By Brian Johnston
Raw on 5 onboard Celebrity Edge® is every seafood lover's fine dining dream.Credit: Celebrity Cruises
If you have both an eye for design and luxury, and tastebuds that demand excitement and satisfaction while on holiday, then Celebrity Edge® is the cruise ship for you.
A team of internationally renowned architects and interior designers have made this ship an experience in its own right, named "One of the World's Greatest Places" by TIME Magazine in 2019. Yet what also makes Celebrity Edge the ultimate modern cruise experience are its restaurants, which engage both your senses and tastebuds for an inspiring all-round dining experience.
The ship's 29 world-class food and beverage venues are expertly curated by Michelin-starred chef, Cornelius Gallagher, Celebrity's vice president of food and beverage operations. World renowned chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud is Celebrity's Global Culinary Ambassador. Boulud recognises how sophisticated and international guests' palates have become.
"I've worked in New York City for four decades and have really seen the evolution of every cuisine. Today, we have an amazing array of casual fine dining concepts from every cuisine in the world, well represented by talented young chefs that are inspired by their roots and heritage."
Taste the world
Normandie's mouth-watering menu is reminiscent of Parisian romance.Credit: Celebrity Cruises
To cater to the contemporary traveller's wide-ranging palate, the focus of menus turn towards the destinations Celebrity Edge visits, tingling guests' tastebuds with world flavours, from the pulled-pork sliders at Rooftop Garden Grill to chalkboard specials and French pastries at Le Grand Bistro.
There are also four main dining restaurants. "Each of the complementary main restaurants offers its own ambience, along with a selection of exclusive, regionally inspired dishes and drink," explains Gallagher.
"Normandie, for example, features contemporary French cuisine in a modern, upscale, refined space that evokes the romance of springtime in Paris. Enjoy regional European wines, deliciously unique cocktails, tantalising starters, and mouthwatering mains."
Other main-dining restaurants are Cyprus with its focus on Mediterranean dishes and especially fresh seafood, Tuscan Grille for rustic southern Italian fare, and Cosmopolitan for creative New American cuisine with global influences.
Get into the mood
Among specialty dining is Eden, which is playful and innovative both in design and food. The three-storey space is an architectural masterpiece wrapped in outward facing glass connecting to the sea, and evokes a green garden with its hanging planters and living wall of herbs.
Mood lighting changes throughout the day: relaxed in the morning, livelier in the afternoon, more sinful at night, enhancing the sensory dining experience. Start the evening with a craft cocktail and then explore Eden's menu, which showcases regional dishes.
Think pan-roasted carbinero shrimp with chorizo and capsicum, slow-roasted halibut with tabbouleh, or fi let mignon and short ribs in a bordelaise sauce.
Leave room for the Aztec chocolate tart with maple granola and raspberry compote.
On a roll
Locally sourced, authentic Japanese cuisine at Raw on 5Credit: Celebrity Cruises
Another specialty venue is Raw on 5, a suave but approachable restaurant decorated in relaxing earth tones with stunning pearlescent accents. An eye-popping raw bar displays a delectable array of cold-water lobster tails, crab claws, oysters, tuna and sea bass ceviche.
Sashimi and sushi – such as the venue's signature lobster roll – are prepared by expert chefs. Kudos to the restaurant for serving proper fresh wasabi, a rarity anywhere outside Japan, let alone on a cruise ship.
If seafood isn't your thing, other dishes include pork tonkatsu (pork cutlet), miso-marinated ribeye steak and chicken-ginger gyoza (dumplings). Take the chance to explore a range of Japanese beers and sake, such as a semi-sweet plum sake or the brasher, full-bodied flavours of Snow Maiden.
Seeing the light
Exclusive and cutting edge, every day at Luminae features a fresh, new globally-inspired menu. Credit: Celebrity Cruises.
Finally, Luminae is a restaurant exclusive to guests of The Retreat, Celebrity Edge's resort-within-a-resort, which also has exclusive access to a private lounge and sundeck with swimming pool.
Sumptuously designed by Kelly Hoppen CBE, this stellar space cocoons guests in a feeling of next-level luxury, and features exclusive menus that change daily.
Complete with the bold contemporary cuisine you'd expect, Luminae includes some of Boulud's signature dishes. Dine in total style on the likes of butter- poached lobster with butternut squash, savoy cabbage and a champagne sauce as evening light skitters across the ocean, and Celebrity Edge glides on to its next adventure. Fabulous.
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