• Royal Caribbean‘s Symphony of the Seas has a weekly passenger list of at least 6,600 tourists every week.
• A culinary group of 280 chefs run the kitchen areas 24/ 7, with each chef working 10 to 12 hours a day to feed their guests on the cruise liner
• Cooking and preparation work is divided between 36 cooking areas, with main storage and preparation cooking areas off the ship’s secret highway, I-95, which runs the entire length of the ship on deck two.
• See Service Expert’s homepage for more stories

Following is a transcription of the video.

Narrator: Every week, over 6,600 individuals vacation aboard the world’s largest cruise liner. And all those people require to eat 3, 4, eight times a day.

Allan Gentile: You have to calculate. There is breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus snacks, plus night, plus all 24- hour food all around. Which never ever stops.

Narrator: Ship kitchen areas run 24/ 7. Manned by a cooking group of more that 1,000 individuals, they dispense over 30,000 meals every day. And they do it all from compact cooking areas on a rocking ship. How does all this food make it to the plate?

We’ll start on the packing dock on a Saturday. This is turn-around day, when all brand-new food is provided to deck two.

Jaret de Silva: This is generally a place that you would not like to be on turnaround when we are filling. It’s hectic, hectic, very busy.

Narrator: That’s Jaret. He purchases food for the ship’s 23 different dining establishments. Weekly, Jaret’s got a $1 million shopping budget. All of that is simply for seven days of food. Often Jaret will fine-tune his orders based upon who’s coming aboard. More kids indicates more chicken fingers.

De Silva: That’s how the operation runs. We monitor it on a daily basis, what has been utilized, what has not been used. And after that we change our orders appropriately. By in big, being in Miami, having the exact same number of people, it’s nearly the same every cruise.

Narrator: On turnaround day, 30 trucks arrive at Miami Port. They’re bring 500 pallets worth of inventory, and all that needs to be loaded onto the ship by 4 p.m.

De Silva: Any delay in our operation can hamper the sail away of the ship, which is, again, a big logistic requirement.

Narrator: Over 600,000 pounds of food and drinks are provisioned for just one week of cruising. As soon as on board, whatever is moved along the ship’s secret highway. This is I-95, and it runs the whole length of the ship on deck 2.

De Silva: We separate all the stores to the different areas that they are expected to go. We have about 20 various storerooms, divided into freezers, refrigerators, walk-in fridges, and dry shops.

Narrator: Seafood, meat, veggies, and fruit are all divided and stored in separate fridges.

De Silva: If you come towards the end of the cruise, this box will be practically empty with a few fruits that are needed for 2 more days, which we keep as backup stock.

Narrator: There are likewise 6 freezers. That’s where the 700 pounds of ice cream that’ll be eaten each week are stored. Dry goods are saved down on deck one.

De Silva: Loaded with spices, full of chocolate in this storage room, coffee, it’s great to be in this storage room.

Storyteller: An elevator gets the food downstairs. Jaret’s team checks all of the food for quality control every day. If produce is ripening faster than anticipated, they try to work it into another meal. For instance, overripe broccoli could go into broccoli cheddar soup instead of being tossed. When stock is stored, restaurants on upper decks put in food orders with Jaret. Chefs will come downstairs, pick up their order, and cart it away to be cooked. That’s where this person is available in.

German Eladio Rijo Rijo: Any food on board this beautiful ship, anything you’re eating, is my obligation. Whenever you have beautiful potato fry, it’s mine. Rice is mine, pâté is mine, pastry is mine. Salad, shrimp, whatever you’re consuming is my responsibility.

Narrator: Rijo’s team of 280 chefs run the kitchens 24/ 7. Each chef works 10- to 12- hour days. Contracts usually last 4 months, without a single day of rest.

Rijo: A few of individuals begin to work at 8: 00 in the morning all the method to 2: 00, take a break, come back once again 5: 00, feeding by 9:30 Then other group begins to operate at 10: 00 in the night, all the method to 10: 00 in the morning. So we cover day and night productions.

Storyteller: Chefs on board formulate nearly 100 different menus weekly. All the menus are established at Royal Caribbean’s Miami head office. And weekly, chefs stick to the very same rotation of menus, formulating everything from racks of lamb to hand-rolled sushi. The food has to be diverse to match Symphony of the Seas’ international passengers vacationing at all sort of cost points.

Rijo: We try to please everyone and to make certain that everybody find what you’re searching for.

Storyteller: All the cooking happens in 36 kitchens, or galleys, as they’re called on a ship. There are 12 specialized dining establishments on board, costing approximately $50 an individual, and each of those restaurants has its own little galley. In those tight quarters, chefs crank out the same menu every day. At Jamie’s Italian, it’s fresh pasta. At Hooked, it’s over 2,000 oysters shucked per cruise.

But the largest amount of food is reserved for the primary dining room, which covers 3 decks and dishes out to 6,000 people a night. Eating here is consisted of in your ticket. Before food directs to the primary galleys, it begins in one of the prep cooking areas. Off I-95, there’s a butcher store.

De Silva: Butcher! Good morning! These are the gentlemen looking after all the meat cuts.

Storyteller: The butcher goes through about 15,000 pounds of beef and 9,700 pounds of chicken every week. There’s also a veggie-cutting room and a fish-thawing box. Lobster is the most popular dish in main dining. The ship goes through about 2,100 pounds of lobster tails each week.

Lastly, the food heads upstairs to the main galley. The ship’s greatest cooking area is broken down by classifications. Desserts, bread, cold food, and hot food. In dessert, chefs work up cakes, chocolates, and 100 various kinds of pastries. Over in the bread pastry shop, they make 40 various type of bread from all over the world, all from scratch. However the genuine hustle comes right before the supper rush. 6,000 starving travelers in the main dining-room.

Remember Rijo? Before dinner preparation begins, he has to authorize all the dishes.

Rijo: Excellent afternoon.

Chefs: Great afternoon, chef.

Rijo: How are you, chefs?

Chefs: Excellent.

Rijo: Excellent.

Storyteller: Rijo attempts each meal and gives his critiques.

Rijo: We’re going to put a bit more fennel, a little bit more garlic, a little bit more herbs.

Extremely, excellent. This is what we’re looking for.

Aioli. Aioli, we require to put a bit more for today. Yeah? You can see, chef, how it looks. Yeah? Take a note. Don’t forget.

That’s what I’m discussing. All. Stunning, stunning.

We do not have any challenges. We are all set to go?

Chefs: Yes, chef.

Rijo: Está bien? Chefs, thank you so much, and thank you so much. I anticipate having a lovely night tonight. Thank you. Have a stunning day. Bye-bye.

Narrator: Chefs take his notes and get cooking. Chefs can see a tally of each dish bought up on screens. The system likewise tracks how much inventory is utilized. In the cold room, salads and appetisers like carpaccio come together. In the hot space, chefs dispense soups, sauces, sides, and mains.

Andreas Dymke: We have two type of chefs. Chefs working here on the line, which is close to me, plating up, and chefs on the stove cooking. So, whatever we do is in batch cooking. Generally, we grill the steak there. We pass it over to the pass. The individual on the pass is plating it up to the asked for temperature. That indicates, constantly, that the guests are getting fresh food, and from an operational point, we do not have any overproduction.

Narrator: Finally, waiters deliver those dishes to hungry travelers out in primary dining. In between the chefs, stock crew, waiters, and dishwashing machines, it takes a group of 1,085 people to keep this huge operation going. Together, they prepare almost 11 million meals each year. And they’re doing it all on a moving ship.

Gentile: The ship is rocking, then all the devices is constructed to the ship rocking. And in whatever minute, maybe the ship relocations, somebody don’t put one break in one trolley, and you see that trolley flying away. It occur. That’s why all the cooks constantly pay attention with that.

Narrator: However if crew members are doing their task right, guests will not even understand any of it’s occurring. They’ll simply get back to eating their eighth meal of the day.