The Intelligence from The Economist The Weekend Intelligence: Mise en masse
Nov 29, 2025
Chef Gary Thomas oversees food operations for Royal Caribbean, ensuring thousands are fed daily aboard the massive Star of the Seas. He reveals the intricate choreography in the main dining room and how staff streamline service. The podcast dives into the legacy of Escoffier's brigade system, bulk butchery techniques, and innovative AI forecasting for inventory. Gary highlights the challenges faced by the back-of-house staff and discusses the demanding nature of culinary careers, while also addressing mental health issues among crew.
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Scale Without Prepackaged Food
- Modern cruise kitchens produce 100,000 fresh meals a day across many venues while cooking to order.
- Royal Caribbean combines large scale with scratch cooking, not prepackaged meals.
Escoffier Mapped Kitchens To Factory Lines
- Auguste Escoffier's brigade system industrialised kitchens by dividing tasks into specialised stations.
- That system maps directly onto modern cruise-ship production lines and reduces chaos.
Dial In Your Mise En Place
- Get mise en place right to avoid over- or under-preparing and protect razor-thin margins.
- Use accurate forecasting rather than intuition to match prep to demand.
