Day 10 - A Cooking Competition At Sea
Oct 30, 2018 - Our last day aboard Island Princess is a day at sea as we sail back to Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale). This morning we are treated to a cooking demonstration featuring Executive Chef, Dirk Daumichen, and Maitre'd Hotel, Silvio Zampieri.
Silvio Zampieri and Chef Daumichen
The stage in the Princess Theater is set up for a legitimate cooking show. Three different dishes are on the menu to be prepared by both the Maitre'd and the Executive Chef. Chef Daumichen demonstrated the skill and technique to prepare each dish to perfection. However, Maitre'd Zampieri had a different objective. His job was to entertain the packed theater while Chef Daumichen showed how the dishes were prepared. The two poked fun at each other during the cook-off and Silvio had a hard time keeping his food from falling on the floor. It was hilarious!
Silvio stops to pose for photos
I think this cooking show interaction is even funnier than the comedian on board! Everyone had a great time, and we all left with three great recipes. Thanks to Chef Daumichen, we know how to prepare them!
We decided to have dinner this evening in the Provence Restaurant, one of the two "traditional" restaurants on Island Princess. My BBQ Rib appetizer was excellent, and I wish I could have had about 8 of these as my main course.
BBQ Rib Appetizer
For my main course, I ordered the New York Strip Steak with Green Peppercorn sauce. I ordered the steak Medium, but it arrived Rare, not even Med Rare. The waiter returned it to the galley and came back with another steak. Again, it was also cooked Rare! This is the only time this cruise we have had to send anything back to the galley. I am pretty flexible on how rare I can eat my steak. I can easily tolerate Medium Rare, but this was very rare. I asked the waiter if I could switch to the Roasted Pork Belly, which was the Curtis Stone Crafted offering. He quickly replaced my steak with the Pork Belly, which was excellent!
As it is the last night of the cruise, Princess waitstaff treated us to a Baked Alaska parade through the dining room. Gone are the days of flaming Baked Alaska being marched past diners. Now we live in a time of litigation and safety regulations. So, small electric candles are atop the Baked Alaska.
The Baked Alaska was three layers of ice cream with a thin sheet of cake surrounded by meringue. It has been a long time since we've had Baked Alaska.
We spend the rest of the evening packing and getting ready to disembark in the morning. We have found a solution to the disembarkation blues that so many cruisers experience on the last day of a cruise. If you already have your next cruise booked, you are looking forward to the next cruise instead of being sad about leaving the current one!
Tomorrow, we will be back in Fort Lauderdale and will fly home to Dallas. We will begin working on a final review of Island Princess, so keep watching CruiseReport.com for updates. Better yet, subscribe to our free email newsletter to know in advance when we post updates.
