Silversea Cruises’ new 596-passenger Silver Muse, due to enter service in spring 2017, will feature 26 different food concepts in eight different dining venues, according to Culinary Director Rudi Scholdis.
“We have done away with the main dining room and replaced it with three restaurants,” he said. “And we are installing bars in the center of two restaurants. Just like a restaurant in New York or London, guests can come and have a drink at the bar while waiting for their dinner party. They can also eat at the bar if they wish. Dinners don’t have to take two hours; we are giving the people the option for a quick meal if that is what they want.
Deck 4, which used to be home to the main restaurant, will now feature the MaDame by Relais & Chateaux for fine French cuisine; Alantide, Silversea’s signature seafood grill; and the less formal Kabuki for teppanyaki and sashimi; and Indochine for Asian cuisines.
Deck 7 will have the Silver Note for small plates in the styles of “Peru Meets Japan” or “Mexico Meets North America,” Scholdis said, a lot of flavors and creativity, plus entertainment – jazz and blues.
Also on the same deck will be La Terrazza, an Italian restaurant in keeping with the heritage of the cruise line’s founders and owners, with a buffet area for breakfast and lunch.
On the pool deck, the Hot Rock concept will remain for dinner, as well as a so-called balanced-choice restaurant for breakfast, where guests who are into wellness and fitness can order a protein-based breakfast, for instance. For lunch is a French-style rotisseri adding different options, such as chicken and leg of lamb to the more standard burgers and hot dogs.
The casual Neapolitan-style pizzeria Regina Margherita is on Deck 11, and next door is an ice cream parlor, making fresh ice cream. “We also have an art café, one deck below the pool,” Scholdis continued, “which is like our coffee bar also serving small breakfast items and for lunch light snacks.”
With increasing demand for special diets, nutrition, and allergy laws in Europe, Scholdis said Silversea has hired a culinary nutritionist, Danila Roglieri. “She works very closely with me and makes sure that whatever I create, whatever I cook, is balanced and that we know which allergens may be in the food, and if it is suitable for various diets. And we pride ourselves on never saying no. That has been my motto for the 15 years I have been with the line. I have never said no to anybody and I do not expect anyone aboard to say no to anybody else.”
Silversea has always been committed to delivering a very high-quality food and beverage experience, according to Scholdis, and being independent, it does not have the buying power of competing brands that belong to larger companies. On the other hand, their products run the risk of being universal across their fleets, he said, while he can look for Kobe beef for the Asian restaurants aboard, top prime rib for the grill, and a nice four-pound turbot to put in a salt crust for his seafood restaurant.
Scholdis said he has a detailed database of some 5,000 recipes, including every minute detail and pictures of the finished product, and 360 menus.
Excerpt from Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine: Summer 2016
