Daniel Boulud Dinner...

[Bo1953]

I have signed up for this dinner on our Summit sailing in May...

 

Anyone who done this dinner before, can you shed some light on your take and enjoyment (or lack thereof)?

 

I Am excited to do it and it will be held in Tuscan.

 

TIA - bon appetit - bon voyage

[ETHTrader]

I signed up for this on my upcoming Millennium sailing next week. Would also like to know as well.

 

@Jim_Iain If I am not mistaken, you have done the Chefs Table with Daniel Boulud

[canderson]

38 minutes ago, Bo1953 said:

I have signed up for this dinner on our Summit sailing in May...

 

Anyone who done this dinner before, can you shed some light on your take and enjoyment (or lack thereof)?

 

I Am excited to do it and it will be held in Tuscan.

 

TIA - bon appetit - bon voyage

Had a marvelous dinner, and the wine pairings were all spot on, except perhaps for the dessert.  I asked for a bit more of the Jordan cabernet to go with the chocolate dessert vs. the demi-sec being offered.

 

The fillet, thick as it was, could be cut with a fork.  That was a theme throughout our recent cruise.  Best cuts of meat I've ever had on a cruise.

 

 

 

[mfs2k]

I want to dine in the new Boulud restaurant on Beyond in October.  Too soon for a reservation. 

[cangelmd]

We did the Boulud dinner on Equinox, held in the Murano wine room, same menu as posted above. Food was excellent, but I’m not sure how reflective of Boulud style it was. Solid wine pairings, way too much food. Small group with all the pluses and minuses if that arrangement! No galley tour sadly, but it was the first one that got organized I think. We got a cookbook to take home - a Boulud book, not Celebrity.

[Jim_Iain]

We did the dinner when it was first released.   Daniel Boulud was aboard and had a reception in Retreat with lots of small tastes.    He was very entertaining and posed for pictures with all guests that chose.   He also Autographed his book which is given at the end of the dinner. 

 

The food was good but in many ways very similar to the Chef's Table and not real representative of what is in his cookbook.  Our visit was a bit uncomfortable as it was on a Port day and everyone except one couple and us cancelled.   Iain was the only one that chose that pairing.    The other couple were nice but it was like pulling teeth to dine with strangers that were not very engaging. 

 

On out visit they were still doing Galley Tour so we met for pre-dinner champagne in a bar and then continued with the tour.

[Ken the cruiser]

23 hours ago, Bo1953 said:

I have signed up for this dinner on our Summit sailing in May...

 

Anyone who done this dinner before, can you shed some light on your take and enjoyment (or lack thereof)?

 

I Am excited to do it and it will be held in Tuscan.

 

TIA - bon appetit - bon voyage

Sorry to go against the positive vibes here. We paid the $139 plus $60 for the wine pairing and felt it wasn't worth the price. BTW all we got was a glass of bubbly and some fancy tidbits before going straight to Fine Cuts where we were served dinner in a private area off to the side. Also, we had heard we could get a $25 credit if we declined the cookbook. Nope. We wound up giving it to our butler. But as they say, food opinions can be very subjective.

Edited December 5, 2021 by Ken the cruiser

[cruise kitty]

We did this on Millennium....  if you have the Premium Bev. package, pass on wine pairing upcharge...  they will pair wines from your package & you can pay the by the glass charge if there's something you really want.   

 

Food wise, it was good, but it was a lot  of food,  for me it was more about the experience.

 

We had a fun table that was completely full & were lucky to be surrounded by very enthusiastic folks ready to have a good time.   The nice thing about the very early restart cruises is that people self selected into a great group... you had to love cruising, you had to be vaccinated, you have to be willing to be flexible with last minute changes.   

 

had to break out the celebrity tote to lug that book home....  it would have taken up a third of my 24" spinner bag lol 😉  less than a two hour flight for us non stop 

 

It's a nice souvenir of a lovely cruise...  if we had been flying back from overseas would definitely not have taken the book 😉

 

[Oville]

On 12/4/2021 at 11:49 AM, Bo1953 said:

I have signed up for this dinner on our Summit sailing in May...

 

Anyone who done this dinner before, can you shed some light on your take and enjoyment (or lack thereof)?

 

I Am excited to do it and it will be held in Tuscan.

 

TIA - bon appetit - bon voyage

Bo, I thought you are a Vegan.?

[Bo1953]

2 hours ago, Oville said:

Bo, I thought you are a Vegan.?

Yes, when speaking to Celebrity Dining they will send the info to the ship in advance and they will prepare something along the lines to compare to what the other diners will be having...

 

When I was assured of that, it was a no brainer to sign up for it...

 

I will let everyone know how it goes...

 

bon appetit and bon voyage

[cangelmd]

7 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Sorry to go against the positive vibes here. We paid the $139 plus $60 for the wine pairing and felt it wasn't worth the price. BTW all we got was a glass of bubbly and some fancy tidbits before going straight to Fine Cuts where we were served dinner in a private area off to the side. Also, we had heard we could get a $25 credit if we declined the cookbook. Nope. We wound up giving it to our butler. But as they say, food opinions can be very subjective.

Ken, I don’t remember the fancy tidbits before dinner.
Having that long dinner with strangers is hit or miss. We’ve done 4-5 of these, the only one that was uniformly fun was a Chefs Discovery in Mexico. In that we had all day to get acquainted with the others in the group, and we all happened to be simpatico. 
I wouldn’t say our experiences were terrible, maybe we are just too introverted?

[canderson]

10 minutes ago, cangelmd said:

Ken, I don’t remember the fancy tidbits before dinner.

They started us off with wine and tidbits in Cellarmasters before taking us up to Tuscan for dinner.  Constellation, Nov.

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, cangelmd said:

Ken, I don’t remember the fancy tidbits before dinner.
Having that long dinner with strangers is hit or miss. We’ve done 4-5 of these, the only one that was uniformly fun was a Chefs Discovery in Mexico. In that we had all day to get acquainted with the others in the group, and we all happened to be simpatico. 
I wouldn’t say our experiences were terrible, maybe we are just too introverted?

I think the fancy tidbits were some shrimp with some kind of dip as well as some other finger food served with the bubbly that was not all that memorable. But then this was on the Edge in August when they weren’t doing kitchen tours or taking photos with the chef.
 

But to be honest, the food was a little too much (2 full blown entrees) and a little too rich for us and we suffered because of that for quite a few hours after the dinner. In the case of my DW, the agony lasted for days as she has stomach issues. 

[zitsky]

We plan to try it on Infinity in Oct 2022.  Will do wine pairings at least I will not sure about husband.

 

Not excited about cauliflower soup though.  (Sad face)  Maybe I should say I'm allergic?

[markeb]

Aren’t you close enough to to actually go to Daniel, Bo? I’ve never been. Fascinating menu, which makes me wonder what they're doing on the ship!

[canderson]

17 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

Not excited about cauliflower soup though.  (Sad face)  Maybe I should say I'm allergic?

With the apples and curry, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.  I'm not a huge cauliflower fan, either, but liked the soup.  Don't fret over being hungry when you're done, whatever you decide!

[Arizona Wildcat]

4 minutes ago, canderson said:

With the apples and curry, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.  I'm not a huge cauliflower fan, either, but liked the soup.  Don't fret over being hungry when you're done, whatever you decide!

Have made that soup at home. Wonderful.   Almost as good as butternut squash soup with curry.

We did a chef's table and everyone else was for one group.   They never said a single word except in Mandarin. 

[zitsky]

10 minutes ago, canderson said:

With the apples and curry, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.  I'm not a huge cauliflower fan, either, but liked the soup.  Don't fret over being hungry when you're done, whatever you decide!

 

Ok.  Would be a shame to NOT try it.  Too bad I'm not on Beyond.

Edited December 7, 2021 by zitsky

[markeb]

4 minutes ago, canderson said:

With the apples and curry, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.  I'm not a huge cauliflower fan, either, but liked the soup.  Don't fret over being hungry when you're done, whatever you decide!

I have to do some research. Are the doing this across the fleet? That’s a really interesting menu designed by a Michelin starred chef. And we have OBC…

[cangelmd]

30 minutes ago, zitsky said:

We plan to try it on Infinity in Oct 2022.  Will do wine pairings at least I will not sure about husband.

 

Not excited about cauliflower soup though.  (Sad face)  Maybe I should say I'm allergic?

Not a big cauliflower fan here either, but it was quite good. Puréed cauliflower has so little flavor it’s own, it’s just a creamy base.

[zitsky]

3 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Have made that soup at home. Wonderful.   Almost as good as butternut squash soup with curry.

We did a chef's table and everyone else was for one group.   They never said a single word except in Mandarin. 

 

That soup sounds tasty..

 

The group wouldn't bother me.  I can speak some basic Mandarin.  Learned in graduate school.

 

I know how to say,

 

* My cat wears pajamas.

* I eat bananas on Tuesday.

* Cars have three wheels.

 

 

[cangelmd]

8 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

That soup sounds tasty..

 

The group wouldn't bother me.  I can speak some basic Mandarin.  Learned in graduate school.

 

I know how to say,

 

* My cat wears pajamas.

* I eat bananas on Tuesday.

* Cars have three wheels.

 

 

LOL! My DH has an ear for languages and has learned a smattering of several. He speaks excellent accented French and can have a conversation in Italian, plus a few more.
When he first started learning Italian, he and our then 9 year old son made a trip together to Rome. DS got a cold and felt bad after the long flight, so was put to bed to sleep while completely jet lagged dad went across the street to a shopping arcade for children’s Tylenol and to get the child a book at a bookstore. In the bookstore, proudly trying out his newly acquired Italian, he asked to be directed to where they kept the free young men. The clerk gave him a long, slightly bemused look and replied in perfect English that the kids books are in the back.

[canderson]

28 minutes ago, markeb said:

I have to do some research. Are the doing this across the fleet? That’s a really interesting menu designed by a Michelin starred chef. And we have OBC…

AFAIK, yes.  Have heard reports from a number of different ships.  Chef's Table has been going on for some time across the fleet, I think.  This is the current version.  We were on Constellation for ours just a couple of weeks ago.

[zitsky]

2 minutes ago, cangelmd said:

LOL! My DH has an ear for languages and has learned a smattering of several. He speaks excellent accented French and can have a conversation in Italian, plus a few more.
When he first started learning Italian, he and our then 9 year old son made a trip together to Rome. DS got a cold and felt bad after the long flight, so was put to bed to sleep while completely jet lagged dad went across the street to a shopping arcade for children’s Tylenol and to get the child a book at a bookstore. In the bookstore, proudly trying out his newly acquired Italian, he asked to be directed to where they kept the free young men. The clerk gave him a long, slightly bemused look and replied in perfect English that the kids books are in the back.

 

True story.  (Maybe.)  

 

Went on a grad school trip to China.  I only had one summer of Mandarin.  Last night we had a dinner.  They wanted someone to make a toast and thank our hosts.  Did they ask the 4 year undergraduate Mandarin student or the 1 year grad student?  They asked me.  I managed to say something that was acceptable.  I made sure to use the only word my classmates knew, the word for alcohol.  LOL

 

I learned 4 years of German in high school.  I really should get back to it.

[markeb]

12 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

True story.  (Maybe.)  

 

Went on a grad school trip to China.  I only had one summer of Mandarin.  Last night we had a dinner.  They wanted someone to make a toast and thank our hosts.  Did they ask the 4 year undergraduate Mandarin student or the 1 year grad student?  They asked me.  I managed to say something that was acceptable.  I made sure to use the only word my classmates knew, the word for alcohol.  LOL

 

I learned 4 years of German in high school.  I really should get back to it.

 

Ich weiß nicht...

 

Ich Sprachen keine Deutch aber Ich sprech ein bisschen Bayrisch...

 

Oder Schwabisch...

 

My Goethe instructor a looooooooong time ago was a raging Schwabian. Hated the Prussians. Hated Haute Deutsch. But truly hated Bavarians...