Celebrated chef Rudi Sodamin is leading a team of promising chefs aboard the new Sun Princess, offering more than 150 bespoke dishes to suit local tastes during the ship’s first season in the Mediterranean.
Sodamin has spent decades elevating standards of excellence in dining across numerous Carnival Corp brands over his 50-year career.
Central to this is a culture of respect, celebrating talent and cultivating an environment of constructive criticism to bring out the best in the team.
Sodamin has spent the past two years further elevating an already high dining standard across the Princess fleet after three decades with Holland America Line, Seabourn Cruise Line and Cunard Line before that.
Speaking to travelBulletin onboard Sun Princess in Gibraltar this past weekend, Sodamin said with Princess’ latest ship being so new, there have been teething problems which they are now managing to overcome.
“These kitchens are designed in a totally different level of detail and for us, it has been very challenging,” Sodamin said.
“There’s a lot of passion, thinking and vision behind the menus on Sun Princess.”
Recognising that every cruise line essentially uses the same ingredients, Sodamin and more than 200 talented chefs can only get better through a culture of feedback from their peers.
Each afternoon before the dinner rush, the entire chef contingent meets to critique each other’s work and provide helpful advice to one another.
“There’s no competition among my chefs,” Sodamin added.
“A creme brulee is a creme brulee, a roast chicken is a roast chicken, a prime rib is a prime rib, but it’s the execution which is the key ingredient – it doesn’t matter which cruise line you work for.
“Without quality, we can never succeed,” Sodamin added.
“Presentation may be different because every chef has a different idea on creativity, but I’ve set a standard,” he said.
