Olly Smith brews up Autumn cocktail treats

Ollie Smith on Azura

As Hallowe’en on October 31 draws spookily near, TV drinks expert and celebrity Olly Smith has created four new cocktails to warm up those autumn evenings.

Olly Smith, who oversees The Glass House on Azura, Britain’s newest and largest cruise ship, said: “On a dark, chilly night there is nothing better than gently brewing spices and spirits. They fill the house with the aroma of comfort and a sense of festivity. Autumn evokes magical smells of crackling fires and glorious tastes like ginger parkin and of course, it’s mulled wine heaven. My recipes here are for old favourites with a twist and new ones which will soon become legendary.”

Dragon’s Blood!
My kids love this – serves two.

10 ml Cassis
10 ml Grenadine
200 ml fizzy water

Garnish with a slice of blood orange.

For the full effect, make matching Dragon’s Blood ice cubes (use the above recipe but replace fizzy water for still, pour into an ice cube tray and freeze as normal).

You can always customise it into a more grown up cocktail by adding a tot of blackcurrant vodka or sloe gin!

Mulled Wine 
This is a simple drink to create – and you can easily customise your own version. The key is not to boil the wine, just keep it warm. You can add orange juice, brandy and sugar to the base, a clove or two, a knob of fresh ginger, a cinnamon stick and you can load it with oranges, lemons and limes or try using slices of fresh mango for a tropical twist. The rule of thumb is keep tasting until it’s right – and don’t over do the cloves or they make it bitter!

Mulled White Wine 
This couldn’t be simpler, choose a fruity leftover white wine, add freshly chopped pineapple, a few lemon wedges, honey and a cinnamon stick. Strain and serve with a sliced lemon garnish and sugar to taste (and you can give it a kick with a dose of leftover spirit – brandy, vodka, or Cointreau for an orangey tang).

Olly’s Secret Punch
Gently heat equal measures of leftover port, Cointreau and Southern Comfort topped up with fresh orange juice in a pan. Don’t let it boil. At the last minute squeeze two halves of blood orange into the pan and toss in the squeezed halves. I prefer not to add sugar as the port makes my secret punch gloriously sweet. Garnish with an orange slice and serve in glass mugs.

Olly Smith will be travelling on Azura regularly throughout 2011 and 2011 - for details see www.idealcruising.co.uk. A variety of Olly’s cocktails are available on Azura this autumn

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Dates for your diary - Celebrity Chef Cruises

The trend of getting celebrity chefs to create signature menus on board cruise ships continues. P&O Cruises have no less than 3 celebrity chefs on their payroll, Gary Rhodes, Marco Pierre White and Atul Kochhar. There are many rumours that the aforementioned chefs have put their names to signature restaurants but never make an appearance on board. I can confirm now that this is completely untrue, having met both James Martin onboard Ocean Village and Marco Pierre White onboard P&O Ventura. I can also now provide a list of dates that you may catch these chaps in action next year. The three Michelin starred chefs Gary Rhodes, Marco Pierre White and Atul Kochhar are lined up to visit their restaurants on the following departures next year. They will lead cooking demonstrations, sign copies of their books as well as spending time with their chefs in the kitchens and amongst guest in their restaurants.

Gary Rhodes will be on board during the following itineraries:
*Arcadia 15-night cruise departing 19 June 2010, J008. Ports of call include Zeebrugge, Amsterdam, Oslo, Stavanger, Flaam, cruise in Sognefjord, Olden, cruise in Nordfjord, Trondheim, Akureyri and Reykjavik.
*Arcadia 13-night cruise departing 2 November 2010, J019. Ports of call include Barcelona, Monte Carlo, Livorno, Civitavecchia, Alicante and Gibraltar.
*Oriana 12-night cruise departing 11 July 2010, X011. Ports of call include Copenhagen, Nynashamn, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn and Zeebrugge.
*Oriana 7-night cruise departing 27 August 2010, X015. Ports of call include Corunna, Bilbao, Le Verdon, Brest and St. Peter Port.

Marco Pierre White will be on board during the following itineraries:

*Aurora 12-night cruise departing 19 April 2010, R002X. Ports of call include Madeira, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Cadiz, Lisbon and Vigo.

*Oceana 14-night cruise departing 15 May 2010, E011. Ports of call include Gibraltar, Cartagena, Civitavecchia, Livorno, Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Cadiz.

*Ventura 7-night cruise departing 5 June 2010, N014. Ports of call include Corunna, Bilbao, La Pallice, Brest and St. Peter Port.

*Ventura 14-night cruise departing 3 July 2010, N017. Ports of call include Barcelona, Cannes, Livorno, Civitavecchia, Palma, Valencia and Gibraltar.

*Oceana 14-night cruise departing 2 October 2010, E021. Ports of call include Gibraltar, Cartagena, Civitavecchia, Livorno, Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Cadiz.

*Ventura 14-night cruise departing 22 October 2010, N027. Ports of call include Tenerife, Tortola, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Barbados.

Atul Kochhar will be on board during the following itineraries:

*Azura 16-night cruise departing 12 April 2010, A004. Ports of call include Malaga, Katakolon, Corfu, Dubrovnik, Venice, Korcula and Gibraltar.

*Azura 16-night cruise departing 23 July 2010, A010. Ports of call include Malaga, Katakolon, Corfu, Dubrovnik, Venice, Korcula and Gibraltar.

*Azura 12-night cruise departing 8 August 2010, A011. Ports of call include Madeira, La Palma, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Lisbon and Vigo.

*Azura 7-night cruise departing 21 September 2010, A014. Ports of call include Dublin, Cobh, Bilbao and Brest.

Be sure to book up early as these sailings will sell out fast! For more information view our P&O Cruises section of the website and search your chosen itinerary from there.

Celebrity Chefs on P&O Cruises

When it comes to a cruise one of the expectations that you hold high is that regarding the dining that is available, with P&O cruises these expectations are reached, if not smashed. The reason being is thanks to the vast array of dining options that are open to you. Formal dining rooms, grill restaurants, oriental and pan-pacific restaurants as well as tapas bars and pizzerias are just a selection of the types of dining options that are open to you when it comes to P&O cruises. However the dining option that is taking the cruising world by storm at the moment comes in the form of celebrity chefs opening their own restaurants on board the ships.

There are a number of celebrity chefs who are currently teaming up with certain cruise lines in order to create their own restaurants on the ships and the cruise line P&O are no exception. These restaurants supply a great way for holiday makers to enjoy five star food at reasonable cost, something they wouldn’t be able to do elsewhere.

Each cruise line contracts certain chefs; in the case of P&O they now have three of the top chefs on board; Gary Rhodes, Marco Pierre White and Atul Kochhar. All three of these highly acclaimed chefs hold Michelin stars for their dishes and each of these offer signature styles of food so no matter what food you’re in the mood for there will be something to suit all tastes.

Having your meals cooked by such outstanding chefs whilst on a cruise is adding luxury to luxury. Sampling food cooked and prepared by such chefs is worth coming on a cruise for all by itself. So what should you expect from Gary Rhodes, Marco Pierre White and Atul Kochhar when it comes to the food they will serve whilst working with P&O cruises?

Due to his dedication and continued pursuit for perfection, Gary Rhodes has found himself at the forefront of the culinary world. He is now a well known chef, restaurateur and celebrity as well as author. His various restaurants are what have won him a wide collection of Michelin stars as well as his traditional British cooking, which is what he brings to P&O cruises. Some of the dishes that he serves up are Asparagus and Lambs lettuce salad and Roast beef with foie gras and morel mushroom Madeira sauce. He gives diners a high quality dining experience the likes of which are normally reserved for visitors of his Twenty Four restaurant in London.

Certain Oriana and Arcadia ships are the P&O cruises that Gary Rhodes will be present on, whereas Marco Pierre White will be on board for some of the Ventura, Oceana and Aurora cruises. So what will Marco Pierre White have on offer?

Classic Italian fare is Marco’s speciality, offering simple yet stunning dishes. He has already been named the godfather of modern cooking and is the youngest Briton to be awarded three Michelin stars. As well as sampling his cooking within the ships restaurants you can also opt to buy private cookery sessions to groups of up to eight adults and children. Within these sessions you will join Marco in creating a three course meal as well as get to ask him any cooking questions that you have.

Last but certainly not least Atul Kochhar has recently signed a deal with P&O cruises to bring his culinary skills on board to the company’s new superliner the Azura in 2010. Atul Kochhar is the third Michelin star chef to join this cruise line and he will bring a new restaurant called Sindhu, which means fusion. This will serve holidaymakers with modern British dishes that have an Indian Twist.

Cruise lines all across the country are now enlisting top chefs to open up restaurants on their ships. So if you are going on a cruise this year or you have one planned in the near future then make sure you look out for celebrity restaurants and sample some of the food that they have to offer because let’s face it, this will probably be the only opportunity we get to do this so let’s make the most of it.

Ventura Welcome Party Cruise

I was lucky enough to get a cabin on the Ventura Welcome Party Cruise, especially considering that the entire ship sold out within an hour of going on sale. With that kind of popularity, the Ventura immediately had a lot to live up to. And to be honest, she delivered pretty well.
The 2-day itinerary set sail on Friday 11th April from the port of Southampton and cruised to Zebrugge (Bruges) and back. This was a cute itinerary that gave just enough time to explore the ship and enjoy a break away from it all. For those onboard that were new to cruising, this particular choice would have been perfect as a taster.

From the outside the Ventura looked huge. Although I knew she would be 115,000 tonnes, I just wasn’t prepared for her breathtaking size and stature in the dock. The strangest thing was that once onboard, she actually seemed quite small. It was very easy to find your way around and walking from one end of the ship to the other wasn’t the hard slog it would first appear to be. It didn’t take long to get our bearings and learn where the main rooms were.

We were most pleased that our cabins were ready within ten minutes of boarding. We had booked a junior suite with a balcony, CC grade on D deck (deck 9) which was positioned mid-ship. The cabin was tastefully decorated and spacious although deceptively narrow. It was a nice to touch to be greeted by a bottle of champagne on ice and Belgian chocolates which, I can assure you, didn’t last very long!

Whilst touring the ship it was clear that the designer Nick Munro had done a fine job. The interior decoration was elegant throughout; I particularly liked the Moroccan feel of the Tamarind Club, the contemporary Asian style of the East restaurant and the cool colour changing LEDs in the Havana Club.

There is a wealth of bars, restaurants and spacious meeting areas. For those not wanting formal club dining the choice is endless.We ate in the Saffron restaurant on the first night, taking the earliest sitting at 6.30pm, the 8.45pm sitting being just that bit too late for us. The meal was good and the service was excellent. It can’t be easy to pull off that level of service when all the guests arrive at the same time but the staff sailed through it.After dinner we opted to see the comedians Sean Meo and Mark Maier in the Tamarind lounge. If I’m completely honest they were a letdown. Both had a really hard time squeezing laughs out of the crowd, but then that’s what happens if your jokes aren’t funny. It was a shame that we missed the Chronicles show in the Arena theatre which by all accounts was excellent.

On the second day, naturally, passengers were encouraged to pay for an excursion to Bruges for the grand sum of £38 each, with many passengers taking it up. However P&O Cruises did actually provide a FREE shuttle bus at the quay side to take us to the local town of Blankenberge where a train could be caught to Bruges for around 6 Euros return and a journey time of 12 minutes.

Following our pleasant trip into Bruges, we donned our formal wear and ate in The White Room. This ‘Select Dining’ restaurant had a cover charge of £30 which may seem high but once you’ve tasted the food you’ll understand why it was worth every penny. (On longer duration cruises I am told that the cover charge decreases according to the number of nights onboard)The meal was truly amazing and of an incredibly high standard as you would expect. The asparagus risotto was to die for and I could’ve eaten another portion of the prune and amaretto ice cream quite easily!No sooner than finishing our desserts, Marco Pierre White made an appearance. We had the opportunity to meet him and get photos taken which we took full advantage of. He was a very charming man, well spoken, polite and showed a great interest in his fans. Meeting him was definitely the highlight of the evening and possibly even the cruise.

After dinner we managed to catch tail end of the Legends tribute show in the Havana club. The Elton John act was top class and sounded uncannily like the man himself, it was just a shame we missed Kylie and Freddy Mercury. We then went on to flutter and lose in the well equipped casino before heading onto the Saturday Night Fever show. Having seen the movie more times than I can remember, I was convinced that it wasn’t possible to mess up such a classic. How wrong could I be? It was a ‘tragedy’ if ever there was one!

In the first few bars of the opening song, it was already clear that the guy playing the lead, Tony Manero, was singing slightly out of tune. This was a real problem because the main plot of the film isn’t about the acting but the singing and dancing, taking one of those elements away kind of ruins the point of it all. It didn’t get much better for Tony when his mike stopped working halfway through. I’m not sure if there was an electrical fault or someone just switched him off to save our ears. Whichever it was, that was the final straw, we upped and left the theatre along with quite a few other audience members.

I can’t say that Tony Manero tainted my perception of Ventura at all even though I feel we may have been ‘guinea pigs’ to iron out any teething problems. The ship itself is an innovation at sea and all her new features and experiences will definitely appeal to all ages. I think she’s an impressive addition to the P&O Cruises fleet.

Unveiling Ventura – The UK’s largest cruise ship

P&O Cruises have managed to excel the high standards that they are renowned for with what promises to be the most anticipated cruise ship launch for the company. Plans for the £300million super liner, designed specifically for us, British holidaymakers, will be the largest ship ever built for the Southampton based cruise line.

Ventura will be launched in April 2008 and will have an emphasis on fine dining, modern and contemporary art and family entertainment.
Marco Pierre White, the world’s youngest to win three Michelin stars, will create a signature fine dining restaurant on board Ventura - to be called The White Room. He is also acting as a dining consultant to P&O Cruises, training staff and designing menus, in the build up to Ventura’s maiden voyage from Southampton.

Ventura will be a floating showcase for the very best in British contemporary art, with 7,000 different pieces from 55 artists will be exhibited onboard thanks to the Tate Modern. These art themed cruises will give passengers the chance to attend seminars, presentations and even take part in practical art classes on board.

The Ventura is going to be a visually stimulating ship , designed by British designer Nick Munro. Nick is renowned for his unique furniture, ceramic and home ware designs and Ventura will be creating bespoke items designed specifically for contemporary British tastes

The Ventura will also be geared towards families with a facility that will be comprised of four activity areas, a family restaurant, and kids & parents-only pools. For the first time, P&O Cruises has designed an area specifically for parents to supervise their children aged less than two years old. Noddy will make periodic appearances on board Ventura throughout the year to bring enjoyment to Ventura’s younger passengers at character breakfasts and during playtime. Older children on Ventura will be offered lessons in how to become a rock star, learning how to play guitar, keyboards and drums.

P&O Cruises have designed Ventura for those who may have not previously thought of cruising as their holiday. Ventura hopes to be an introduction for those who usually choose land-based holidays although families, younger couples and experienced cruisers will all enjoy this big, modern ship.

See for yourself! Take a look at the Ventura virtual tour http://www.virtualventura.co.uk/home.html