Before I left for an Icelandic cruise earlier this summer onboard Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours vessel, Scenic Eclipse, my older brother texted me to say that I should take lots of pictures “and try the lutefisk.” I looked it up. It’s dried whitefish soaked in lye and rehydrated. One site online describes the dish as having “a unique, gelatinous texture” and “a distinctive odor.” Neither element appealed.
Lutefisk is a Nordic and Scandinavian specialty, not necessarily an Icelandic one. Still, besides Skyr, the Icelandic style yogurt I occasionally order on Fresh Direct and eat for breakfast at home, Iceland isn’t exactly known for its food.
Googling “lutefisk” and “Iceland” confirmed this. The search led me to an article enumerating all the “disgusting food in Iceland.” Fermented shark and sour ram’s testicles might not be readily consumed anymore, but sheep’s head (“svid”) and sheep’s head jam (“svidasulta”), often used as a topping for bread, are.
None of this sounded particularly palatable to me, either.
So it was a good thing the Scenic Eclipse offers an ultra-luxury dining culinary program, even when voyaging to remote regions. The ship has around ten different dining experiences on board, including a French restaurant called Lumière; Elements, which emphasizes Italian food, and the Asian-fusion inspired Koko’s, also featuring a sushi bar.
Noticeably, despite an itinerary that included stops in remote places like Akureyri, Vopnafjörður and Seydisfjördur, there was no Icelandic dining option.
“Icelandic cuisine is often misunderstood,” e-mailed chef Tom Goetter, the VP of F&B and Hotel Operations for Scenic, when I asked him about how it’s represented on board.
Even so, he emphasized that the Scenic Eclipse focuses more on “a much broader and more exciting culinary heritage”—namely that of the Nordic region. The core philosophy of Nordic cooking, he explained, is “rooted in seasonal, locally sourced ingredients; preservation methods like curing, smoking and fermenting, and clean, minimal flavor profiles.”
Regardless, at least in my experience, ships are not necessarily known for their food. Last summer on a sail through the Mediterranean, everything I ordered just seemed overdressed, as if all the chefs had completely ignored the Coco Chanel maxim of taking one thing off once you leave the house. The only thing I really enjoyed eating was a late-night snack of in-room personal pizza.
More recently, my older brother took a cruise through the Caribbean and Mexico. When he returned, he told me he mostly subsisted on pizza, too.
So with the trek to Iceland, I was a bit worried. Just in case, I even packed a few bags of rice cakes. I need not have been concerned. The food on the Scenic Eclipse was across the board disarmingly good. That went for the simple things, like a Spaghetti Carbonara at the low-key, all-day Azure Bar and Grill; delicious chocolate-chip cookies, and great bread, including pretzel rolls I often stole from the buffet to take back to my room—until other guests caught on and got to them before I could.
“In my experience, bread has always been the weakest point at sea,” said Goetter. The ship employs ten different main flours and at least ten more specialty flours. “The bread is always baked fresh just before it’s served, never the day before.”
Meals were equally good when they ventured into the complex, including an interactive, over-the-top Chef’s Table dinner in a private room at Elements. Only around 40 select guests get to attend. It’s by invitation only.
Goetter initiated the chef’s table concept on the urging of his father who groused, “Not another fine dining place!”
“We designed this experience to be immersive, unexpected, and hands-on,” explained Goetter. “It’s so much more than a meal. It’s storytelling and emotion served on a plate.”
We used a paintbrush to season a piece of short rib. We grilled our own Wagyu beef on a hot stone. Dessert included eating dried banana peel, something I’d never thought I’d try, but it was good. The meal was a guided excursion all on its own, like taking the ten-person Zodiac out to see the puffin on Drangey Island earlier in the day.
I asked Goetter how he and his staff pulls it all off.
“With our small ships and close-knit galley teams, we’ve built an environment founded on trust, mentorship and love,” he responded. “This is new. It’s never been done quite this way before, but it works.”
