Vegan Chefs Table

So I finally have time to talk about this, I went onCarnival Freedom two weeks ago and a few people were interested in hearingabout our vegan chef’s table experience. Before I get to that, if you came hereto cry about “vegans pushing their views on you” remember you voluntarilyclicked on a thread with the word ‘vegan’ in it voluntarily, so well done toyou. But getting to it.

So most courses were modified, but only a couple wereCOMPLETELY different from what everyone else was served, one of the courses inthe main dining room was actually exactly the same, so I enjoyed that. To notbury the lede, we enjoyed it and thought it was well worth the money, thatsaid, given it’s the same on each ship we probably wouldn’t bother doing itagain. It was cool to see people doing their thing and getting a tour of thegalley while it was working was really neat, even as a vegan. Seeing the souppots, just wow.

So we started with the traditional hors d’oeuvres in thegalley, while the chef gave us an explanation of how the galley operates.

First up was the same as everyone else, with one slightchange to the contents of the biscuit. It is a mango sphere on a rosemarybiscuit. I know, you’re thinking it looks like an egg yolk, but it’s not, it’smango juice contained in a sphere of chemicals, it was a really cool sensation,and if you like mango you’ll really dig it. That said my wife thought it was abit bland, I can definitely see that despite the juiciness.

The second in the galley was something that I thought I wasn’tgoing to like as I’m not a big avocado fan, but it was really good. It was atofu and avocado cornet with sesame seeds, there were enough different texturesthere to be really interesting and as it’s a small bite the avocado didn’tbother me at all.

Third was another stunningly presented item, and one thatwas very different from the others as we received a beet carpaccio slice on anair pillow with a roasted plantain and slithered apple. The presentation as a sailingboat was very cool, a bit intimidating to eat. We did the beet carpaccio in theMDR the night before, and my wife had some beets in Georgetown as part oflunch, so safe to say we love beets and we really liked this one.

The final piece of the ‘reception’ was our favourite, beingvegan means we eat plenty of potatoes but this one may have ruined otherpotatoes for me. It was simple a tempered potato and a tapioca poppadum, with aphenomenal source in the tempered potato, a great way to move in to the mainmeal.

The first course was the one where our plate was identicalto everyone else’s, it was a beet blanket wrapped around a square made up ofthe different purees of asparagus, cauliflower and Carrot (they say honey inthe menu but ours was without). There was then a really unique tea poured in toit as a soup, a spiced grape tea with just a hint of lemon. This was good, butwas one of the weaker courses, perhaps because I don’t like asparagus.

This second course was another one I was nervous about due to the presence of Avacado, but I have recently taken a liking to Jicama. It was a Jicama Stack with Corn Custard, Polenta cracker and some passionfruit caviar. The fruit caviar thing was a thing they really enjoyed doing as it showed up regularly in the meal.

I was wondering when the tofu would show up and it came in the third course, in honesty it was a tad disappointing. We really like the tofu that they offer once in the MDR (oh how I wish they did it more often) and this was not much better than that. Of course it was still phenomenally delicious and I liked it, I just wanted it elevated a little more.

This was another one that was the same, or at least looked the same as everyone else’s as we got the two different kinds of tomato bisque. The look of it prompted one of our fellow diners to remark “hey ketchup and mustard” and they weren’t wrong. This was a really good tomato bisque, ours was without any chicken stock, and the addition of the garlic was good, I liked it. This was also the point where I was getting REALLY full.

Then we took a break, that saw the magician visit us, something that was nice for me and the wife as we do anytime dining so don’t really get to experience these things. Of course I was at the side closest to him so he picked me for one of the examples.

This was my favourite course of the whole meal, and I wish I wasn’t as full when it came around as it was one of those things you just want more of. This was a veggie strudel with a vegan herbed pesto, tomatoes, carrot. The filling of the strudel was mostly mushrooms and it was great, a really phenomenal main course, the best thing we ate on the ship the whole trip.

This is so neat that they'll do this - putting it as a future need to do :)

The sixth course may have been the most disappointing course,they clearly weren’t really sure how to replace the pasta course and made areally odd decision that was more like rice noodles, The sauce was good, but Iwouldn’t have ordered this (Pumpkin Ravioli) if it was on a menu at arestaurant.

My goodness! What an incredible desert, it was rich andamazing, I was just about able to force it down and eat everything. Thechallenge of vegan on this one was that without dairy to cut the chocolate itwas just so, so rich, but I loved it. Sea Salt Prailine Chocolate with aRasberry Mojito/Key Life “cheese” cake and then Apricot/Vanilla Gel. It was agreat finish to the meal after a disappointing sixth course.

TL:DR – The chef’s table is good for a vegan, safe, and worththe money.

Sorry that it took three posts but wanted to make sure you could see all the pictures!

Awesome pictures! My son would love all of these. He's been Vegan for just over a year now. Hubby and I are attempting to be a Vegan/Vegetarian.

Was the Vegan Chef's table something you booked after getting on the cruise or before?

Awesome pictures! My son would love all of these. He's been Vegan for just over a year now. Hubby and I are attempting to be a Vegan/Vegetarian.

 

Was the Vegan Chef's table something you booked after getting on the cruise or before?

We did before and then notified then of vegan on the email confirmation. That said you could do it on the ship.

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Those dishes looked de-lish! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for posting! Looking forward to my cruise in nine days!

I'm not vegan or even vegetarian, but this was really interesting to see. I've done the regular Chef's Table and I'm surprised at how similar most of the dishes were to the ones I had. It's nice to see that they were able to accommodate you so well.

Looks fantastic! Didn't know I could do a vegan chef's table. I'm going for it.

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I never thought there can be a vegan meal as elegantly plated like that! One for the bucket list!

Thanks so much for sharing! Definitely going to check that out next cruise [emoji846]

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I thought it was going to be terrible but pics look great! Thanks for the enlightenment.

Thanks for the feedback! It's awesome to know that they can accommodate for vegans and vegetarians. I have done the chefs table and I do not eat pork so it was a few tweaks but everything was delicious. Glad you enjoyed!

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I never thought there can be a vegan meal as elegantly plated like that! One for the bucket list!

We were commenting on just how delightful it all looked. Lots of care even in to our vegan dishes.

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I thought it was going to be terrible but pics look great! Thanks for the enlightenment.

That was part of the point of doing this. Showing that vegans eat wonderful food too.

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I'm not vegan or even vegetarian' date=' but this was really interesting to see. I've done the regular Chef's Table and I'm surprised at how similar most of the dishes were to the ones I had. It's nice to see that they were able to accommodate you so well.[/quote']

 

 

Yeah it's really only two that were COMPLETELY different. Everything else was at least similar.

 

 

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