Two tonnes of sugar, 7,000 boxes of strawberries and 20,000 litres of milk. And that’s just for starters.
For someone in charge of churning out 16,000 meals a day, Queen Mary 2’s executive chef Nicholas Oldroyd appears very calm as he walks around his enormous bustling galley supervising his 160 chefs.
There are no chef tantrums in this world where stirring the pot takes on a whole new meaning. Instead of pots it’s gleaming and steaming stainless steel vats and sinks so deep it’s hard to see the bottom.
There’s no time to relax either. This is a 24 hour, seven day a week operation with everything served on board made in-house from sauces and gravies to delicate desserts to feed the 2500 guests and 1200 crew onboard.
English-born Oldroyd has held the title of executive chef on all three Cunard Line Queens (Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth 2 and Queen Victoria). It’s a family thing as Oldroyd’s twin brother Mark, is also executive chef on Queen Victoria. When he’s not working, Oldroyd likes spending time relaxing by the pool, soaking up the Florida sunshine in Kissimmee where he shares a house with his brother Mark.
A man who obviously loves his food, Oldroyd also conducts tours of the galley showing interested passengers just how their meals are prepared on such an enormous scale. We’re talking 700 scones for high tea each afternoon, 120 pizzas served daily, nearly 8,000 industrial-size flour bags and 7,000 boxes of strawberries a year.
Having stocked up in Sydney, Oldroyd has 600kg of barramundi, plus oysters and blue swimmer crabs freshly plucked from the ocean. The 21 refrigerated storerooms on Deck 1 are groaning with around 50 tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables, eight tonnes of poultry, two tonnes of sugar and 20,000 litres of milk for starters.
“We buy in fresh produce at every port,” says Oldroyd. “In South Africa it was springbok, impala and ostrich; our guests can try the best produce of the country the ship is sailing around. This week it’s a taste of Australia, next week they will be feasting on exotic fruits from Thailand for a taste of Asia with more fresh fish every day.”
As we walk past an eight metre line up of plates waiting for their finishing touches, Oldroyd explains his stand on short cuts like packet mixes – there are none.
“There are no packets used in the kitchen, all the sauces are made from pan scrapings and all the basics are made fresh in house every day.”
It’s a pattern of roast, reduce, skim, and clarify. And it’s a big job – there are eight sauces for just one restaurant with 60 to 80 litres of each. Stirring the huge sauce vats requires a paddle that looks like a boat oar but visitors can jump in and help if they like.
Oldroyd shares Queen Mary 2 food facts that are nothing short of amazing. He says even the drinks are on King Kong scale with enough cups of tea consumed annually to fill an Olympic swimming pool and nearly a quarter of a million wine and champagne bottle corks popped annually that, if lined up, would stretch to the top of Mount Everest.
The tour finishes with the dessert section where Oldroyd shares the secret to his signature dish, the perfect banoffee pie: a chocolate shortbread base. The pie is one of three pastries served free of charge every lunch hour in Sir Samuel’s on Deck 3.
source: eatability.com.au
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 