First Class Dining Room

Waiter

I hope that the lobster wasn't too rich for you, sir.

Guest

Well, if he was he didn't mention it.

Comparable in design and luxury to the Social Hall, is the biggest room on the Imperator; the First Class Dining Room. Located near the hull on F Deck, this two-floor culinary palace with its decorative domed ceiling iis 100 feet long, 24 feet high (almost three deck) and runs the full breadth of the ship. The tables in the dining room seat parties of two, four, or six, and are lighted by shaded electrical lamps. Capacity seating is 700 at a time. Like so many other public rooms on the Imperator, there is nothing of this size or luxury on other ships. 

The quality, variety and abundance of food aboard the Imperator is something that we love to circulate to prospective guests. On one particular occasion, E. Naeck, a “well-known writer”, wrote a glowing acclamation for the cuisine aboard our new ship. He detailed breakfast, saying there were a variety of fruits, jams, honey, marmalade, milk-foods; the many dishes prepared with eggs and flour, and the fish of all sorts, with potatoes “in their skins, mashed, tossed, or made into pancakes”, and the truffles, and the meats, and “amid the homely ham and sausages, venison pies, poultry, pickled herrings, and other kinds of fish, in oil, in mushroom sauce, and all sorts of different cheeses.”

Behind The Scenes

To serve the swell of diners in all classes, there are eight kitchens aboard the Imperator. The huge First Class kitchen and medium-sized Second Class kitchen were on F Deck and split from each other by a double elevator that  is used to shuttle food to the respect dining rooms. In each kitchen there are double-sided cooking stoves, huge steam saucepans, numerous ovens, two big bakeries, spacious pantries, dish warmers, dish washers, electric egg cookers, and an area for the sharpening of knives and polishing of silver. For the butchering and preparation of meat and fish, there is an abattoir with its own cooling system. The kitchen also has one. For the cold storage of foods there is a combined space of 2,830 cubic meters of refrigeration.