutes before serving.
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For the "zuppe e insalata" course I chose the Rustic
Minestrone with Rice and
Herbs. Yesterday the chef sent the vegetable requisition to the
storeroom.
All the veggies were cleaned and cut in the vegetable preparation
galley,
then put on trays in the holding refrigerator. This morning beef
and chicken
stocks were mixed to create 600 liters of broth. At 2 p.m., the
trays of
vegetables were moved from Deck 4 to Deck 5. Onions were braised
in olive
oil, then the other vegetables were added, all braised together.
The broth
was added, and the mixture simmered for two hours. At 4:30 p.m.
the soup was
divided into four big pots. Two went to the Deck 5 galley and two
to the Deck
6 galley, where they were put on the stoves. At 5:15 p.m., the rice
for the
first seating was cooked in one pot; the second pot would get its
rice at 8
p.m. for the second seating.
"Brasato di Manzo al Barolo" would be my "Secondi
Piatti." Translated, it's
Pot Roast Braised in Red Wine with Cornmeal Cakes and an Array of
Tuscan
Fresh Vegetables.
This is not simply a pot roast. Marzi calls this meat dish "one
of the most
complicated dishes to make." Here's why.
Figuring around 800 to 1,000 portions, the chef sent a requisition
three days
ago to the butcher to cut four- and five-pound pieces of beef, about
300
pounds total. Yesterday the beef was marinated in red wine (Italian
Barolo),
carrots, onions, celery and various seasonings, including rosemary,
sage,
cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns. This morning the containers were
drained
and the meat, vegetables and liquids were separated. The meat was
dusted with
flour, salt and pepper. (Don't add salt to the marinate, Marzi advised.
"It
will toughen the meat.") Between 7 and 8 this morning, two
people braised the
meat until it was golden--an hour-and-a-half process--then removed
it from
the pots. The vegetables went into the same pots for braising until
they
became golden. At 9:30 a.m., the meat and its wine marinade went
back into
the pots, cooking until the wine mixture evaporated. Then water
was added,
and all simmered for three hours. The now-tender beef was removed,
the sauce
was reduced, then blended with the vegetables.
The result? Succulent, flavorful, delectable, tender slices of
beef. I'll
have to try Marzi's recipe.
While the meat was in the pot, the polenta was prepared from 18
kilos of
cornmeal, 50 liters of water, five kilos of butter and two kilos
of salt.
After cooking for an hour or so, the mixture was spread on trays
in 3/4"
thick layers. After a stint in the blast chiller, the polenta was
cut into
half moon shape, put on buttered baking trays and dusted with a
bit of
Parmesan.
At five, Marzi, who designs the presentation of all dishes, arranged
a sample
presentation dish of the "Brazasto de Manzo al Barolo,"
polenta and
vegetables for each galley chef.
Marzi adapted his grandmother's recipe for one dessert, Stuffed
Peach with an
Almond Soufflé. Here's the recipe--for a crowd. "Drain
65 six-pound cans of
peaches, put them on trays. Mix 20 pounds of almond paste with egg
yolks,
almond flour and sugar. Pipe this on top of the peaches." Then
they are
refrigerated. At 5:30 p.m. they are baked very slowly, then dusted
with
vanilla sugar. They are served on a swirl of vanilla sauce with
some
chocolate decoration.
You can't feed a shipload of guests without extensive planning.
After all,
you can't flag down a passing ship to borrow a bag of sugar! Preparations
for
the Star Princess' 26-day inaugural cruise in February from Singapore
to Los
Angeles began last August with menu planning, progressed to requisitioning
in
September, purchasing in December and loading in January.
Of course there is plenty of help and equipment. The staff for
the Star
Princess' seven galleys numbers 208, including the head chef, sous
chefs,
bakers, pastry cooks, butchers for meat, butchers for fish, vegetable
preparation teams and 52 dishwashers. Everything served onboard
is made from
scratch, even the marzipan-rose decorated wedding cakes for the
"Hearts and
Minds" chapel. Three bakers work through the night preparing
at least 7,000
croissants, Danish and muffins for the next day's consumption. The
equipment
is the best available, manufactured around the world. The 400- and
200-liter
soup vats are from Italy, the four-foot-high bread mixing machine
is from the
U.S. The ten $138,000 dishwashers run dishes through a pre-wash,
wash, rinse,
sanitize and dry cycle in 39 seconds!
I think I'll forget trying to fix an Italian dinner at home. We'll
just all
go to sea to feast.
