Ship of Drools

The timeless enticements of a Mediterranean cruise--the visits to fabled isles, the sun and spray, the moonlight murmurings--were not for those aboard the French Line's Mermoz. The passengers, in fact, had little stomach for anything but their stomachs; the ship's 470 well-heeled and generally well-fleshed guests had signed up for an ocean voyage dedicated solely to gastronomy.

From the Thursday morning when they embarked, until the following Sunday afternoon when the Mermoz returned them to Cannes, they ate and sipped their way through an epicure's dream of meals prepared by four of France's most brilliant chefs. In all, for up to $900 a stomach, they put away 1,800 bottles of Moet et Chandon 1969 champagne, 4,000 more bottles of red and white wine, 10,000 canapes, 264 Ibs. of caviar, 244 Ibs. of foie gras, one ton of meat, 250 chickens, 250 ducks, 1,322 Ibs. of seafood, 1,322 Ibs. of vegetables, 25,000 petits fours and other gastronomical delights in astronomical quantities.

The voyage capped four years of effort by Gourmet-Author Henri Gault (TIME, Nov. 19,1973). Gault and his colleague Christian Millau have become known through their guidebooks and monthly magazine as the evangelists of la nouvelle cuisine franc,aise which celebrates practicality and provincial simplicity in reaction against the ornate, heavy, highly stylized haute cuisine of French tradition. To make Mermoz a ship of drools, Gault lured aboard:

P: Paul Bocuse (L'Empereur), 49, owner of a famed restaurant near Lyon, whose leadership of the new cuisine recently earned him the Legion of Honor from President Giscard d'Estaing.

P: Michel Guerard, at 41 the youngest of the four, whose two-star Les Pres et les Sources d'Eugenie honors the old cuisine in flavor but not always in calories.

P: Gaston Lenotre, 54, France's dessert-maker sans pareil and its leading traiteur, a specialist in canapes, sandwiches and salads (he was in charge of all the lunches and desserts).

P: Roger Verge, 45, the fastest rising star of French cooking, whose Moulin de Mougins near Cannes, in a meteoric 5 1/2 year rise, has become one of Michelin's 17 three-star restaurants.

There was never a question of too many chefs spoiling the mousseline. True, Bocuse had to send a launch to Sardinia for fresh parsley, and all the chefs had to get used to the ship's electric stove. Nonetheless, though accustomed to serving small gatherings (80 at most) from a nearby kitchen, the superstars quickly adjusted to mass-feeding with unfamiliar equipment from labyrinthine kitchens as far as seven decks below. The only near disaster came at lunch the first day, when the company hurled itself upon the buffet tables like famished refugees. (Thereafter, lunch was served at guests' tables.)

The 9 p.m. dinners, supervised in turn by Verge, Guerard and Bocuse, were crowned by such main courses as fondue de gigot d'agneau aux aubergines, volatile de Bresse and aiguillette de caneton au vin de Graves, for a total of 19 courses. Guerard's meal was adjudged the best of the trip by Gault, who gave it 19 3/4 points out of a possible 20. Fortunately, reported TIME'S gourmet-onboard, George Taber, dinner was over before a storm hit the Gulf of Genoa, sending many of the guests to their cabins.

Most of the guests, naturally, were French, though Belgium, Spain and West Germany sent contingents; the passenger list also included a smattering of Englishmen, Americans, and a Lebanese who flew from Beirut for the adventure. Instead of retiring to the solarium between meals--though the topless sun bathing rated two stars --most of the gourmets attended gastronomic "forums" where, often heatedly, they discussed such matters of faith as the correct temperature for serving champagne (46DEG-50DEG F. v. 50DEG-54DEG F.), whether smoking between courses dulls the palate (not at all, said Gault), and why there were not more top women chefs (because, snapped Bocuse, "they always make the same recipe their mother and grandmother and great-grandmother used").

One of the most sought-after experts aboard was Dr. Georges M. Halpern, vice president of France's Societe de Gastronomie Medicale, who was perhaps the slimmest man aboard. One of his secrets, he confided, is to eat and make love with equal ardor; although figures differ, Halpern averred that sex on the average consumes 100 calories per minute. On disembarking with his Japanese wife, le docteur observed happily that in the course of the cruise he had shed one pound.

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