Cruise Ship Chef Shenanigans

Whenever we travel with Bob's twin brother and his wife, we always seem to get involved in something because of the "twin factor." Our recent cruise aboard the Celebrity Equinox was no exception. The entertainment staff thought it would be a hoot to have the twins face off with two of the chefs in a cook-off that they do every cruise.

The boys were called up on stage at the beginning by the head chef and were given about three minutes to pick out a trayful of ingredients from which each chef had to creat three dishes. Bob was paired with a chef from Bali and Dick teamed up with a chef from Scotland.

While the chefs along with their newly recruited assistants prepared the dishes, the head chef answered questions about the food for the cruise and how it was prepared. Can you imagine preparing over 2100 lobster tails in one night? That's how many they served during formal night dinner the evening before the chef's competition.

Bob and Dick were both handed knives and asked to help prepare the vegetables. I couldn't see Polly but I'm sure she was holding her breath too as they chopped carrots, celery and bok choy. Bob got pretty handy with flipping the vegetables in a pan on the stove. He only lost one.

After twenty minutes, time was called and the three judges chosen from the audience were seated on stage. There was some tough love exhibited in the judging (top scores that could be given were 5). Dishes were judged on presentation, taste, and waste. You can imagine some of the ways the guys tried to hide the extra leftovers.

But in the end Bob's team won. We asked later if it had been fixed and got the answer, "Would we do that?" Hmmm.

When the theater cleared after the show, the guys were treated to a special tour of the audio booth and enjoyed that even more than their time on the stage under the lights. All of it of course adding to our cruising experience. Thanks, Equinox crew!