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Rancho Cordova Independent

Plant-Based Movement Takes to the High Seas

Oct 15, 2019 12:00AM ● By By David Dickstein

Docked in Skagway, Alaska, is Seven Seas Mariner, one of the Regent Seven Seas Cruises ships that sails out of California. Photo by David Dickstein

Plant-Based Movement Takes to the High Seas [4 Images] Click Any Image To Expand

Are Falafel Power Bowls the New Surf & Turf for Cruisers?

SACRAMENTO REGION, CA (MPG) - As further proof that the migration to plant-based products is not a fad, but a bona fide trend, more and more cruise lines are keeping pace with current consumer habits by welcoming aboard the gastronomic movement to their fleets.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises is the next to expand its cuisine with plant-based dishes. Later this fall, the luxury-class line is giving passengers more than 200 new and delicious reasons to feel less guilty about bypassing the fitness center and jogging track while on vacation. This meat-eater certainly will use that excuse thanks to an exclusive advance tasting of some of the plant-based dishes awaiting their debut.

Making notable and nutritious changes to its fare from bow to stern, Regent’s menu makeover appears to be on par with efforts of its direct luxury-class competitor, Oceania Cruises, and more aggressive than earlier plant-based pushes made by more modest cruise lines including Disney, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity.

Soon on Regent ships, including the Seven Seas Mariner and Navigator that sail out of the Port of Los Angeles, it will be out with a separate vegan menu and in with scores of gourmet plant-based dishes integrated into the daily menus of the main dining room and beyond. The new items, which include falafel power bowls and the already mainstreamed-on-land Impossible cheeseburger, will be identified by a small leaf icon. The designation will be an add-on to bills of fare that already have a symbol for lacto-ovo vegetarian foods, meaning they may contain milk and eggs. Based on Regent’s project timeline, the plant-based dishes will be rolled out fleet-wide by World Vegan Day on Nov. 1.

Captaining the culinary creations is Regent Food and Beverage Vice President Bernhard Klotz, who noted that plant-based cuisine appeals to a broad audience of luxury travelers. “This is an emerging, modern specialty cuisine that allows our guests to enjoy more flavorful foods that are in harmony with their current tastes,” he said.

The project team also includes world-renowned chef and author Christophe Berg, a 15-year vegan who recently served in a similar consulting capacity for Oceania, which rolled out 200 plant-based dishes across its entire fleet in August. The new options have been described by Bob Binder, Oceania president and CEO, as “flavorful, colorful, bold and creative.”

Executing a similar vegetarian-rooted vision will be the galley crews of Regent’s four-vessel fleet – five when the Seven Seas Splendor arrives in February. The effected chefs and cooks will be trained a few days before each ship becomes a floating ambassador of the growing plant-based movement.

While similarities exist between plant-based and vegan diets, both of which are generally based on personal health, animal welfare and environmental concerns, the main difference between the two is followers of the former are free to eat dairy, as well as poultry, red meat, fish and animal bi-products. Vegans, vehemently, aren’t.

Excited to climb aboard the plant-based train – check that, ship – is Dino Schwager, a nine-year executive chef with Regent Seven Seas Cruises.

“Plant-based is a movement, like a political movement,” said Schwager during a recent seven-day Alaskan cruise aboard the Seven Seas Mariner. “This is a new cuisine, a completely new niche.”

Exclusive, Almost-to-Spec Tasting

Although the fleet’s galleys were still months away from being fully stocked for the new recipes, the affable German chef personally made this travel writer a three-course meal as close to being “leaf-worthy” as possible. Joining us for the exclusive, almost-to-spec chef’s tasting menu was a third avid non-vegetarian at the table, Vladimir Cavic, the ship’s food and beverage director. Leave it to the journalist to be gauche by asking that we enjoy the trio of dishes out of turn.

First up was the gorgeously plated “Warm White and Green Asparagus,” currently served every 14th day in the Mariner’s exquisite Compass Rose and the line’s other main dining rooms. Accompanied by portabella and oyster mushrooms, Parisienne potatoes and sherry vinegar dressing, the dish appears plant-based. Looks, however, are deceiving. During the making of this dish, butter was used when boiling the asparagus, sautéing the fungi and soaking the spuds. The new menu calls for the butter to be replaced with a plant-based margarine. The main dish already tastes fresh and light, especially with a dressing too delicate to dare overpower the perfectly prepared produce. Exchanging butter for plant-based margarine, “a simple change,” according to Chef, will not only appeal to contemporary palates and lifestyles, but also “celebrate the vegetables.”

“The plant-based margarine we’re getting contains less water than the conventional kind and, thus, brings out more of the vegetables’ natural flavors,” he said.

Purposely using as little butter as possible to replicate how the dish will taste come fall, the kitchen staff proved that the non-plant-based fat isn’t required for this plate to appeal to us avid omnivores. Light, yet satisfying – on par with similar fare from Regent, which means well above average among all cruise categories. When prepared to spec, diners unaccustomed to go vegetarian with their main entrees may get an extra boost from knowing how much healthier each delicious bite is.

Next came the “Assorted Greens & Shaved Fennel,” a lovely salad course option that blends California and Hawaiian cuisines with orange segments and roasted macadamia nut dressing.

“What on the plate isn’t plant-based?” Schwager was asked. Chef replied with a devilish smile, “Nothing! This can be served exactly as-is.” Cheater.

Making up for his attempt at sandbagging, the third course, the “Caramelized Apple Tart,” is a dish that will require longer preparation by the dedicated dessert crew.

“The apple stays the same, caramelized in the oven with the vinegar,” Schwager said as it was love at first bite for this fan of sweet, savory, sour and acidic. “The goat cheese will be replaced by a plant-based cheese, made with cashew. Like switching out butter with plant-based margarine, that’s a simple step. It’s the changes to the puff pastry that’s not easy.”

Plant-based pastry dough, at least on Regent Seven Seas ships, will be put in the freezer to set, then rolled thinly before cutting.

“This has to be done fast,” Chef said. “The dough is so sensitive, if you make it and don’t roll it, it doesn’t work. And you have to roll it between two baking sheets.”

The rules of baking science for a ship’s plant-based puff pastry are much more complex than that, but what most cruisers want to know is how it tastes. Based on the best the executive chef and his galley’s dessert station could do in advance of receiving proper training and plant-based ingredients, we can safely state that passengers are in for a real – and healthier – treat.

Net-net, Regent Seven Seas Cruises adding so many plant-based dishes to its regular menus is a big win for passengers on diets eliminating or limiting animals and animal bi-products. The corporate move also will appeal to meat eaters considering healthier choices from a luxury cruise line known for serving top-notch cuisine.

Interesting to note, Regent estimates that a typical passenger eats about 30 percent more during the first two or three days of a cruise, then goes back on a normal level while simultaneously seeking healthier options. By the middle of a 15-day cruise, heck, even a Texas rancher might pass on a standing order of black angus breakfast sirloin steak with crispy bacon in favor of chia cashew yogurt with carrot-hazelnut granola.

If You Go ….

Regent Seven Seas Cruises – www.rssc.com, 844-473-4368

Oceania Cruises – www.oceaniacruises.com, 855-301-5504

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