Seaboard selection
Sailing to Spain this summer will provide a new experience for passengers on board P&O's Pride of Bilbao.
A £750,000 refit earlier this year has transformed the roll-on, roll-off ferry into a mini cruise ship, offering bars, cinemas and even a casino to the 220,000 passengers who will sail with her.
Three new eateries and a refurbished à la carte restaurant offer travellers a variety of food during the 30-hour journey from Portsmouth to northern Spain.
Last season, when the Pride of Bilbao was on its Baltic run, a help-yourself smörgåsbord was the main food on offer. Now the ship is sailing to Spain, contract caterer Sutcliffe, which runs the ship's catering operation, decided Mediterranean food would be more appropriate, and introduced several new concepts on board during its refit.
It has opened three new restaurants in total, and claims they will appeal to a wider spectrum of passengers, thereby maximising revenue. "We have seen an approximate 15% increase per capita on spend to date this year in the new eating places on board," reports Richard Martin, managing director of P&O European Ferries.
The new 118-seat Bacchus Grill and Tapas Bar gives the Pride of Bilbao a Spanish flavour. It was specifically introduced to entice Spanish passengers to sail with P&O. To date, an average of 20% of passengers choose to eat in this restaurant on each sailing.
Sutcliffe's shore-based executive chef Omero Gallucci visited numerous Basque country tapas bars to research the menu for this restaurant. Ingredients are sourced in Spain, and to keep the dishes as authentic as possible, six Spanish chefs prepare the tapas daily.
The hot tapas selection includes jalapeno peppers, squid Basque-style, and black pudding cooked with onions, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and red and yellow peppers. Those served cold are Serrano ham, roasted peppers with garlic and pimentos with potatoes.
Tapas are displayed on a self-service buffet counter at lunch, allowing passengers to make their own selection for £5.95 per person. Alternatively, travellers can order tapas as part of an £8.95 two-course lunch, where tapas are served at the table while customers' main courses are being cooked.
At dinner, tapas are treated as an entrée and are included in the price of the meals on the Bacchus Grill menu. It offers 12 dishes, with specialities such as swordfish steak and anchovy butter, £16.50; grilled spicy merguez sausages served with potato salad, £13.50; and, for vegetarian diners, seared Mediterranean vegetables - chargrilled courgettes, tomatoes, mixed peppers, olive oil and garlic, £12.95.
Steaks have proved to be the most popular dish on the Bacchus Grill menu to date - chargrilled 8oz sirloin steak costs £16.50 and the 8oz rump, £14.50. They are served with a choice of sauces: red wine and rosemary, bearnaise or green peppercorn. Alternatively, they can be cooked with butters - garlic and tarragon, blue cheese or Cajun.
A choice of two side orders are included in the price of dishes served in the Bacchus Grill: garden peas and carrots, french fries, onion rings or tomato salad. Average spend in this restaurant is £20 per person.
There are three other new outlets on board: the Cavalier à la carte, the Horizon Carvery and a self-service restaurant.
Although sharing the same entrance with the Bacchus Grill and Tapas Bar, the adjoining 60-seat Cavalier à la carte restaurant is only open for dinner and tends to attract a slightly older clientele. Average spend per head here is about £25.
The menu in the Cavalier restaurant comprises seven starters, eight main courses and seven desserts. Vegetables are included in the price of the main course, as with the Bacchus Grill.
Towards the bow of the ship are the Horizon Carvery and self-service restaurants. Both cater for customers on a tighter budget, primarily the family market. Together they serve 65% of passengers on each sailing.
The self-service restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, coffee and snacks, while the carvery provides a choice of two roasts at dinner and one at lunch. A set-price three-course menu is served at lunch for £7.50. A three-course dinner offering slightly more choice costs £10.95, while a two-course option is £8.50.
Menus in all of the Pride of Bilbao's restaurants are set for the season. However, new tapas are frequently introduced in the Bacchus Grill.
"About 98% of food is prepared on board every day," says Sutcliffe executive chef on board the ferry, Garry Kneale. "The only ready-made foods are the Thomas Morel brand sauces, such as mushroom stroganoff, chicken korma and chilli, brought in for the Horizon self-service restaurant."
The brigade makes everything fresh because there is neither the time nor the space for freezing, storing or defrosting on board.
Food for all the restaurants is prepared in one galley, next to the Bacchus Grill, which runs along the length of the ship. As with onshore kitchens, it is divided into hot and cold preparation areas.
A tour of the kitchens reveals the meticulous organisation behind catering for 1,750 passengers plus more than 200 members of staff when the ship sails at full capacity. The majority of the produce is bought ready to use - vegetables are washed and peeled; meat and poultry are oven ready.
Kneale explains wastage is kept to about 15% as a computer booking system, Dolphin, gives figures on how many passengers have booked a week before each sailing.
Unused ingredients are incorporated into crew meals during the trip. Any food waste is fed into a waste disposal unit, and stored in containers on the car decks for disposal once the ship returns to Portsmouth.
