Always a pioneer of innovative cruise cuisine, Seabourn Cruise Line has once again successfully translated a tasteful trend popularized by upper-tier shoreside restaurants to its three intimate, yacht-like ships.
When the line introduced innovative dinner menus called "Tastings @ 2" to its more casual alternative onboard dining venue, it became the first cruise line to feature a multi-course, small-plate dining experience on board.
According to Deborah L. Natansohn, Seabourn's president, "Seabourn's guests are very sophisticated diners, who seek out creative and inventive chefs both at home and as they travel around the world. They have experienced the way many of today's chefs are fusing ideas from Spanish tapas and French menus degustation and Asian multi-course traditions to create diverse, interesting meals, and they expect to find the same sort of inventive cuisine on our ships."
Seabourn Corporate Executive Chef Anton "Tony" Egger, who designed the Tastings @ 2 menus, describes the concept as "...a sort of culinary symphony, like a complex musical composition of tastes and textures." Some dishes are served solo, says Egger, "...like bold themes or quieter passages." Others are combined to create rich chords in harmony or dissonance. "I am able to mix and match, highlight one dish or serve an assortment of flavors to be tasted together," Egger continued. "By serving more than one dish per course, I create a multitude of flavors and sensations in a single meal of five or six courses."
To accomplish this nightly symphony, the galleys for the ships' Veranda Cafés were expanded to accommodate two chefs working simultaneously to prepare and plate the dozens of dishes that make up each meal. Even though each night's menu is fixed, the mis en place array of ingredients and seasonings is staggeringly complex, and the pace of preparation Olympian.

The menus created challenges for the service brigade, as well. Accustomed to serving one dish at a time, the waiters and assistants have had to retool the rhythm and choreography of delivery and clearing to match the varied courses and adjust to the fact that some dishes now consist of only a bite or two. It is a tribute to their professionalism and skill that they are able to make the transition nightly. "When they put on the 2 uniform," says Egger, "they also change their mindset!"
2, which accommodates about 50 of each ship's 208 guests each night by reservation, is located high atop the Seabourn Pride, Seabourn Spirit and Seabourn Legend, in the popular, casual Veranda Café indoor/outdoor venue used for buffet breakfasts and luncheons daily. There are six Tastings @ 2 menus, which rotate.
Travelers can experience 2, as well as the award-winning cuisine designed by celebrity chef Charlie Palmer and served in the ships' open-seating Restaurants, on cruises of seven to 28 days or more in Europe, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Asia, India and Arabia. Cruise itineraries explore landmark ports and lesser-known gems where larger ships cannot go.