May 22, 2023

We have two sea days before reaching our first port in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. We have two guest chefs on board and they did a cooking demonstration for us.

David Deshaies grew up in a family run restaurant in the Loire Valley of France. Afer completing his apprenticeship in Normandy at the Michelin starred La Forge, he worked at acclaimed restaurants in France and Spain before moving to the US in 2001. He joined the celebrated chef Michel Richard at his flagship Citronelle in Washingon DC, rising to executive chef and eventually overseeing the company’s operations in DC, Las Vegas and NYC. In 2017 he opened Unconvntional Diner in DC. He then opened an Italian restaurant, L’Ardente, in DC. He has been named as Chef of the year by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.

Ana Deshaies is the award winning pastry chef of Unconventional Diner in DC. She is originally from Lima Peru and she moved to DC in 2006. She worked in Citronelle as a pastry line cook before working her way up to pastry chef. There she met David and the two married and went on to open their other restaurants. She has been named Pastry Chef of the year by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. She is also a Zumba teacher and has competed in Zumba teaching competitions with a handful of finalists around the globe. We saw her doing Zumba on Bintan Island!

They made two dishes which we then enjoyed in the dining room at dinner.

Fiirst was the Scallop Gnocchi with Kombu, Sage and Cauliflower. David also added sugar snap peas. This is gnocchi made with blended scallops and made to look like the actual scallop. They make many gluten free, vegan and other special dishes in their restaurants which he said is almost unheard of in France – that in the US there are so many dietary issues and allergies. It forces him to be a more creative chef, he said.

Ana made a delicious dessert – “Egg” ceptional Lemon Tart – Hazelnut chocolate, French Meringue, Graham Cracker Crumble and Lemon Curd. It is called that because the containers are chocolate made in an egg mold.

Very interesting demo and delicious food. And they are really nice people too.