Dish It Up

The culinary arts take center stage once you’re seated at these very special dining experiences.

Imagine slipping away from fellow cruisers to enter a private dining room set aglow. The china gleams, the silver shines, and wine glasses sparkle as if staff fussed for hours. Take a seat and drink a vintage Champagne toast with fellow gourmets, celebrating your collective good fortune. The chef introduces each of the many courses, and click goes the smartphone cameras as servers present eye-catching plates. As each wine is poured, the head sommelier elaborates on pairings. The food, wine, intimacy, and service achieve Michelin star–quality dining ashore. Even if sailing a luxury line, count on an elevated dining experience at a chef’s table served nowhere else on board.

Chef’s tables can prove the gastronomic pinnacle of any cruise. I recently sailed

Crystal Ravel on the Danube and flipped for its chef’s table (dubbed “The Vintage Room Dinner” with versions on all Crystal ships except Esprit). My expectations were minimal; I thought, a riverboat, small kitchen, how serious could chefs get? Surprise — the evening proved dazzling, delicious, and educational. Yes, it’s spendy, but in return, expect an unforgettable evening long-remembered post-cruise. Here’s how a chef’s table unfolds on Crystal Ravel.

Each guest receives an elegant booklet with the evening menu and extensive information on wines poured. My dinner, entitled A Wine Tour of the Great Estates, begins with Champagne — the iconic Moët et Chandon, Cuvée Dom Pérignon Brut 2008, retailing for approximately between $ 165 to $ 190 per bottle.

Rich and powerful, with a complex bouquet, this bubbly stands up well to beluga caviar and veal tartare, even with the meat’s beguiling hint of chili.

Servers next bring silken foie gras, marinated in aged balsamic reduction, with buttery brioche and caramelized hazelnuts brushed with edible gold. The refreshing next course balances the foie’s richness; imagine biting into a perfectly ripened summer tomato plucked from the vine a second ago — that’s the overwhelming intensity of this yellowand-green heirloom tomato soup.

Still marveling over the soup’s flavor bomb (and perhaps a teeny bit tipsy sipping Condrieu, E. Guigal, Rhône Valley 2016; and Chardonnay, Wedell Cellars, Sierra Madre, Santa Maria Valley 2013), I snap back to the present as a server lifts the glass dome from smoked duck breast with berry beet ragout placed before me, and a cloud of liquid nitrogen “smoke” swirls magically up to the ceiling. The pairing, the high-scoring Château Prieure-Lichine Fourth Growth, Bordeaux 2015 — a medium-bodied Margaux with a blackberry finish — proves too luscious not to finish.

I can’t eat another bite, I think … then 36-hour slow-roasted prime beef short ribs strewn with shaved white truffles and edible gold leaf appear. The sommelier pours another high- scoring wine, Cabernet Sauvignon, Barrett & Barrett, Calistoga 2010, and diners break into broad grins. A bottle can retail between $260 to $ 300, so, no surprise, every guest drinks every drop.

Here comes Austrian blue cheese, marinated 12 months in sweet Austrian dessert wine, with fresh- baked profiterole and port- marinated figs. We sip Kracher Number 1, Trockenbeerenauslese, Neusiedlersee 2003, the same wine as the cheese marinade. The mélange of salty, sweet, and savory flavors floor me.

And yet there’s more. Servers present Valrhona chocolate spheres, lavishly pouring glistening hot chocolate sauce over each cake. Inside, mascarpone mousse awaits. We find the petits fours, dark chocolates with olive oil mousse centers, and prettily hued macarons irresistible.

Servers thoughtfully roll in wheelbarrows to cart us to our suites … just joking! After partaking in reasonable portions and pours, we’re neither drunk nor uncomfortably stuffed. But God, are we happy.

I thought, a riverboat, small kitchen, how serious could chefs get? Surprise - the evening proved dazzling, delicious, and educational.