Apparently I have caused a little controversy as a result of my blog on the P&O cruise on the Oriana. This, if you remember was a fairly miserable cruise with pretty rubbish food but possibly the worst disappointment was the meal we had to pay extra for, the meal at the Ocean Grill, Marco Pierres White offering. Check out day 4 for the description of this meal then compare it with the post Roux Parliament Square.
The MPW thai fish cakes my pescatarian sister chose, no mention of the bacon, very tedious and hardly worth moving your mouth for.
Ruby, my niece chose this mac and cheese type thing which was like a liquidised heavily condensed bowl of wallpaper paste which they had forgotten to add the crispy shallots, would it have made a difference, who knows? If you want to see the other ‘food’ check out day 4 of the blog but there was nothing exciting, wooly fluffy lobster and prawns which tasted prefrozen, an amuse bouche which was actually inedible.
P&O did kindly conact me to discuss my disappointment re their food and I am not sure whose fault it was that Marcos was so rubbish but sureyly @mpwgroup has some responsibility. At Roux we were not catered for by @michelrouxjr , indeed not @SteveGrovesChef but by Marco, the next one down. The food was impeccable. The service was incredible.
Marco
Char roast langoustine, prawn tortellini, prawn tartare and coastal vegetables
I have been told that I am naive to expect good quality if the executive chef/owner isnt present and that of course the food will be much worse. I find this unacceptable. I realise I am criticising the Chefs Chef, so many of the great chefs that I have interviewed love him so I was expecting quality even though I wasn’t expecting him to be in the kitchen sorting out the stock and the turkey himself. What is his food like in his other restaurants, he has chains of them? Was this just a piece of bad luck or all the restaurants Marco puts his name to just as rubbish.