Island Flavor

They may be famed for their wildlife, but the Galápagos Islands may soon gain some culinary profile, thanks to an innovative cruise line.

- Betsy Andrews

IT WAS A splendid spread. The multicourse affair began with slow-roasted plantains topped with cured egg yolk, capers, and plantain-leaf salt. The dish was served with a sparkling wine from Ecuador’s Bodega Dos Hemisferios. Then came duck confit with mushrooms and an ash-dusted tuile of cassava. An entrée of cauliflower was topped with smoked chiles and macambo beans; another, of pork, came with a coffee-laced jus and a carmelized masa cake. And for dessert? A pineapple-rum cake, paired with a coconut gelato.

This style of cooking—a haute-cuisine reimagining of traditional foods—is taking off in many of South America’s biggest cities, from Lima and Bogotá to Guayaquil. But this dinner wasn’t being served at a high-end restaurant. Instead, I was enjoying it at sea with 19 other guests after a morning walk along a beach dotted with sea-turtle nests, an afternoon snorkel with tiny Galápagos penguins, and a hike to the top of barren Bartolomé Island for a bird’s-eye view of the sail-shaped Pinnacle Rock.

We were aboard the