Feeding An Army: A Conversation With Royal Caribbean's Food & Beverage VP

"This is the most incredible buffet I've ever seen."

That was the first mini-review I heard from a fellow guest shortly after boarding Wonder of the Seas, the new world's largest cruise ship. The gentleman was standing beside me as we gawked at the largest Windjammer Marketplace buffet in the Royal Caribbean International fleet, with seating for more than 1,000 guests.

The sprawling space and glorious ocean views were impressive, but it was the vast amount of well-presented food on display that caused two strangers to interact in shared wonder.

There was lobster - so much lobster - plus a wide variety of other seafoods, including giant shrimp, mussels and more.

There was beef, in steak form or carved from massive roasts. There were chicken dishes, pork dishes, Indian dishes, Asian specialties, salads, pastas, ample vegetarian and vegan options, fruit plates, a bakery's worth of bread and pastries and dozens of desserts.

And that was just lunch, on the first day of the Wonder's inaugural cruise from Fort Lauderdale.

A few days later, when I had the chance to interview Linken D'Souza, Global Head, Vice President, Food & Beverage for Royal Caribbean International, I forgot all about the questions I had prepared and simply blurted out "How the hell do you make all this work?"

D'Souza, who was born in Dubai but spent many years in Canada and considers it home, smiles at a question he has no doubt heard many times before.

"It's like an orchestra," he replied. "Everything has to work in sync."

It's a massive orchestra. More than half of Royal Caribbean's 55,000 employees around the world work in the food and beverage side of the operation. In his role, D'Souza oversees approximately 800 restaurants and beverage venues onboard 24 ships and private destinations around the world.

On embarkation day for the Wonder of the Seas inaugural sailing, 18-20 tractor trailer loads of food were delivered to the ship, with workers carefully inspecting quality and quantity before the foodstuffs were taken aboard on Deck 2 - also known on the ship as I-95.

This 'highway' connects to storage rooms for meat, fish and produce. From there, food is sanitized and prepped before heading off to dozens of galleys for final preparation and cooking.

"It's a 24-hour operation," says D'Souza. "Throughout the night there are people baking bread and pastries, cracking eggs and making preparations for the next day's meals. When it's all working smoothly, it's a beautiful thing to see."

Even on the Wonder's inaugural sailing, things were working very smoothly. From the buffets to the main dining room, from complimentary themed restaurants like El Loco Fresh to specialty choices like the brand-new Mason Jar and Giovanni's Italian Kitchen, food was served promptly, and it was fresh, hot and tasty. That's an amazing accomplishment, as there were close to 5,000 guests and over 2,000 crew members onboard.

Given the nature of cruise line employment contracts, the crew is always turning over, adding to the challenge.

"When the ship is in operation, crew members are always changing, so a constant transfer of knowledge and skills is required to maintain a level of consistent excellence," D'Souza said. He calls it "the art and science of food and beverage - constant process improvement that results in seamless delivery."

In his five years with Royal Caribbean, D'Souza's team has introduced over 20 new food and beverage concepts, with the goal of delivering an "eatertainment" experience.

"We create the experience first, then figure out how it can be managed financially," D'Souza said. "I don't want you to get bored when you're having dinner."

The F&B executive used The Mason Jar, featuring Southern U.S. cuisine, to demonstrate the process of concept development. The chefs he was working with had not experienced Southern cuisine, so touring, exploring and sampling were the first tasks. Over 200 recipes were considered, before whittling them down to the 'must-haves.'

"We're always looking for new, fresh, interesting and unique applications. We were experimenting with beignets - the famous New Orleans sweet donut - when my wife suggested making savoury beignets with crab meat. When the chefs went to work, it was an immediate success."

The Mason Jar was a big success on the first Wonder cruise. It delivers a number of Royal Caribbean firsts, including the first restaurant/bar combination, the first bar/restaurant with live music - a fine country trio - the first restaurant to offer craft cocktails and the first to offer an upcharge brunch.

The place was packed, for brunch, for dinner and later for cocktails and music. The craft cocktails were so popular that one of them - which included a few blueberries - emptied the ship of that ingredient.

"Now we need to figure out how to get blueberries in Nassau. But that's a good problem," D'Souza said.

If you're interested in learning more about how Royal Caribbean feeds the multitudes on its Oasis-class ships, there's an excellent documentary titled Megafoods on YouTube.