Fred takes on Gavin in the galley

The food on my Springtime in Norway cruise on Saga Pearl II has been sensational. Executive chef Gavin Baxter and his brigade have consistently produced superb meals to match anything at sea and superior to most restaurants on land.
Dinner menus are usually limited to a choice of three starters, three soups, and three main courses, but each is so tempting it’s still difficult to make a choice.
At last night’s final formal dinner, for example, there was much head scratching before I settled on the haggis (accompanied by a glass of whisky), lobster bisque with Cognac, and a succulent Beef Wellington. I dread to think what the bathroom scales will show when I get home tomorrow.
The dapper Captain David Warden-Owen even joked at his farewell cocktail party that with everyone in the forward Discovery Lounge, there was a risk that the ship’s propellors would be left spinning in fresh air.
I was intrigued to learn yesterday that rival cruise line Fred Olsen is promising to up the food stakes on its own voyages to the region.
The company is, of course, Norwegian, but offers a very British on-board experience.
Now it is to provide a special taste of Norway on Balmoral and Braemar’s sailings from Dover to the fjords this summer.
On a two-week cruise, there will be salmon prepared in a different way each evening, and there will be Norwegian speciality starters such as trout tartar, Aquavit-smoked salmon, and a traditional caviar of capelin and salmon, with warm potato cakes, sour cream and chives.
There will be some foodie tours ashore, to Bergen’s fish market – where smoked mackerel, wild salmon and slabs of whale meat are always on display – and from Eidfjord to the “Orchard of Norway” where traditional farming produces high quality fruit. At Honningsvag (North Cape) there will be a “King Crab” tour.
As part of Cruise Norway’s Taste the Coast promotion, during two seven-night cruises on Braemar, local celebrity chef Fredrik Hald will be visiting the ship in Bergen on June 11 and August 12 to demonstrate his seafood cookery skills in the Neptune Lounge. At dinner, there will be a special seafood menu of salmon, scallops, herring and mackerel, all caught locally.
No mention yet of what will be on offer for lovers of red meat, so perhaps passengers will be denied an opportunity to sample another Norwegian delicacy – reindeer.