Cruise liner top chef winging it

By CATHERINE MASTERS

The odd thing about being an executive chef for a posh cruise line is you spend more time on planes than boats.

Alfredo Marzi does, anyway.

The genial 57-year-old Italian of Princess Cruises, owners of the Star Princess - that big ship which docked in Auckland this week and returns on January 3 and 31 - has a heavy responsibility although he does not seem to notice this.

If anything the 16,000 meals he is responsible for each day seem to weigh very lightly. And remember, those 16,000 meals are just the ones served on board the Star Princess, one of eight liners he writes scores of menus for.

For four months of the year Mr Marzi is jumping on and off aeroplanes flying from head office to one or other of the floating luxury palaces owned by Princess Cruises dotted around exotic locations of the world at any given time.

He spends only three months cruising and what's left either flying, at head office in Los Angeles or at home.

This September and October, for example, he made about four round the world trips by air.

He rattles the countries off. In September he flew to Milan to Los Angeles, from Los Angeles to Acapulco, back to Los Angeles, did a cruise on the Mexican Riviera, flew to New York, did a cruise in New England, flew to Rome, did a cruise to Athens, flew to Munich then Miami, another cruise, flew to Costa Rica to Atlanta to Miami, to Sydney, to Los Angeles, a cruise in Florida, flew to Miami to Boston to Milan, etc, etc.

I'm exhausted just listening. He's just warming up.

In Auckland he is excited to talk about the Princess Star: $700 million of marble and art work, 18 floors high, three rugby fields long, eight kitchens, 3000 passengers, 1200 crew from all over the world, five of them Kiwis.

He designed the kitchens himself and proudly points out the quality, "See the huge shiny soup tureens, this roasting/steaming machine cost US$78,000 [$120,000]".

He is also excited about the different restaurants aboard. You can eat in Egyptian surroundings over there, Mexican over there, next door is the Italian restaurant decked out with columns and imitation ancient mosaics.

And, unlike some of the competition liners, the bar tops are real marble, the mosaics are really from Florence, the artworks are really for real.

Mr Marzi trawls lovingly through the menus he has created which cater to the guests' food whims 24 hours a day.

He has a right to be obsessed by food.

He worked at several top hotels and restaurants in Europe following his graduation from a top Parisian culinary school.

He is not so much a chef as a culinary artiste.

He can also drop some famous names.

He has cooked for the Queen, Princess Diana (he went to her funeral), King Umberto of Italy, United States President George Bush, former Prime Minister of England Margaret Thatcher, Princess Ubolratana of Thailand, and so on, all of whom he says have cruised on one of the Princess boats.

And for lesser mortals on board, when he gets bored he holds cooking classes.

Mr Marzi has worked for 30 years on these liners and is as passionate today as he was when he started out as a sous chef.

"It's like being trapped in a big golden prison."