Meet the chef changing the game for luxury train travel

Rocky Mountaineer is revamping the luxury train travel experience.

It’s been dubbed the best way to see British Columbia and the Canadian Rockies, and now travellers can experience something we don’t often associate with trains: a world-class culinary experience.

That’s right folks, it seems as though Rocky Mountaineer have been reading our diary because they’ve combined our two favourite things: travel and food.

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The company has tapped into foodie culture to develop a range of new culinary based packages and a fantastic onboard menu from their world-class team of chefs.

We had a chat with Rocky Mountaineer’s Executive Chef Jean Pierre Guerin, or JP as he has come to be known, to get the low down on the luxury train’s foodie focus.

JP is an award-winning chef in both Vancouver, British Columbia, and abroad.

He’s a man who knows his food, going to great lengths to secure the best local ingredients for his creations.

Working in a train kitchen can be very different from a regular, full-sized kitchen, he told us.

“You have to be very organised, the galleys are very small,” JP said.

“The galleys are about 3.5, 3.6 meters in length, 1.8 meters in width so everything has to be super organised, everything always has to be in the same location.”

“You usually have a lot more space to work in and if you forget something you can go to the store and pick it up.”

“If we forget something we don’t have that luxury so we have to bring everything with us including the kitchen sink.”

JP said he loves working on the luxury train because of the novelty found in enjoying fine dining in the middle of nowhere.

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“You can have fine dining in a completely remote environment.”

“And you can be served the same type of fare you would be served in a five star, high-end establishment, except it happens in the middle of a valley in the Rocky Mountains.”

“I couldn’t think of a better experience, to be honest.”

Having cooked for the likes of Bill Clinton, Meryl Streep, and Lady Diana, JP has some surprising insights into the eating habits of the rich and famous.

“If you work in hospitality, in high-end hotels and establishments, it’s likely you will be called to serve famous people.”

“But it’s not that difficult because a lot of the time these people have very simple demands.”

“In my experience, a lot of the time famous people just want very simple fare.”

“For instance, they would like a nice fruit plane for dinner and maybe a nice chicken breast.”

“Everybody is trying to give them rich food, special food, and that would be fine if it was once a month or once a week even, but its every day.”

“So it becomes tiresome. Even the best of food, you sometimes get sick of.”

Rocky Mountaineer’s communications manager, Hilary Strath, told us the luxury train is encouraging agents to get more involved.

“We have a lot of training platforms for agents,” she said.

“We have a special agent portal on our website with a lot of tools and great info for agents to learn about these new packages.”

“80 per cent of our sales are through travel agents so we really want to educate them on the platform.”

You can also sign up for famils and learning journeys on the sight so if eating world-class food and looking at insanely beautiful scenery through the trains 360-degree viewing carriages sounds like your cup of tea, you can check out their agent portal here.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

british columbia canadian rockies chef foodie travel Jean Pierre Guerin rocky mountaineer