Updated to include artist rendering of Remy main dining room.
When Disney Cruise Line’s newest ship, the Disney Dream, sets sail in January, it will boast a fine-dining restaurant with a menu designed by a dream-team of chefs: Scott Hunnel of Disney’s estimable Victoria & Albert’s and Arnaud Lallement of l’Assiette Champenoise in Reims, France. The announcement of the new restaurant, Remy, was made during a dinner prepared by the two chefs Wednesday at New York’s Le Bernadin.
The onboard restaurant will feature a continental -- or maybe that’s bi-continental -- menu developed by the two chefs. The menu will change with the seasons and will feature products sourced globally.
Hunnel is a multiple James Beard Award semi-finalist. His restaurant is considered one of the finest in the southeast and has been awarded the AAA Five Diamond award 10 years in a row and also holds the highest honors with the Mobile Guide. Lallement’s restaurant in Reims has two stars from the Michelin Guide.
The restaurant is named, apparently, for the rat in the Disney animated feature Ratatouille. The question of a rat in a restaurant has already been raised by others -- and indeed is the focus of the movie. Anyone who has witnessed the animatronic Remy that is revealed from underneath a silver cloche on cart wheeled throughout the dining room at Epcot's Chefs de France can attest to the uneasiness one feels upon seeing it.
True, its a short trip from the mouse that leads the company to another rodent in a restaurant. But rats have a storied infamy aboard ships. You’d think that would have raised some eyebrows in the planning room.
Still, the Disney Dream is expected to be a state-of-the-art, luxurious ship, and the talents of the two chefs charged with designing its premium restaurant’s menu should keep it well afloat.
