Costa Cruises renews collaboration with Michelin-star chef Bruno Barbieri

‘Being able to offer dishes by Bruno Barbieri on board our ships fills us with pride,’ commented Giuseppe Carino, Costa Cruises vp guest experience & onboard revenues.

‘Every year we take hundreds of thousands of guests on holiday who come from approximately 200 different countries and to whom we want to offer a cruise experience that encapsulates Italy’s finest, starting precisely with our cuisine, which has always been one of our strengths,’ he added.

A special dinner devoted to the menu that bears his name starts with an antipasto and end with a dessert, including a salad of prawns with endive heart and minced Mediterranean pesto, and ‘garganelli’ pasta with swordfish, tomato and basil, on a cream of cannellini bean and strong ricotta, inspired by the chef’s homeland.

One of Barbieri's other pasta dishes includes tortellini in a Parmesan and bay leaf fondue flavoured with nutmeg.

Salmon steak with a potato crust, lamb cutlets with green bread and dried fruit, and sliced beef fillet are the main course stars.

Fruits of the forest bavarois with cooked grape and warm chocolate and walnut pudding with blackberry sauce and lavender-scented custard are the sweet final destination on this journey for the emotions created by the chef.

For vegetarians, an antipasto of spinach pudding with confit cherry tomatoes, herb-flavoured salsa verde and thinly sliced sesame bread; a soup made with potato cream, endive and olive pie and rounded off with a quenelle of thick tomato soup, and a vegetable brochette dipped in spices, are offered.

The partnership between Costa and Barbieri began in 2016 with the launch of the 'Benvenuti alla felicità²'(Welcome to happiness squared) campaign.

Born near the capital of Emilia-Romagna, Bologna, Barbieri graduated from the Hotel and Catering Management School there, before beginning his career as chef on cruises ships. Back on dry land he worked in the best Italian restaurants, and started his ascent, winning seven Michelin stars along the way.

Last summer he opened the Fourghetti restaurant in Bologna and today is the star of high-profile TV cooking programmes.