Chef’s Table on Star Princess: Six Courses, Gold Flakes, and a Kitchen Tour

Would you pay for a dinner where they spray perfume on your food, put real gold in your soup, and make you wear a lab coat before you eat? That is not a riddle. It is the Chef’s Table on Star Princess, and we booked it so you can see exactly what happens before you spend the money.

If you would rather watch than read, the full experience is here:

It starts with champagne, not a menu

The night began at Makoto Ocean, the sushi restaurant on Star Princess, where our group met up. Champagne was in our hands the second we walked in, which is the correct way to start any dinner. We chatted with families who had done Chef’s Table on other Princess ships and were curious whether the newest ship would top them.

Right on time, Claudio Giuliani, who runs all the restaurants on the ship, came over and told us the experience had officially started.

The lab coats and the kitchen tour

Here is where it gets weird in the best way. For safety and sanitary reasons, everyone trades their jacket for a white lab coat before entering the galley. We looked like extras from Breaking Bad, and we were fully committed to the role.

Down in the kitchen, the executive chef walked us through an operation that feeds more than 4,000 people every night. We have seen busy kitchens. This was another level, and the entire place was spotless. The crew somehow does all of it while staying upbeat and friendly, which might be the most impressive part.

A private table inside the main dining room

Princess built the Chef’s Table into a closed-off section of the main dining room, so you feel tucked away even though a full dining room is humming around you. Service starts immediately, a photographer takes portraits of everyone, and the sommeliers introduce the five wines they will pour through the night.

The six courses

1. Amuse-bouche. The whole staff lined up and lifted the silver lids at the exact same moment. The langoustine tart with lemon pulp was far more flavorful than we expected.

2. Wild asparagus soup. Poured tableside over a mushroom extract and topped with a real gold flake. If you do not eat gold on a cruise ship, what are you even doing? As we ate, the crew opened the blinds and we were sailing away from Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic right at sunset.

3. Cucumber and elderflower granita. It arrived with a fancy little tin on the side, and for a moment we were sure it was expensive black caviar. It was black boba pearls. A palate cleanser prank. Well played, Princess.

4. Chilean sea bass. Served with scalloped Stilton potato and sea grapes, finished with a rich sauce at the table. The fish was phenomenal.

5. Filet mignon. Seasoned perfectly, melts in your mouth, served with a purple potato puree and a baby root vegetable tart. The decorative swirl of butter on top looked suspiciously like a fancy version of a certain emoji, which is why this course made the whole table laugh. Still delicious.

6. The citrus perfume dessert. The chef walked the table with an antique perfume bottle, misting the lemon peel ice cream and grapefruit preserves. It is a clever way to get your nose involved before the first bite, and it was amazing. A second plate of tiny pastries came with impossibly thin golden tweezers. The pastries were too big for the tweezers. We bent them a little. Problem solved.

The small things that impressed us

• Guests with dietary restrictions got custom dishes, and non-drinkers got non-alcoholic pairings, so nobody felt left out.
• We looked up the wines being poured. The bottles were more reasonable than we expected, and they were genuinely good.
• At the end, every chef who made a course came out for a round of applause, and each couple went home with a keepsake folder: your photo with the chef and director, plus a printed copy of the menu. The menu came in handy, because we love food but not enough to memorize those names.

Our verdict

Worth it. Every single penny. And here is the detail that got us: Princess runs a different Chef’s Table experience on every ship, so now we have a built-in excuse to book the next one.

Planning your own night

Availability is limited and the experience books through the ship, so ask about it early in your cruise. While you plan, these will help:

• Our full Star Princess dining guide, every restaurant on the ship in one place.
• The cruise package calculator, to see whether a package or paying as you go fits your trip.
• The gear we packed for this exact trip, the same list from the video description.

If the video made you hungry, subscribe on YouTube. More cruise dining and more food tours are on the way.