Sumptuous Sea Fare -- Food Becomes A Many-Splendored Thing Aboard A Luxury Cruise Ship

The third day of a luxury cruise seems to be a turning point, gastronomically speaking.

Most passengers taper off their consumption of the kitchen's around-the-clock bounty, perhaps convinced that there's plenty of food tucked aboard for the remainder of the trip, perhaps aware that they had best pace themselves if they want to wriggle into their tuxes and gowns for the formal dinners.

During a recent visit to Holland America Line's newest ship, the Maasdam, docked at Pier 46, executive chef Mike Mahn said he has observed another third-day phenomenon. Some passengers who board with a firm resolve to eat light, look around at the food to nibble at nearly every turn and succumb to the temptations.

Who could blame them? In addition to the breakfasts, the lunches and the six-course dinners in the two-deck Rotterdam Dining Room, passengers on the seven-day Alaska cruises also are welcome to partake of: mid-morning hot chocolate on deck; afternoon tea; an ice cream bar with all the extras for make-your-own sundaes; hot and cold appetizers during the cocktail hour; after-dinner espresso, liqueurs and Dutch chocolates in the Explorers Lounge; a Dutch dinner; an Indonesian lunch; a late-night buffet; a Glacier Bay seafood buffet; portable buffet bars on the decks offering deli sandwiches, pasta dishes, Italian salads, tacos, nachos, hamburgers and Asian stir-fries - all that plus 24-hour room service.

Experience as a chef in the Dutch Army and in Holland hotels prepared Mahn for this cooking in quantity, serving 1,266 guests and 571 crew members each day and night. From his office in the spacious, gleaming stainless-steel kitchen, he can see on a closed-circuit monitor how the line is moving at the lunch buffet upstairs, and several other stations aboard the 720-foot-long Maasdam. An escalator comparable to those at major department stores and elevators whisk hot food and servers up to the dining rooms.

The kitchen is cleaned thoroughly twice every 24 hours. Eighteen assistant chefs help Mahn ready the food. Several enclosed cooking and preparation areas keep the tasks separate - a vegetable room, a fruit room, a pastry and baking kitchen, an area for preparing kosher meals, a space for two chefs to work on orders for passengers with special requests and dietary needs.

Speaking of special requests, Mahn has survived his share of surprises, including the gentleman who asked for no-salt caviar. When told that salting is essential to processing these delicate eggs, he responded: "Why don't you just rinse it off?"

The shopping list for a seven-day cruise? With a budget of about $130,000 for food alone, the purchases include 8,000 pounds of beef, 750 pounds of veal, 1,250 pounds of pork, 3,000 pounds of poultry, 4,000 pounds of fish, 500 pounds of lobster, 2,000 pounds of butter, 35,000 eggs, 12,000 pounds of fruit, 22,000 pounds of vegetables and 600 pounds of cheese.

The Holland America, the largest cruise line based in Seattle, has offered health-conscious alternatives on menus for the past 20 years. The specially marked items are prepared in accordance with American Heart Association guidelines.

Stephen Kirsch, manager of marine hotel operations and former food and beverage manager for Holland America, said the cruise line offers more fish selections than it did a decade ago. Then, only 10 percent of guests chose fish for their entrees. Now, almost 40 percent of passengers on Caribbean cruises opt for seafood, and on Alaska cruises it averages 50 percent.

Alaska is the fourth most popular cruise destination in the world, after the Caribbean, Western Mexico and the Mediterranean.

With Holland America headquartered here, Seattle influences are reflected in the shipboard offerings. Chefs from Tump-Nak Thai Restaurant on Denny Way have consulted with ship chefs, providing recipes and techniques of Thai cuisine. Gravity Bar has been consulted for how to make drinks served at the juice bar in the Maasdam's spacious Ocean Spa fitness center. And Kirsch says an agreement is near with Starbucks to provide coffee for the cruises, perhaps with a few coffee-appreciation classes for interested passengers who want to be educated about the lingo of Latteland.

Mahn usually offers a cooking class during each cruise, and he sometimes mingles with guests to get feedback about his menus. "The passengers are honest, telling me whether last night's soup was too salty or too bland to their tastes," he says.

The logistics for loading a ship with provisions are precise, honed during decades of cruising. Much of the advance planning and ordering is done two months prior to a ship's departure. As soon as passenger luggage is removed, forklifts are used to bring the food aboard and take it to refrigerated, freezer and pantry storage space. There's no leeway for a supplier to arrive two hours late at the pier. Fresh fish, vegetables and fruit are delivered at ports of call during the cruise.

Menus are printed aboard, so that if a variety of fish or other food is not up to the chef's standards, substitutions can be made and the planned menu revised.

The Maasdam has two side dining rooms, each providing seating for 44 for groups and private parties.

Smaller dining areas aboard ships seem to be an industry trend. Another line, Diamond Cruise Inc. of Finland, has The Grill, an intimate 50-seat Italian eatery aboard its Radisson Diamond ship.

The idea was not to compete with the grand dining room, but to offer passengers a change of pace. Because of the small size, passengers usually don't get to eat in The Grill more than once during their cruise, adding to the allure of this experience.

American Hawaii Cruises has a new menu with Pacific Rim and Hawaii Regional Cuisine offerings. Jeff Olsen, director of food and beverage, says the emphasis is on use of local ingredients, such as Manoa lettuce from Oahu, Kula tomatoes from Maui, fern shoots from Molokai and fresh fish from local waters: "We want our passengers to not only view the islands, but have a sense of the cuisine as well."