Thanks to its popularity on the Cabin Liner Instagram, it has become a tradition in my household to cook an ocean liner inspired Christmas lunch. This year's lunch was a treat to prepare. Here is the full menu for those who are not on Instagram, with details of the ships which inspired the recipes: 🔸 Soup: Pommes de Purée Parmentier, served with Manzanilla sherry (R.M.S. Majestic, À La Carte Restaurant, 1926) 🔸 Fish: Paupiettes de Sole Bordelaise, served with Riesling (M.V. Britannic, Cabin Class, 1931) 🔸 Punch: Clementine, Cherry, and Brandy, served with crémant/champagne (Modern but inspired by Edwardian flavours) 🔸 Main: Roast "ducking" with potatoes and green vegetables, served with Bordeaux or more champagne (R.M.S. Majestic, Tourist Class, 1929) 🔸 Dessert: Poires à l'Impératrice, Savarin Montmorency, served with port and coffee (R.M.S. Olympic, À La Carte Restaurant, 1922) The 1920s and 1930s were a new age in ocean travel. Leading up to the First World War, La Belle Époque had been a combined age of increasingly comfortable ocean travel and mass migration. Fueled by fierce economic competition, rapid technological development, and concern for national status, shipping companies and national governments were engaged in a constant battle of one-upmanship for the fastest, smoothest, and best equipped transatlantic liners. All passengers enjoyed increasing comfort - from the vastly improved welfare and facilities for third class immigrants, to the opulent design and innovative facilities in first class accommodation. The war brought about a changed world. Shipping companies were gradually forced to adapt but their evolution ushered in a second golden age of the ocean liner. Increased prosperity opened up travel to many and newly restrictive U.S. immigration law shifted focus away from migrants to a new class of traveller. This was the birth of the ‘Cabin Liner’ era. Whilst First Class remained on the great express liners, passengers on smaller vessels could take advantage of the new Cabin Class, providing the comfort and service of first class at almost second class rates. Meanwhile, much of the once vast Third Class gradually gave way to the new Tourist-Third Cabin. Open spaces once filled by immigrants searching for a better life were replaced by neat, modern cabins for students, backpackers, and a new class of holiday makers. A new world brought about a new understanding of ocean travel. Cabin Ships are the result of public demand for luxury in transatlantic travel at moderate rates. The Cabin Traveler enjoys every comfort and many of the luxuries of the great express liners - and yet for a pleasingly smaller fare. |