“Each main dining restaurant has their special menus,” said Shyam Jeetun, executive sous chef on the Celebrity Edge.

The ship’s main dining room has essentially been carved up, with four unique smaller restaurants sharing one finishing galley, also separated into four areas.

The four venues share the same core menu, with each restaurant offering up unique nightly specials to it.

Jeetun, who reports to the executive chef, oversees the two main restaurants aft on Deck 4, Cyprus, offering a Greek flair, and Cosmopolitan, offering American cuisine with international influences.

Thirty-two food and beverage venues across the ship account for 178 chefs.

Walking through the main galley on a Friday morning, Jeetun’s team had just finished their breakfast program and were starting on their post-breakfast cleaning, one of three daily cleans that culminates in a larger post-dinner cleaning.

The Celebrity galley hierarchy is color coded by neck bands, starting with yellow for junior level crew and working all the way up to black.

“Blue level means they can take lead and charge in any operation in the galley,” Jeetun explained. “If we have a situation in the bakery, they need to be able to step in.

“If you ask me about training, I will tell you my best trainer was not from the catering school, but my mom at home,” Jeetun said. “I started cooking when I was five.”

Hailing from the island of Mauritius, Jeetun said he would cook for himself after school..

“I learned with a wood fire and charcoal. Then I decided to go to a catering school,” he said.

From there he worked his way through high-end hotels in his home country, before moving to Paris for more training. Eighteen years followed in the hotel world in Mauritius.

“It was always the same routine,” he recalled. “Then I decided to try a cruise line. I came for one contract, and 15 years later I am still here. Celebrity is the best place to work.”

Excerpt from Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine: Spring 2019