Silversea Review: What is Silversea S.A.L.T.?

The best way to experience the world is to take a huge bite out of it and taste it. S.A.L.T. is an opportunity for Silversea guests aboard Silver Nova, Silver Moon and Silver Dawn to do just that. An acronym for Sea and Land Taste, S.A.L.T. features, S.A.L.T. Talks, unique shore excursions with a culinary focus, speciality dining on board in the S.A.L.T. Bar and Kitchen; and onboard experiences such as cooking classes in an interactive lab for guests to get hands-on experience with cooking classes and more. Panache Cruises Ambassadors, Visit With Us, were on board Silver Moon in the Mediterranean to tell us all about it.

Propping up the S.A.L.T. Bar

S.A.L.T. Bar is not your typical Silversea bar. This quirky little bar—certainly little with around 20 seats— has the draw of a super-exclusive London club and the buzz of an uber-cool New York basement jazz bar. The sultry walls are stacked with an array of exquisite bottles to suggest you have stumbled across a mad Victorian scientist’s lab–and in fact it almost is. The bar and its whole concept is headed up by the mystical Carlos—he’s a top London mixologist and a drink genius. You can even find him wandering around on board shaking up cocktails in front of a custom-made drinks trolley. The Silver Moon’s feature cocktail is called Selene—a delicious combination of gin, Mara Tino lemon, apricot, peaches and citrus topped with an eye-catching smoke-filled moon. We enjoyed more than one!

It starts with a S.A.L.T. Talk

Our very first S.A.L.T experience aboard the ship was a Talk. Silversea invite speakers on board with knowledge and experience of the region they sail in. Although our sailing was a Greek island voyage, we did have one day in Cyprus and Silversea invited Writer, Broadcaster and Author Yasmin Khan aboard to share her extensive knowledge of Cypriot cuisine. She held a couple of talks in the theatre and went through some of her favourite recipes—later demonstrated to us by Cyril from the S.A.L.T. Lab! As we listened to Yasmin’s in-depth chat, we watched Cyril, enjoyed a glass of local wine and tasted the final dishes. Of course, they were absolutely delicious—a tomato and mint dolma and Cypriot potato salad.

S.A.L.T. Kitchen is a starring act

The S.A.L.T. Kitchen is a dedicated dining venue to take your tastebuds on a journey through the Greek Isles, the South American plains, the colourful coasts of the Caribbean, the food heritage of Atlantic Europe and beyond. It certainly looks the part; contemporary but comfortable and each table is dressed with a herb pot as a lovely nod to the gorgeous ingredients used in the dishes. The menu changes daily so you never know what you’ll get—it’s always delicious. Alongside the food, guests are offered wines or beers that are perfectly paired and always local. In terms of culinary flair, this is one of the best eateries on the ship. It deserves more than a visit or two per voyage.

To the S.A.L.T. Laboratory

The Lab is home to several cooking stations for guests to follow along with a chef leading a live class. Of course, these classes specialise in the cuisines of your immediate locality and every recipe has a story. We got closer to the food with an introduction to the history and significance of the dishes we’re about to cook. French Chef de Partie Cyril demonstrated how to make dishes such as spanakopita, spinach and cheese parcel, saragli, a Greek version of baklava, and finally moussaka, an old favourite. Everybody can take a copy of the recipe home to show off their new skills to loved ones. All in all, it was enormous fun, and very informative—it was even simple enough for beginners like me!

... And then S.A.L.T. took us ashore

We enjoyed our S.A.L.T. Ashore excursion under the hot sun on the Greek island of Paros, where we experienced a six-hour afternoon excursion. We travelled from the port to a hillside organic farm where we met the farm owner who gave us a tour. After delighting in the sunshine amongst the many olive, pomegranate and fig trees, we were invited to sample some of the food grown on the farm. Wow. It was all freshly prepared by the owner’s family and we enjoyed sitting at a rustic table setting. We then reboarded the coach and headed back down the coast to a gorgeous little secluded beach site Verna, away from the busy tourist centre. We were greeted by husband and wife owners who gave us refreshments whilst they demonstrated some of the dishes we would be eating later that afternoon—real filo pastry and sourdough bread cooked in their traditional outside wood-fired oven. This was an unforgettable day.

If you want a taste of Silversea’s S.A.L.T. programme, call us today!