Chefmakers at Sea

The dish in the front is Spring Onion and Herb Orzo, then clockwise you see Chicken Cordon Bleu with ham, Chicken Cordon Bleu without ham, Mahogany Chicken Wings and Mustard Basted Chicken with Rosemary Lemon Chicken thighs. That is a lot of chicken! Its all from a class called "All About Chicken" from Chefmakers Cooking Academy. Oh yes, there is one more unique thing you should know. All these Chicken meals were prepared on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas sailing in the Atlantic ocean somewhere between Port Canaveral and the Virgin Islands.

Royal Caribbean Cruises are known for there excellent dining, so why would we be cooking ourselves? Well it was very informative and a lot of fun. We ended up taking three different classes at sea from Chefmakers, but specifically from Drew Closs.

This was as far away from grilling as you can get. Not only were we 2,000 miles from my home grill, the ship does not allow any open flame. So no charcoal and no gas grilling allowed. Nevertheless, some of the tricks and techniques we learned will be get back on the grill!

These chicken wings were baked in one of the industrial convection ovens of the Chops Grille onboard the ship - but the same process can be used with indirect heat on the grill.

On another day, in another class we made Manicotti. We cooked the pasta in saute pans instead of boiling. They did not all make it to the table when we started practicing tossing and flipping the pasta in the pans

On another day we made vegetable soup - but it was really a Knife Skills class. We just made lunch from all we learned to cut (planks to strips, strips to dice). 

You should check out the Chefmakers website at www.chefmakeratsea.com and think about taking a class the next time you can't see land in any direction!