With Hotels With Great Taste, we’re pulling back the curtain for a peek at the “special sauce” that hotels use to create memorable, meaningful culinary experiences for their guests.
If your idea of cruise ship dining is an all-night nacho bar and unlimited soft-serve, you are not alone. You’re also not entirely wrong.
The good news: Some ships are moving away from buffets with warming stations, revamping their food and beverage offerings to appeal to contemporary palates. For instance, larger cruise lines are creating onboard restaurants designed and run by Michelin-starred chefs, like Massimiliano Alajmo’s Osteria d’Ovidio aboard the Crystal Serenity. There is a focus on chic venues serving exquisite plates created à la minute, quality over quantity. Most ships cater to individual dietary needs and vibes: teens craving midnight burgers, vegan diets, gluten-free restrictions.
Enter the SeaDream I. Its Norwegian founder, owner, and chairman, Atle Brynestad, hasn’t eaten meat in over thirty years. In 2011, SeaDream Yacht Club became the first cruise line to build a dedicated plant-based menu; its two yachts remain the only ships at sea with raw food menus. Brynestad himself eats 70% raw food ever since a visit to the Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida. Raw food devotees say that abstaining from processed food and items heated over 118 degrees makes them feel younger and healthier, with clearer minds and more energy.
When I boarded the SeaDream, I assumed a raw menu would offer piles of lettuce. Instead, I was delighted to encounter intense, fresh flavors, and varied textures.
The Property and Rooms
I boarded the 112-passenger yacht in San Juan, Puerto Rico—teak decks underfoot, hydrangea-blue sky stretching in every direction, pianist tickling the ivories in the lounge—and within minutes, I was checked in and offered a glass of Champagne. Over the week that followed, as my teenage son and I visited the British Virgin Islands and St. Barthélemy, I learned the possibilities of plant-based cuisine.
My son and I shared a 195-square-foot Yacht Club Stateroom with a comfy queen-sized bed, a sitting area where my son could watch sports while I gazed at the sea from our picture window, and a marble bathroom with a multi-jet shower. I did miss a private balcony, but SeaDream I offered enough outdoor decks that I could always find a quiet spot. My son spent a lot of time in the Golf Simulator, and we both liked chatting with new friends at the Top of the Yacht Bar or around the pool. The ship felt like a private yacht, albeit one shared with affluent, well-traveled American and European passengers. (An elevator makes SeaDream I accessible to passengers with disabilities.) Fellow guests had included newlyweds, families with older children, and couples in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. Many traveled with SeaDream exclusively, some for decades.
At one point, my son called room service to order a plant-based “nacho mélange.” I was skeptical. But crisp tortilla layers arrived smothered with vegan cheddar and fresh, vine-ripe tomatoes. Wearing our matching navy-blue pajamas with our names embroidered over the SeaDream logo, my son and I tucked into our savory, satisfying midnight snack.
When I boarded the SeaDream, I assumed a raw menu would offer piles of lettuce. Instead, I was delighted to encounter intense, fresh flavors, and varied textures.
Courtesy SeaDream Yacht ClubThe Restaurants and Dining Experiences
Menus change with the ship’s itinerary: Provençal herbs and black truffles in the Mediterranean, sea urchin in Croatia, tropical coconut and heart of palm in the Caribbean, along with locally caught fish. I ordered the yellowtail ceviche one night, pink grapefruit drawing out a flavor as acid-bright as the Caribbean sunset.
Pro tip: snag a table on the top deck. You can, and should, ask to sit outside at every meal, depending on the weather. In my mind, nothing can beat the view of water in every direction, with the twinkling lights of small islands in the distance. The movement of stars and the moon are a better show than any big cruise ship musical revue. Without to-do lists or chores, breathing in the fresh ocean air, my son and I were able to connect and share the pleasure of great food. I raised this boy to nineteen; what a gift to enjoy his company in such a magical place.
Each morning, about thirty seconds after my son and I arrived at breakfast, two perfect lattes were served in bone china from Porsgrunds Porselænsfabrik, the Norwegian factory that has supplied the country’s royal family for three generations. We ate thin, lacy Swedish pancakes with lingonberries, whose bright Nordic tartness felt improbably perfect as we ate overlooking Caribbean beaches.
Carnivores don’t go wanting. My son often ordered a five-course dinner featuring proteins, later followed by a juicy room-service cheeseburger and one of SeaDream’s exclusive tea blends, a pot of rhubarb ginger rose. I ordered Asian cashew curry salad, vegetable lasagne made with “noodles” created with spinach leaves, and raw avocado Key lime pie.
On our last night, we decided to try a completely plant-based dinner. Just as a fresh carrot and green papaya salad, and a rice-and-lentil stew were served, we witnessed an eerie, electric-purple light show from the underwater hull lights of a neighboring megayacht.
At our top-deck table, we ate a rustic eggplant and cauliflower, brightened by a fresh basil and tomato coulis. Next up, king oyster mushrooms dressed up as scallops, seared to a caramelized crust, and served atop miso polenta the color of our morning lattes. I cut in expecting the fibrousness of a mushroom stem against my knife, but found only a slight resistance giving way to the silky yield of a perfectly cooked scallop.
My chocolate tofu indulgence was dense and dark in a rocks glass, buried under fresh raspberries and blackberries and tasting rich… As rich as a tech billionaire, and might I say, more elegant.
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The Inside Scoop
For sailings in Northern Europe, ingredients including wild mushrooms, berries, and root vegetables are sourced from Brynestad’s organic farm outside Oslo, where he and his wife, cookbook author Linn Stokke, grow more than fifty varieties of vegetables during the short Scandinavian summer.
“The galley itself is designed for flexibility,” says Brynestad. “Guests can mix courses from different menus at the same table, so mise en place is prepared daily across all of them, and the signature dishes are always ready to support spontaneous orders.”
What that actually requires is staggering: in a 1,430-square-foot galley, fleet executive chef Tomasz Kozlowski leads a culinary brigade of twelve, who prep the components for four full five-course menus everyday, a rotating selection of French and Mediterranean dishes, an entirely plant-based menu, and a roster of always-available signatures.