Costa email: Chef Bruno Barbieri, 12-course Dinner, Culinary Journey.

Any experience with this??

From Costa Email below:

Dear Travel Partner,

Costa Cruises is proud to announce yet another collaboration with chef Bruno Barbieri! Your clients can now experience the exquisite 12-course dinner that will take them on a culinary journey. As they browse the collection, they'll read about the inspiration behind each masterpiece they dine on.

Guests will enjoy a "Pietanze" of salmon with Sicilian caponata, and lamb with saffron potatoes and marinated courgettes.

Truly a pasta lover's dream, the menu features fresh dishes like rich garganelli with swordfish, tomato, basil and ricotta, and the classic tortellini with Parmesan and hints of nutmeg.

A delight for vegetarians as well, highlights include an incredible spinach flan with parsley, garlic and confit cherry tomatoes; "papa al pomodoro" with sautéed endive and olives; and a spiced vegetable entrée with pizzaiola sauce.

And for dessert, wild berry bavarois and warm chocolate cake with walnuts, blackberries and lavender custard.

Click here to explore the new menu in detail.

Buon appetito!

http://www.costacruise.com/usa/restaurants-cuisine/index.html

I wonder if like my wife and I anyone else dislikes Bruno Barbieri's idea of great dishes, we have sampled his idea of great Italian food many times either direct or his creations cooked by other chefs.

Although I know everyone's taste is different on two occasions eight out of ten on our table found the food bland and tasteless, there seemed to be no comments from the waiters when plate after plate was only party eaten, almost like they had heard it all before.

If he want's to learn about great Italian cooking try looking at the wonderful menus of the early 2000's on Costa.

To be honest our last cruise in February this year there was a marked improvement in the selection and dishes so perhaps someone has passed on some of the complaints we heard in December.

Ah Bruno the Barbarian, he can certainly massacare great Italian dishes.

We were on the neoRomantica last December, we also found the food taste ad presentation vastly improved. One night (thankfully only one) we had the Barbarian menu (nothing else available) in MDR, during the main course I would estimate about 50% had left the MDR. I tried (honestly) to eat the stuff, but most of the time I was pulling it apart and dissecting it to see if it wa stil alive and what was it in. The only greatness about the dishes were when they were removed (full).

After the MDR fiasco we when to buffet, but the buffet was full, so we went and paid for a great Italian dish - pizza made to order.

But I better the people who call themselves a "foodie" will just adore throwing snobbish compliments about the rubbished served, how the Pork Millefeuilles with Black Peppers is so roundly complemented by the fine wine with its characteristic chocolate, vanilla and chestnuts. I wonder if anyone has done a similar comparison with Rock and Chips and a bottle of Sarsons Malt (single of course).

I have eaten food all my life (does that make me a foodie), except for the odd coin or magnet when young, but the next time I see BB on the menu I will make a wide berth and dream of the really great dishes in the world, me Mum's Shepherd's Pie, Fish and Chips wrapped in Page 3 of The Sun a stick of Blackpool Rock.

So back to the OP, I felt insulted when BB dishes were placed before me.

G.M.T

It was on the Neo-Romantica that we first sampled his dishes which included Cabbage soup three times in 11 days.

Bruno the Barbarian suit him to a T.

I still have the menu's from the old Romantica when we cruised on her in 1999, good mind to forward them on to BTB to show him what Italian menu were about, which include many types of fresh Pasta cooked in the main dinning room to order.

Michelin-worthy cuisine rarely translates well on an institutional basis; this is true on all the cruise lines more or less. When we first cruised on Costa in the eighties they could do pasta well and that was pretty much it. On one cruise I asked them to make a Cannoli and what they came up with was really sad, sounds like they need to go back to the basics.

Here and so too happens:) .