Aug. 30 - while on the high seas - The Chef's Table

After a long day touring in Inverness, we returned to the ship to dress for our special dinner - The Chef's Table. You pay $75 pp for this. Joyce Caballero, a new cruise critic friend, made the arrangements for 10 of us to dine at the Chef's Table.  (we ended up at 12 since Princess added another couple we did not know)We met in the International Cafe at the appointed time of 6:45. The Maitre'd came for us to escort us upstairs to meet the head chef - Giuseppe. But first we had to don our white chef's attire and then Giuseppe excorted us to our first chore - washing our hands. It first looked like we were scrubbing for surgery!! The water was so hot even I could barely hold my hands under it. After everyone was done, the chef gave us a walking tour of the galley - in full swing for the dinner hour of 3200 passengers!!! It was amazing how organied they were - from cooks at grills cooking chicken fillets to waiters getting main courses on serving trays, to the huge dishwashers (Hobarts for anyone interested). We ended up passing the bar service area - and bars is a good word since there were 2 men stationed behind bars giving out bottles of wine saved for passengers from the day before.

We moved off to a corner of the galley where we started our evening with 5 different appetizers and champagne!!

Each one was described by Guiseppe and served to 12 of us by 2 different waiters.

After the cocktail hour, we were escorted back to the dining room where a special table was set for us.

We were first served a special mushroom risotto. Yummy. Then came a sorbet to cleanse the palete....strawberry with peppercorns and vodka. Very unusual combination, but good

Guiseppe himself prepared the meat for the main course - flaming tenderloin. But the food did not stop there - it included a lamb chop, scallops and the largest lobster tail I had ever seen. But by the time the main course was served, I finished dinner!! I think I did a good job of moving a lot of food around my plate.

I felt awful wasting all that food, but just couldn't put another bite in my mouth. However, they still were not finished with us - dessert was brought in by 6 waiters and presented to each of us at the same time.

Dessert included a cake enclosed in a lattice tower, and ice cream in a lattice cup. All of this was on the prettiest spun sugar "plate".   It was truly a spectacular presentation.

What a great evening. Good company, a lot of fun, but way too much food. Carlos and I agreed we would not do it again.