Eat. Drink. Cruise. | Cornelius Gallagher, Celebrity Cruises

Ken Taylor: 00:00:02

Have you ever wanted to know how has that done on board or who's really behind the various initiatives that take place within the bars and restaurants at sea? Or how to trends in hospitality really impact the FMB experiences that are fantastic, and that guests enjoy while cruising? Then eat drink Cruise is your podcast, sustainability, unique and distinct experiences, reshaping beverage consumption, culinary innovation, supply and demand and today's commercial world. And the people that make all of this happen is actually what our eat drink cruise podcast aims to cover. In 2024 the outlook for cruising expects to see over 35 million guests on board which is a 12% increase year on year according to cruise lines International Association and so this podcast really becomes a sneak peek behind the scenes of a dynamic industry. Whether you're a cruise expat or a successful supplier or newcomer supplier or just an f&b fanatic, bite size conversations are what this podcast are all about. My name is Ken Taylor, and welcome to the show. We have a great lineup of different players throughout the business, including operators and consultants and influencers. It's a holistic perspective on the status of cruise f&b today welcome to eat drink, cruise. My name is Ken Taylor I was going to present this little information. I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't highlight the focus of our program, which is really, I think, an exploration of the cruise industry as it relates to food and beverage, and really cool people. I mean, that's really the focus of this podcast, Eat, Drink, and Cruise will be something you can tune into. From time to time, we hope to have some really, really great people along the way. But I really can't say it any other way people are making a lot of great people are making an impact on this industry. The cruise segment is exploding, the cruise lines and the product is exploding. And there's just some really amazing

Ken Taylor: 00:02:08

people behind that. Most interestingly, within the food and beverage area, so I'm super excited about bringing this show to light and bringing some really cool people. But speaking of food and beverage, and F&B@Sea, there is a show that is going into its second annual conference presentation and that is on April 10 and 11. It's called F&B@Sea. And if you didn't attend last year, I highly recommend this conference program. It is again April 10 and 11th. In Miami, it's presented by see trade and it is all about food and beverage. So we are super excited if any indication of last year success will be what we expect to see this year then I'm even more excited because was a huge success. Last year is our first annual show last year in Fort Lauderdale this year in Miami Beach, everyone gathering in the industry that's contributed whether it be a supplier or a operator, an innovator, a contributor to F&B in the cruise industry, you know, really shouldn't be at the show, and we're really excited. That show is April 10 through 11. So really excited about that. But speaking of really cool people, this first podcast brings to you Cornelius Gallagher, who's our very first guest, our very first guest of the show. He is Vice President of Hotel Operations for for Celebrity Cruises. Welcome Neal Gallagher.

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:03:37

Thanks so much, Ken. Great to be with you. Thanks for the invitation.

Ken Taylor: 00:03:40

Absolutely. I mean, a lot of people know, Neal, when I said I just said a moment ago, Vice President of Hotel. I think a lot of people that know you are like well wait a second, I thought he was head food and beverage. You are kind of doing both at the moment, right?

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:03:52

Yeah, just transition. I've been leading food and beverage for a celebrity for about nine years or so that I was just moved into a different position given a different opportunity, which I'm really excited about. So currently, I oversee working with Keith Lane, overseeing hotel operations, also the newly formed hospitality team for the brand. So that's a new add to that scope. And then I'm also overseeing food and beverage in the interim. Kind of backfill. So it's 24/7. Think I went to bed at 1.30 last night and woke up at 5. So hopefully that doesn't persist. But it's not boring. That's for sure.

Ken Taylor: 00:04:29

Yeah, I mean, you I don't know. I've known you now for at least nine or 10 years. I don't know anyone who could probably handle the speed better than you. That's what you do, right? That's, you know, comes from the f&b industry that you grew up in and, and so now you've just got a few other responsibilities. Now, where are you right now?

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:04:47

I'm in my daughter's room. My daughter left for us recently. So she's at school there now.

Ken Taylor: 00:04:52

You're in Florida. So what's your next trip? I mean, this is you've got ships coming out. You just launched what's going on?

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:05:00

yeah, we just launched the Ascent, which is the fourth ship and the Edge class for Celebrity, wildly successful, very exciting stuff. So we just left that ship. And we're sort of mapping out what my travel looks like, it's going to be quite exciting part of the new scope and the new oversight is we're launching something called the Celebrity way, it's a new way to look at culture and look at hospitality overall, it's how the short side team members treat each other. It's how the short side leaders treat the team members on board. And it's how the team members on board treat each other. And eventually, most importantly, it's about how the teams treat the guests. So we're launching this new shift in culture and hospitality with a focus on elevated hospitality and every guest touchpoint. So we're creating this new program, and we're going to be rolling it out to the fleet. So there's that and I'm going to be traveling with the hospitality team to really underscore and create this whole program and get the word out. In addition to that, I'll also be hitting every ship to connect with all of the new hotel directors, the Executive Committee is on board to just talk about overall hotel operations, see how my team and I can help support and guide the teams on board and to instill this new celebrity way brand culture paradigm shift.

Ken Taylor: 00:06:15

Very exciting. Very cool. Yeah, that's something you and I talked a little bit about, I'm excited to kind of see how that evolves, what a great time to launch, you know, kind of a new a new set of thinking, you know, leadership has changed a bit with the brand. And I know Laura Hodges probably has some really cool stuff that she's doing. And this is probably part of that, which is awesome. Now, you only talk about yourself very much, Neal, we're gonna have to talk about you a little bit just real quick. And the one question that I'm asking everyone on this show that, you know, it'd be fun to kind of hear the responses. I think, for those who know you probably could answer but I'm gonna let you use a technical question. Okay, I'm gonna let you answer this. What's your favorite cocktail?

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:06:59

I'm pretty simple, I would say a Grey Goose martini with dry vermouth. Straight up.

Ken Taylor: 00:07:04

Nice!

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:07:05

Lemon twist.

Ken Taylor: 00:07:07

Very classic. Very classic, very classic,

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:07:11

very simple. You know, my background is a chef and having worked in, you know, restaurants and hotels for pretty much 35 years. They say, if you would have have one last meal on Earth, what would it be? I'm a simple guy. I find that the older I get, the more simple my tastes become a glass, a great red wine and a fan and a delicious steak. Delicious eighths steak. So I love simple classic things.

Ken Taylor: 00:07:35

What do you like to cook? Like? Let's say you are. You're entertaining an amazing travel partner. And you've been asked, let's just say Laura asked you, you know, Neal, I need you to cook. Actually, they're coming to your house. What do you like to make put it that way?

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:07:51

I think I would cook the same for pretty much any guests that comes to my house. And you'd mentioned Laura who's outstanding. I'm excited to be on her team and excited to embrace the new philosophy, the elevated hospitality way. She's an outstanding leader. If I were to say, I would go to the market and find what's the freshest most in season food, I would not sit there and plan a menu and purchase around that I would go to the market, I would go to the peer see whatever fish has just come out of the ocean off the off the boats. If I was cooking seafood, I would try to find fish that was as close to rigor mortis as possible, Super Fresh, any vegetables that are locally sourced organic, pesticide free. And I would basically use my experience just to decide what I was going to buy and what flavors would go together. The key for me would be keeping it simple. As I mentioned, as I get older, my way of eating becomes more simple, but also my way of cooking. And I think that as a young chef chefs will often start with simplicity, because they don't know really how to approach each ingredient. Then as they become a little bit more adept and how to handle ingredients, they tend to put too much on the plate, just to kind of show what they can do. And then there's this tipping point, when you start to really become an expert. And you understand that with food less is more. And it's really all about freshness of ingredients. And simplicity. And simplicity is not simple. If you try to draw a perfect circle freehand, you'll see that so really it becomes understanding the ingredients, understanding the seasons, which ingredients blend well together and keeping it truly simple. The best chefs are able to, you know, find great ingredients and apply light touches. You want to really not get in the way between those great ingredients and the guests and whoever is consuming that product. It's light touches, knowing what flavors go well together and

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:09:45

keeping it fresh at the end of the day.

Ken Taylor: 00:09:47

Well obviously from a chef's standpoint, that's that's your gig and it comes from an amazing background. And I always find it really interesting because everybody has their own unique experiences which is awesome. That's what makes Is the industry amazing? Yours is quite unique. It's a little bit of a rags to riches story. And we'll talk about how it's kind of evolved into your new role. But let's go back for a moment top of your class CIA. When you graduated, you went into the New York scene. I even think you spent some time in France, learning classic cuisine, and all that that requires. And then I think you were on the cover of food and wine Best New Chef, what was that? 2003?

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:10:28

Yeah, so I got into this industry, meaning the hospitality industry way back. And it was really before the advent of the Food Network, social media, you know, celebrity chefs, I didn't get into it. For that reason. I got into it, because I really do at my core love to make people happy. And I fell in love with cooking when I was 12 years old cooking at home for my family started off melting. I remember the milk chocolate Easter Bunny, in a Teflon frying pan on an electric range, trying to make peanut butter cups at home. And I learned pretty quickly that you can't melt chocolate in a frying pan or else it burns. So that was the beginning I fell in love with cooking. I have this book called The Joy of Cooking by Irma rombauer And I still have my original copy from when I was 11 or 12 years old. And realize that there's part of me that is creative, and I love working with my hands. And you know, my journey sort of began there in the kitchen at 11 or 12 years old. And then while I was in high school, I went to vocational school focused on culinary arts. I graduated and went to a place called CIA Culinary Institute of America, which is still the world's premier culinary school, which I'm excited about. I did not graduate top of my class, but I was group leader. And so graduated from CIA in the early 90s. I got a chance to work at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. I worked at Waldorf while I was at CIA. And then when I graduated, I wanted to go and work at the best restaurants that I could. So I went to a place called bootleg, which at that point was the number one restaurant in the United States. And I got the job by going to the back door and waiting there in my chef works with my knives, and said I want to instead I want a job here. And the chef saw me brought me and he said we'll try you out tomorrow. And he brought me in and I'm super nervous. I'm in the I'm in literally this is before the French Laundry. I'm in the best restaurant in

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:12:25

the United States, and got hired and then spent time there. And then was approached by a friend of mine who was opening a restaurant called flippers. It was a tiny Seafood Shack on the North Shore of Long Island and said we're looking for an executive chef. And in my young, immature head. I said, Well, sure I'm ready to be a chef. So I went there 40 seats $100,000 To start the restaurant. And we opened it up and we called it love Lounge, which means the beach in French because it was on the beach, spent a year there and realized, hey, I want to I want to be a bigger fish in a bigger pond. I want to be a big fish in a big pond versus a big fish in a small pond, which was Long Island. So I said what I need to do to become a great chef is to really step back from the executive chef role. I need to start again as a cook and rebuild myself up working for the world's best chefs. So I did that I left the Plash and I went on a journey working for the world's best chefs. A total of I think roughly five or six three star Michelin chefs, as you mentioned, I went to France. I worked briefly in Spain at a restaurant called El Bulli, which was the number one restaurant in the world spend time at Lesperance. And some palsu Vezelay. And France did a stodg. There worked for Laurent Grodd, peacock Ali, great coons that let's be nice. I was sous chef at Daniel for Chef Daniel Boulud, who we now have a partnership with, and ended up my first executive chef position in Manhattan at a restaurant called Oceana where I got all these crazy accolades and was on TV a whole bunch of times was on a cover of a bunch of different magazines, which is great, but that's not really the reason I do any of this, and got to learn a lot got to work with amazing people. And then, you know, through a series of events, ended up being interviewed by and ended up working for the company I'm with now, I spent two years as director of culinary at Royal Caribbean International, and then post that was

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:14:16

asked to leave food and beverage for celebrities. So sorry about the long winded response, but one.

Ken Taylor: 00:14:21

No, it's great. It's awesome. I mean, from Oceania, to Celebrity Cruises, basically over the last 910 years. You've been with the brand or with Royal Caribbean group starting out with royal you and I actually went on board, a Solstice Class ship, I think back in your interview, and you walked around the ship. And I remember just watching you look at this massive operation on board. And I think you were looking at the galley. I don't know that you had questions. You had questions, but you're on the phone already working on something. It just seems like went right to trying to figure out exactly and I think if you look at those last years, these last nine years Since that day, what would you tell your young self? who just walked on a celebrity cruise ship? Looking for the first time because you never really cruise? You weren't a cruiser. You were a New York chef. What would you tell yourself?

Ken Taylor: 00:15:21

And then you're able to take the mentoring that you've received, one of your great mentors is Danielle right below who obviously was important enough for you to bring aboard celebrity as the partner I've experienced and continue to enjoy experiencing when I'm on board in a suite class accommodation on a celebrity the concept luminaire. But tell me about the partnership first with your mentoring relationship, and then how that evolved?

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:18:06

Sure. That's a great question. So the partnership with Daniel is something that I'm extremely happy about and honored by. Because Daniel has been approached by pretty much everybody in the cruise industry over the course of the last 30 years to partner with him. Daniel has been at the top of his game since he was the chef Le Cirque in the mid 80s. In New York. He's the longest running four star chef, meaning New York Times four star which is the equivalent of three Michelin stars in New York. I think he had the longest run at that level than any other chef. He's the most awarded chef in the world. That's a big statement. And so the question is, how did this partnership come to be? Well, first, I worked with Daniel for about a year and a half in New York at his flagship restaurant, Daniel on 65th and Park Avenue, and got to work with him in that capacity. And we always kept in touch throughout the years. Not only was he a mentor of mine, he's an amazing human being. And we always kept touch on the side. And so one day he had sent me a text and said, Hey, Neil, I'm, you know, I'm celebrating the fifth anniversary of my restaurant Miami, would you like to come? So I said, Sure. So I brought one of my team members, we went there and sat with Daniel and just, you know, reminisce about old times. And at the end of the night, we sat at the bar and a few glasses of wine. And, you know, we discussed the idea of working together. And then he said, No, I think that would be great. And I said yeah, sure you say that to everybody. You know, I think you're kind of you know, maybe pulling the wool over my eyes. But he was really interested. And I asked him, I said what's different about us versus other companies that have approached you? And he said, the trust that he and I have the fact that we've worked together. And there's a book called The Speed of Trust that outlines how partnerships can sometimes come together when both parties really trust

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:19:50

each other and how things can be expedited through that trust. So long story short, it took about 30 days or so for us to hammer out the contract and We brought Daniel onboard, first as a global brand ambassador for the culinary brand. And then the second piece was the restaurant partnership agreement, we launched level Yash, on board beyond and on a scent recently. And that's Daniels interpretation of his French approach to technique and culinary sensibilities through the filter of his travels around the world, utilizing ingredients from different parts of the world that we visit that he visits, and really interpreting those dishes for our guests on board, the partnership has been wildly successful. And what people don't know is not only is Daniel a great, amazing chef and restaurant tour, and one of the most prolific out there in the world, not only is he the most awarded chef in the world, he's also an amazing human being. And there are things that he does, that he doesn't talk about. That's why we wanted to partner with him. And that's why we're so honored to be partnered with him. Now.

Ken Taylor: 00:20:53

Obviously, Daniel being helpful in what you're trying to accomplish, you've been doing for the last eight or nine years running food and beverage, in really elevating this experience. I look at Celebrity Cruises as an elevated experience, a lot of cruise lines are trying to elevate their experience, you know, usually starts with design. And then it goes into sort of the concepts with f&b in particular, lots of great new concepts at sea right now. But you have a perspective that you and the team had been working on. Tell me about what that means a little bit more.

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:21:24

Good question. That is what I referenced earlier was the Celebrity way. And it's not only brand culture and how we treat each other. But it's really a focus on elevated hospitality, as I think we're not really in the cruise business, but we are in the hospitality business. And I don't think it's enough to just create this program, box it up shoreside in the corporate office and send it out to the fleet and say, create elevated hospitality through your lens. I think that's part of it. But I think part of it is really giving specific examples to the fleet. And what we mean by elevated hospitality, I'll give you two quick examples. We're going to be using these examples to kind of showcase to the fleet and then we're going to let them take that and expand on that the core of it is really going above and beyond being in touch with the guests, understanding what they want at the end of the day, and stepping outside of your comfort zone, and doing the extra work to create a moment that resonates with that guest. So one of the things is, for instance, we recently had a guest who had sailed on one of our ships, and it's a gentleman who laid his pants out for the night because he was going to one of the higher end dinners on board. And the butler noticed that his hand was ripped on his pants. So the butler without being prompted, brought that down to the area on the ship where they fix these sorts of things had brought it back and laid it back out on the bed exactly in the same position without saying a word. And the guests came back and said, Now that's intuitive. That's someone who's in touch. And I can't believe that they just took that upon themselves to do that. And then there was another bottler on another ship, where guests had mentioned to his wife in the state room while he was in there performing other duties. I wish they had vitamin water here a certain type of vitamin water. And they told me that they don't have it on board. So

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:23:17

this butler went and it was in Key West. And we saw him because we were off the ship. And we saw him walking down Duvall Street. It was really Keith, who saw him Keith Lane, my boss. And he went up to him and said, Hey, his name was Bart, the butler and said, Bart, what are you doing it we see you walking down Duvall Street and full Butler uniform, you stand out like a sore thumb, what's going on here? And he told him, I thought it would you know, the guest mentioned that they wanted this type of vitamin water. So I got off the ship, and I'm sourcing it for them without them knowing about it. So at the core, it's really just about those types of things going above and beyond creating moments, connecting with people understanding what they want stepping outside your comfort zone to create those moments that are going to create resonating long lasting experiences and memories for our guests.

Ken Taylor: 00:24:04

That's great. That's really, really cool. I mean, obviously, it's going to take for the crew, some great examples of what they already do, right to kind of highlight. I think the crew member on board, cruise ships are incredibly resilient. And they're authentic people. Actually, I use the word authentic. Webster's word of the year is authentic. I don't even know why. But that's seems like we've been using that word for a while. But no, it's that whole authentic thing that crew members are classically known for. And when it comes to training and development, which I think this initiative will probably have a lot to do with as you bring new crew on and bring new ships on. It means more new crew, kickstarting that hospitality and that sort of authenticity, you know, with the programs, it makes a lot of sense. You know, everybody's finding ways to weave in technology to support their initiatives. Will technology help you in any way with this?

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:24:58

You know, it's so funny you said If authentic is the word of the year, I thought it would be existential because that popped up and that's been all over. Yeah, that's true. That's a good question. Technology is something that we're wanting to leverage. And we want to use in a smarter way to help us make decisions in a more efficient way and help us be smarter, but more of a pinpoint on, you know how we set our targets, leveraging guest experiences from other ships so that when they sail on a different ship, we have the full background of those guests, and we can customize the experience to them, there's an opportunity to leverage off the shelf solutions that will help us make better decisions. For instance, there's no, I'm not paid by Aveiro, but I've used Aveiro in the past. And what that is, is a technology that consolidates items sales trend reports, revenue, data utilization for restaurants and bars, the weather, it presents that data in a user friendly way quickly in real time that allows you to make decisions and on menu changes and power changes and so forth. So that's one piece of technology that we're looking into well, big fan of using off the shelf solutions, versus us trying to create everything internally. There's another thing that we're looking into is to leverage analytics onboard our operations, predictive analytics. So for instance, right now, in our ocean view Cafe, which is the buffet, oftentimes, the first touch point for any guests when they come on board. Right now, what the chefs do, is they have a rough idea of the demographics blend that will be coming on board for the next cruise, a certain amount of guests from the US, UK, Argentina, and so forth. Now to use that information, the previous information on those guests, the analytics from those guests, what they like to eat, what times they like to eat, the amount of kids that are coming board and the next cruise, where the ship is positioned in the

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:26:53

world, what the weather is like, all of those things impact what we should serve in the buffet, you know, what the offering is what times we open, and so forth. There's a lot because for instance, we know that when it rains outside, we're gonna have a lot more people inside coming to the buffet, you're not gonna the other venues that are open outside are not going to be as busy because it's raining. So we're looking into creating an internal algorithm that calculates all of this, and will come out with a prediction of what we think the food order should be by day for that ship. That's obviously a massive undertaking. But that's an example of how we're looking to leverage technology to better our operations. Awesome.

Ken Taylor: 00:27:32

So no AI cruise directors coming up?

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:27:36

No, it's a people business, right? We can't certain extent to help us be better. But it's not about replacing employees, it's just about being more efficient on decision making.

Ken Taylor: 00:27:49

One of the things that you and I talked briefly about this F&B@Sea, this show that they were excited about coming up this next show in April. It's an award show as well, and it's an awards program that aims to recognize the great and cool stuff that the food and beverage teams are doing throughout the industry. You guys get a lot of awards celebrity has been known to attract industry awards specific to your brand and experience and they may look at other cruise lines. Oftentimes the awards that celebrities getting might be something that could go to a hotel group or another Hospitality Group. But what we're doing at F&B@Sea with the awards program is really just a cruise industry. What are your thoughts on that?

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:28:35

Well, I think our our program quite proud of and it's really the team has done a lot of great work for instance, Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for all of our ships fleet wide. We're the only cruise brand in the industry that is lucky enough to have that designation. Last year, we were the first cruise brand to be four star rated in the entire industry. And we're always trying to push the envelope. Speaking of Seatrade and F&B@Sea specifically, I believe it or not, I've never been to Seatrade before I went last year, I was asked to speak with some of the leaders of MSC of Carnival of NCL, and was you know, happy to do that and got to connect with the other leaders, which was great. But F&B@Sea was really unique and different. And I thought it was fantastic. Because people as they kind of get more educated about food in general, I think there's more of a focus and interest on that within the cruise space. I think the idea of adding an awards component to that is just even better. I was incredibly impressed by the layout and the setup by the team, how they brought the activations to life. And I hear this year, it's going to be even bigger when it's launched in Miami. So I'm looking forward to going there and checking it out. And I think what you're doing with your team and the awards makes 100% sense. So I love it.

Ken Taylor: 00:29:53

Awesome. Well, great stuff. Thank you so much, Neil. This has been a great conversation. We appreciate the opportunity Ken

Cornelius Gallagher: 00:30:00

Thanks for the time and thank you for the invitation!

Ken Taylor: 00:30:02

You bet Have a good one!