After all our adventures, we are rewarding ourselves with the Italian Chef’s Table tonight. There are 3 different tables on this cruise, Italian, French and American, all wine paired and hosted by the head Chef and sommelier. We wouldn’t normally do this, but again, we have cabin credits and these dinners get rave reviews from other passengers. We really want to do the Cuban table – but they aren’t offering that on this leg, so we can only hope they will on the trans-atlantic leg.
I wouldn’t normally blog about ship food – I mean really, it’s always pretty decent, some lines better than others. But, since this was something special – even more special than Azamara food in general (which I think is at the top of the list) – I felt I had to at least mention it.
There were 12 of us at the dinner, a nice mix of young, old, American, Canadian. The dinner talk was companionable and interesting, and the company turned out very nicely for the most part. The dinner itself was fantastic – yes, it was Italian, but over the top, elegant Italian. We started with Vitello Tonnato, made a completely different way (different even from the Italian specialty restaurant on board). This was a mousse of tuna (tuna quenelle) with veal shavings topped with parmigiano-reggiano. Next was a soup with squid, octopus, sea perch and clams – not being a big fan of fishy soups (bouillabaisse is not my favorite by a long shot) – this was fantastic. It was basically a tomato soup base with seafood. Cioppino with a twist. Wonderful.
The house made ravioli looked like a little pastry in a bowl. Filled with osso-bucco and duck liver and covered with mushroom sauce, this was clearly my favorite. The flavors were outstanding and I would have loved to have double portions – but we still had 3 more courses – so better to pace ourselves than ask for doubles. A nice intermezzo cleaned our pallets, then the main course of either Turbot or Beef Tenderloin (Ed and I got one of each). Both were mouth wateringly stupendous.
I’ll stop now with the boring descriptions, especially since none of us ever bothered to take out our cameras to document the meal until the dessert (which of course was an over the top version of Amaretto Tiramisu, cookies and Raspberry Gelato). So good that Ed even ate it – sugar reaction be damned!
Throughout we tasted all sorts of wines, which Igor, the sommelier explained to us, along with the rationale for the pairing. Of course most of it was wasted on me – and Ed of course. The two whites that were nice – Pinot Grigio and Prosecco (duh) – were served with the first 2 courses, then came what ended up being very much like a chardonnay and the rest were red. We totally offended Igor by asking for Pinot Grigio for me and beer for Ed. Oh well, what can we say? You can dress us up, but don’t mess with our choice of alcohol!
Overall, it was a wonderful night, great company and fabulous food. We will definitely consider the Cuban table if they have it on the crossing (and we are fairly hopeful, because we asked Igor if he thought they would do it, and he said they might, and that he would put us first on the list. We’re good!)
Up to the Living Room for a night cap and music, with a full stomach, but surprisingly not so stuffed that we are miserable. Tomorrow….Nice!
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