My husband and I recently went on a Carnival cruise. We've been on cruises before and chose this one because the ship was new and had some features that we were very interested in. One such feature was the Chef's Table. This is an added cost to the cruise itself and is prepared at dinner. The chef and a wait staff of eight servers serve 16 guests and start at a special table inside the kitchen where the food is prepared for the entire population and continues in a private dining area overlooking the kitchen.
I will tell you that we loved the experience and so this post will be glowing in regards to the service and food. There were no missteps on the part of the service or the chef.
We started off in an area away from the actual kitchen where we signed in and met a couple of the servers. They led us to the kitchen where the food prep for the nightly dinner service was in full swing. We walked to a table where Executive Chef Karan Singh met us with small bites consisting of salmon with tajin, rosemary cookies, shrimp crackers, and a dessert made of dehydrated mushrooms, truffled white chocolate, and mint moss. This was served with Champagne. The tables were set up with menus that were personalized with our names, welcoming us to the Chef's Table.
Chef Karan demonstrated how the famous Warm Chocolate Melting Cake is made. It is the Number 1 dessert choice on the ship and it is my personal favorite.
Next, we walked further into the kitchen and stepped into a lovely dining area. A long formal dining table with 16 chairs around it, topped with a glass chandelier that spanned the length of the table, was set with dishes, glasses, and name tags. We all took our seats and the chef welcomed us to the Chef's Table. We met the wait staff and said hello to the people seated near us. Then we focused on the food.
Steak Tartare was prepared at the table with foamy hollandaise sauce, mushrooms, thyme oil, and double beer battered fries. The steak was prepared beautifully while the fries were hot and crispy.
Petite Harvest Greens were served as a salad course. This was one of my favorite dishes. There were 20+ types of seasonal vegetables individually arranged on a salad bowl. The dressing was in the center of the bowl. You could scoop your veggies into the bowl all at once, coat the salad with dressing and eat, or you could dip the individual veggies into the salad dressing.
Garlic Rubbed Spot Shrimp was served with limoncello sabayon and gruyere and parmesan beignets.
Pan Seared Black Cod was served with a saffron beurre blanc, asparagus, spring peas, and lemon relish.
Herb Crusted Lamb was my husband's favorite, with balsamic onions, sweet pepper coulis, sourdough pumpkin bites, and maple dijon glaze.
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Beef Short Rib was incredibly tender, having braised for 12 hours and served with 30-layer black garlic dauphinoise potatoes. Yes, that's correct, 30 layers!
There were two desserts served with tea or coffee. The first was Passion Fruit Celebration. The presentation was a dark chocolate sphere, berries, and raspberry petals. A liquid was poured on top which melted the sphere and revealed the dessert inside.
Lastly, the Chef gave each of us a Bailey's molded chocolate, an Uji matcha pinnacle, a raspberry glazed bonbon, and a chocolate cocoa sable.
Wine was served throughout the meal with perfect pairings all through the courses.
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