This is the one time it’s acceptable to eat right from the pan. Just use a spoon, not a fork.
We’re about 30 miles south of Valencia, Spain, in the tiny town of Cullera sitting in a garden surrounded by an orange orchard learning how to cook and eat the traditional Spanish paella, the famous rice, chicken, and vegetable dish. (If there is seafood in it, that’s not traditional, our teacher, Rafa Codona, admonishes us through a translator.
We are in the agricultural region of L’Horta. Paella, we learn, was first made here in the 19th century by farmers in the fields who would scrounge whatever they had on hand, plus rice, to make lunch. That would include tomatoes, chicken, beans, rabbit, even rat or snails. Today, families gather on Sundays for a paella lunch (never dinner) as Americans might for barbecue.
On this cruise, the only kids we meet are adult kids traveling with grandparents or parents. “I can’t remember the last time we did something like this,” one daughter traveling with her 80-something parents said. But on Regent’s popular Alaska cruises, holiday cruises and shorter cruises in the Mediterranean, you will find multi-generational families, often with the grandparents picking up the tab.
(Regent has just announced The Exotics Edition deal offering significant savings on select 2024 and 2025 voyages as long as bookings are made by June 30. The deal is available on 35 voyages ranging from 10 to 25 nights, in destinations including Asia, Africa & Arabia, the South Pacific, Australia & New Zealand and South America.)
Guests seem to especially enjoy the culinary adventures, as well as the culinary adventures on board. Regent’s onboard destination manager, Claudia Manzanares, explains that because so many Regent guests have cruised and visited the same ports before, they are seeking a different experience with plenty of cultural immersion.
In Malaga, Spain, for example, along the sea promenade we learned how sardines are cooked the traditional way, on skewers in old, sand-filled rowboats that serve as barbecue grills, and then eaten with our fingers. Delicious!
Another day during a stop in Madeira, Portugal, we opted for a tour that included “Poncha,” a popular local drink made with rum, honey, sugar, and lemon. Afterward, we stopped at a local winemaker’s home to taste his wine and local dishes, including a particular long-simmered pork stew, prosciutto, cheese, croquettes, a local bread called Bolo do Cao, and Milho fritos, a cornmeal- based fried dish mixed with cabbage and cut in squares.
There were wine-tasting tours and other trips focusing on tapas, small bites, as well as chef-led market tours that might end with an onboard cooking class.
Manzares noted that 70 percent to 80 percent of the tours are offered at no additional charge and, unlike on other ships where tours are extra and can be expensive, as many as 80 percent of Regent passengers opt for tours.
And just as food is a focus off the ship, it is on the ship as well with many guests opting for Regent specifically for the quality of the food and the fact that the specialty restaurants don’t require an upcharge.
The cooking classes in the professionally equipped Culinary Arts Center are fully booked, though they require an extra charge. “You learn a lot, even if you know how to cook,” said Hank Payne, traveling with his wife from suburban Chicago.
Executive Chef Michael Meyepa gave us a tour of the galley where chefs were working making pain au chocolate and croissants for tomorrow’s breakfasts, room service orders, different flavors of ice cream and sorbet, and prepping for dinner.
There are six separate kitchens, including one for the seemingly always-smiling crew, many of whom are from India, Indonesia and the Philippines. Each specialty restaurant has its own kitchen and chefs. The main galley bakes everything—some 23 different breads daily and 8 to 10 different pastries for tea each day. There are 15 different house-made ice creams and sorbets.
Chef Meyepa, who helped launch Grandeur last fall and Regent’s Splendor before that, notes as we sail from New York to Barcelona that some 130 new or revised dishes have been introduced on Grandeur. They range from a different presentation for escargot in Chartreuse, the French restaurant, to a mixed grill platter in Prime, the steakhouse, to a duck confit in Pacific Rim, the Asian fusion restaurant.
Meyepa adds that every kind of dietary restriction can be accommodated. “Plant based is a very big trend,” he said.
“One reason we have so many repeat guests—more than half those onboard during this transatlantic sailing—is because of the food,” Meyepa said. Guests agreed. “That the food is so good is a big deal to me because I like to cook,” said Andy DiRaddo, who unlike the majority on board was enjoying his first Regent Cruise with his wife.
Compass Rose, the ship’s main dining room, offers specials every night (including a different kind of souffle). There are meats, fish, and fowl, served with the guest’s choice of sauce and sides. Caper butter or lemon cream for your fish; chimichurri sauce for your steak; Thai sweet chili sauce for your chicken or pork. That concept has been very popular, he said, though there are daily specials like Black Angus Beef Tartare (one of the new dishes), or Mediterranean Crusted Cod Fillet with Banana Macadamia Nut pudding for dessert.
When in port, Meyepa will go to the market seeking local food he can craft into special dishes—perhaps paella in Spain or sardines in Portugal.
When kids are onboard, there is a kids’ menu available and an area set aside for kids to eat with their newfound friends in the popular Sette Mari at La Veranda Italian restaurant.
You can always get a burger or a salad for lunch but there are also themed lunches—Mediterranean one day; Greek another; Middle Eastern, French, or Italian the next.
There are also themed teas every afternoon. The chocolate tea is always a big hit as is the Sunday brunch, where guests helped themselves to a bountiful spread from breakfast favorites like waffles and omelets to carved meats, and a variety of desserts that are hard to resist. (Ricotta cake or chocolate-covered strawberries from a flowing chocolate fountain?) The brunch, Meyepa said, is always a cruise highlight.
While guests certainly can eat as much as they like, Meyepa said the focus is on quality rather than quantity, with enough different dishes to keep everyone satisfied, even those cruising for a month or more. “They won’t get bored,” he promised.
