Cruise Ship Fare From a Food Truck

By Samantha Katzman

Many cruise lines have built reputations for luxurious getaways at with fine food. But what happens when maritime cuisine is brought on land? 

Celebrity Cruise Lines is about to find out, taking its fare to the streets. Adding a new twist to the ongoing mobile chow craze, the ship line has got it's own food truck that is serving up some of the company fleets’ best dishes.

 A six-week tour kicks off this weekend at the ASICS Women’s World Series of Beach Volleyball in Long Beach. The cruise line says it's giving Southern California residents a “Taste of Modern Luxury” with their gourmet food truck, spa tent, and prize package giveaways. (They are also catering the VIP tent of the volleyball tournament.)
 
The promotional tour is meant to showcase on land what the ships offer at sea. The trucks are overseen by Celebrity’s Corporate Executive Chef Rufino Rengifo and Lorenzo Davidoiu, Manager of Restaurant Operations. They say the food trucks showcase their food and services to a potentially new demographic.

“We are the culinary brand when it comes to cruising,” said Davidoiu, “and getting the chance to come here to California and talk to people who may have never thought about cruising. They take a bite of Chef Rufino’s creations and they 
go ‘Wow, you guys serve this on a boat?’ It’s those kinds of reactions that are the 
most exciting for us.”

With a gourmet menu boasting items such as a pork spring roll with white truffle 
BBQ sauce and crab cakes with locally caught Pacific crab, Chef Rufino is doing his best to represent the 94 restaurants onboard the 11 Celebrity lines. Entrées cost $8 and half of everything sold is donated to the American Red Cross.
“It’s about taking those common foods and taking them to a different level,” he said. 

Diners Patch spoke to said they were impressed.
 
“The chef introduced himself to me and asked me if I would like to have something to drink and offered me lunch," said Dee Jones, who visited the Celebrity food truck on her lunch break from another vendor. "It was very nice of them. In fact, I know who I will book my next cruise with,” Jones added with a laugh.

Elijah Contreras, a flight attendant visiting from New York, knew nothing about the pop-up - another way of saying temporary - food station before coming to the tournament, and he said his experience made him reconsider the idea of a cruise.

“I’m a foodie in combination with traveling, I love traveling,” he said. “I’m a bit iffy about being stuck on a ship. But I could be stuck on a ship with food like this.”