Cruise workers reveal secret ranking system behind the quality of food onboard

“Chefs and room stewards and able seamen and waiters and bartenders: for them, the crew mess only,” adds Brian.

The limited variety of food on offer to staff means they often have to get creative, combining different foods together to try and excite their palette.

It also means many homesick cruise workers, who travel from all around the globe to work as part of the ship’s staffing fleet, aren’t able to get a much-longed-for taste of home comfort.

“Access to ‘food from home’ at sea varies dramatically because ‘home’ varies dramatically,” Brian writes in his book. 

“Some cruise lines have more Indian dishes, or eastern European, or Caribbean, depending on the make-up of the crew. Happily, cruise lines take food for the crew very seriously. It’s the real deal—unlike, say, the food court at ye olde shopping mall. 

“Prior to international corporations, I doubt native Mexicans, Italians, or Chinese would have even recognized such foods as being ‘theirs’—especially after eating it.”

Though Brian does point out that some liners are better than others when it comes to foodservice. 

“Different cruise lines have very different crew food, but it’s always a buffet. Carnival, for example, had the best I encountered, which to my surprise included strip steaks. Mostly they offered copious amounts of rice for the Asian crew.”