Behind The Scenes In An Ocean-Going Liner’s Kitchen

By Marian Betancourt For Weekly Features

NEW YORK (AP) – Unlike chefs who have both feet firmly on the ground, 29-year-old Matthew Whyles cooks in a kitchen that is always moving – and not always on an even keel, despite the ultimate in maritime technology.

On the recent maiden voyage of Queen Mary 2 from Southampton, Eng-land, to New York, things got a bit dicey behind the scenes in the Todd English restaurant.

"There were big jolts,’’ Whyles, the restaurant’s chef de cuisine, said, and he tilted the flat of his hand to show how the mighty ship leans.

"At 2 o’clock in the morning the storage shelves fell over,’’ he went on, telling of chaos in the walk-in refrigerator. "There was pasta, vegetables. It was like a movie. The stuff was two to three inches deep. We had a big soup on the floor,’’ he said.

The good news: Everything in the kitchen is bolted down, there are braces and rails on the stove and food prep tables; not a meal was missed or a dish broken; and the Queen Mary 2 made it to New York on time for her well-heralded arrival.

"It’s a challenge,’’ Whyles said, talking about working on a moving vessel, although it’s a challenge he is used to. "I had been through it before on the Caronia,’’ a smaller sister ship of the QM2. Before he gained his sea legs, Whyles worked for 10 years on land in restaurants in his native Eng-land.

The QM2 is a lot more stable in rough weather than other ships because of its size, he said, being the world’s longest, widest and tallest passenger ship.

Not only is the ship a step up in size for this chef, so is the restaurant, which seats 50 for lunch and 150 for dinner on average, he said.

One of 10 restaurants and 14 bars on the QM2, Todd English occupies the aft (back) end of Deck 8, with a panoramic view of the sea and sky. In fair weather, diners can have lunch or dinner on the deck overlooking the pool terrace.

The kitchen has no such view. It is a big stainless steel box.

"We do a deep cleaning every three days. It’s the way they run ships. We wash down the whole galley (with hoses),’’ Whyles said, reviewing the be-hind-the-scenes routines of his world.

In his kitchen, unlike most kitchens, there’s a noticeable absence of loose cooking paraphernalia lying about. The bain-marie, a steam table with walls, keeps food warm, and a heated cabinet underneath does the same for 150 dinner plates.

In addition to the walk-in refrigerator where the veggies flew about, there’s a freezer just big enough to hold ice cream or the Thai coffee sorbet they serve with the tiramisu.

Larger freezers are in the common food-storage area that spans three decks near the bottom of the ship. Separate sections hold meat, cheese, vegetables and fruit – including the 7,000 boxes of strawberries the QM2 will use each year. The ship’s yearly store of beef would be enough to supply a small city, and onboard baking consumes nearly 8,000 industrial-size bags of flour a year.

Whyles places his daily food order with this central store. However, be-fore getting into a port, he orders fresh fish and other special foods from port-side suppliers by e-mail.

"The turbot arrived fresh today,’’ the chef said, the day of the interview, "and before coming to New York, we ordered some Maine lobsters, and some tapenades and olives from the Olives restaurant in New York,’’? one of several Todd English restaurants around the country.

Whyles is responsible for a Medi-terranean menu, adapted from the chain’s restaurants on land.

Entrees include grilled Atlantic sal-mon with tomato- and ginger-braised mussels, toasted faro and herb salad. Crispy duck with a ginger-sesame glaze is served over root vegetables and sweet- and-sour cabbage. Seared jumbo sea scallops come with crispy glazed oxtail, silky cauliflower, herb-roasted chanterelles, oven-dried tomato, and frisee salad.

Seafood aside, the favorite dinner selections, Whyles said, are the two beef entrees: braised short ribs and grilled sirloin.

Do they ever run out of anything? Or get unusual requests?

If they run out of something, Whyles said, they usually borrow it from the 1,351-seat Britannia Restaurant, just beneath them on Deck 7. So far, they haven’t had to handle requests they’d consider unusual, he said.

Whyles and his 10 line cooks work seven days a week, from 8:30 a.m. until about 2:30 p.m. to cover lunch, and then again from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. for dinner service.

There’s no day off – but then they can’t really go anywhere, anyway. Time off comes between meals, and between cruises.

"In the afternoon when we’re in port I go out with my girlfriend,’’ Whyles said. She tends bar in another part of the ship and met the chef when they both worked on the Caronia. Back in South-ampton, Whyles gets in a few hasty family visits before the ship sails again.

Whyles and his sous chef have their own cabins, but his other staff share quarters on a ship that houses 2,600 passengers and more than 1,000 staff members.

"My living quarters are right down the front of the ship on 3 Deck, so it takes five minutes to walk to work in the morning,’’ the chef said.

While the ship was getting ready to leave New York, a reporter and photographer were talking with Whyles and making photos in the galley; a Food Network crew with cables, cameras and lights, was filming a fancy dessert preparation; all 11 chefs were busy doing a lobster boil with several large pots and buckets, chopping vegetables, sauteing onions, getting plates warmed under the steam table, as 150 people sat down for dinner on the other side of the galley doors.

Whyles stayed calm and cheerful. Dinner went off without a hitch.

Cooking at sea, once the ship is underway, is probably serene by comparison, whatever the weather.