Atul is Azura’s Alternative………

So many new ships are launching this year, and they are all looking for the one thing that will set them apart from the rest, make them stand out from the crowd so to speak. Of course, the ‘flavor of the month’ (if you’ll pardon the pun) with cruise ships is to have a Celebrity Chef give their name to, and oversee, one of the alternative dining rooms on board.

The Ventura has Marco Pierre White (doesn’t he just make you go weak at the knees!), and Ocean Village have James Martin. On the new P & O Azura, the Michelin-starred Atul Kochhar will be overseeing Sindhu – a dedicated Indian restaurant. It will be reservation only and a la carte, to boot! Atuls speciality is British and Indian fusion cuisine, and this will be cooked to order, unlike the food in the main dining room. Naturally, as with most alternative dining options there will an additional charge to dine there. If memory serves me correct I think that the charge for The White Room (Marco’s restaurant) on Ventura is £25 per head, so I would expect prices for Sindhu to be about the same.

It is lovely to have these different options on board, a change from the same type of food every night, and most cruise goers would be prepared to pay the extra as a one-off treat, but do remember that these restaurants for the majority of the year only have the name of the Celebrity Chef, he will not be there in person. The Chef in question will probably only be on board for a couple of weeks during the year, so it will be in essence just another alternative restaurant, not an autograph collecting opportunity
Sadly, Marco was not on board the Ventura whilst I was. On reflection though, it was probably for the best. I could never have contained myself!