Last year, food writer David Lebovitz was all set to do a demo (and take a trip) aboard the transatlantic Queen Mary 2 when those gargantuan puffs of Icelandic volcano ash descended over Europe. So now Lebovitz is taking a complimentary “makeup” trip headed to New York, where he’ll visit Babycakes August 3 for a chat with baker Erin McKenna. In the meantime, Lebovitz has set his sights (and DSLR) on the liner’s labyrinthine kitchens, where apparently everything is made from scratch. During each one-week journey, the kitchen breaks down and serves twelve tons each of beef, seafood, and chicken; 800 croissants and 1,000 scones are baked every day. There’s an arsenal of tilt skillets, hundreds of crabcake-type things dressed and waiting for service, and speed racks loaded with Pullman loaves. There’s even a dedicated butter sculptor, who does nesting eagles and one that looks eerily like an old, unsalted Samuel Beckett.
[David Lebovitz]
