I’ve always been fascinated by dining cars on trains. When I was a little girl, we used to travel overnight on a train quite often, and the best part was getting to go to the dining car. It was always so beautiful with wood paneling and velvet, and the tables would be set with a big white tablecloth and a flower in a vase. Then you could order just like you would in a restaurant. I always found this so amazing – you look out the window and there’s a beautiful view going by while you eat your dinner. The best place to have a meal, in my opinion, is on a train, in the dining car, especially when it’s fancy. Today for fun, I thought it would be great to look at what kinds of food you can get on a train. This isn’t particularly for us to learn from, though. There definitely are principles that we can draw from it, but it’s more just for fun to get some ideas of what the chefs cook on trains.
They have unique challenges – for example, a small kitchen, and they have to be adaptable to whatever region they’re in. Perhaps they adjust what they cook in different places. They need to be efficient, and have good customer service and good communication with all the people that get the meals out. This is like in a restaurant, but even more so. Also, they need to be creative, et cetera. There’s limited time and limited space. We can definitely learn from that, because often that’s the case in our homes too; limited time to figure out what to cook, and limited time to cook it. I think both for chefs on trains and for us at home, the key to being successful with our meals is planning, figuring out how we can best make it work effectively, considering our space and time, and all of that.
So, let’s look at some of the meals and things they do on trains. Luxury train dining is the best. On high-end luxury trains like the Orient Express in England or the Royal Scotsman, you pay for your meals as part of the experience. They’re gourmet meals prepared by top chefs as you travel through stunning landscapes.
There’s quite a lot of historical significance of train food. It was a very big deal in the early 20th century – it was actually one of the only ways to get a good meal during long journeys. The dining experience on trains like the Trans-Siberian Railway or the California Zephyr helped shape the culture of luxury travel. Today, you have to go on a really fancy train to get that level of experience.
At the train station, you can get snacks. There’ll be a kiosk with some local delicacies. In Japan, you’ll find Ekiben, which is boxed lunches with delicacies from the region. In Italy, you can find fresh pastries and sandwiches.
There are even mobile meals, which is similar to on an airplane. On some modern trains, they deliver the food to your seat. They even sometimes use small automated robots instead of attendants with meal carts. I can imagine that it feels like a futuristic dining experience.
The train kitchens, as I mentioned, are often small, with limited space. So the chefs need to prioritize deciding how they are going to do things, doing them efficiently, and then thinking creatively and planning. That’s definitely something we can learn from – optimizing resources, seeing what you’ve got to work with, whatever limited equipment you have, and then streamlining the operation; getting your kids involved, getting the team all ready to do their part, and then it works effectively like it has to.
They have limited ingredients and they can’t easily add to what they have, so they must work with ingredients that they have, and that may not be as fresh as what you find in traditional restaurants. There are also time constraints because somebody is on the train for a short time, they have a schedule, and they’ve got to have a quick and delicious meal that’s not delayed. The chefs need to be innovative to find dishes that meet high standards, but don’t take hours to prepare, or can be easily prepared and stored in advance. That’s also something we can learn from – storing parts or whole meals in advance, figuring out which nights we’re going to have a shorter time, and then making sure that the meal is still delicious using teamwork. Coordination between our team – our kids – is important, helping us each to know our role, and how to make it most effective. That often means doing less ourselves and helping others to do more.
So, let’s get down to the actual meals. Swiss trains that go along scenic routes like the Glacier Express or the Bernina Express, are going to be highlighting Swiss culinary traditions and using fresh local ingredients. They’d have the classic Swiss cheese fondue, which is made of melted cheese like Emmental, or Gruyere. That plus a little bit of white wine, lemon juice, and salt is basically all you need, along with the bread cubes. They’ll serve that. Rösti is a potato dish – crispy potato cake. It’s usually a side, paired with meat. They’ll serve Swiss sausages, and pastries like Nusstorte, which is a nut filled pastry, or Zuger Kirschtorte, a cherry flavoured cake. They’ll serve whatever seasonal dishes are appropriate, such as stews or sausages. Raclette is melted cheese over potatoes and vegetables. There are many Swiss delicacies.
Then on British trains, you can often get the full English breakfast, which everybody in the world loves. It consists of eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, and toast. It’s very good for a long train journey, or for an overnight one where you can get up for a lovely breakfast when you’re hungry. The ploughman’s lunch is a traditional cold meal featuring things like cheese, pickles, bread, crackers, ham, hard boiled eggs, and salad ingredients. It’s great for a lighter snack or lunch when you’re traveling. Then of course, there’s the British fish and chips. You’ll definitely find that on British trains. There are sandwiches and wraps with smoked salmon, roast beef, and chicken salad. Those are usually offered on British trains, as they are easy to prepare and quick to eat.
The British are famous for their afternoon tea. When looking for a more luxurious experience, passengers can enjoy their afternoon tea with finger sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, scones with clotted cream or whipped cream and jam, and all kinds of little cakes and pastries. There’ll also be salad and quiche, sometimes crustless, but usually little round quiches with a crust with, cheese, spinach, ham and cheese. These are some of the flavors and then salad goes with the quiche. Hot meals like curry, pasta, or stews are offered, and are also seasonal dishes. For example, in winter, there are roasted root vegetables with a stew.
Have you ever seen those AI videos of yourself traveling through your beautiful countryside on a train? I love to watch them. Close your eyes and imagine you’re going through the beautiful snowy mountains in Switzerland, or the green fields in Scotland, seeing the animals along the way. You have the window of the train open, and you’re feeling the beautiful fresh air blowing in your face, and you have a cup of hot chocolate that they’ve delivered to your little table in your cabin. Relax and picture that while I tell you some more meals that you find on trains.
In France, often you’ll find the croque monsieur and the croque madame, which is a croque monsieur that has a Fried egg on top. Croque Monsieur is a toasted sandwich with ham and cheese, with bechamel sauce on top, and often with a side of salad. Quiche Lorraine is a savoury quiche made with the usual eggs, cream, cheese, and bacon and often something like Gruyere cheese to make it extra delicious. There’s the charcuterie, which is a selection of fine French cheeses, cured meats, and bread with pâté and other dips.
This reminds me of our exciting news, which is that our first recipe book is coming out soon, and it’s called Elegant, Easy Appetizers. If you want to set your family on a train journey at home, you can use one of our amazing appetizers. They’re very easy to make, and they all have just five ingredients. Some of them you don’t need to cook at all, like our cucumber, tomato, basil pesto, and cream cheese appetizer. Some of the cooked ones are camembert cheese as a dip with strawberry jam and Melba toast, or puff pastry tarts made with puff pastry, butternut, and feta. There are lots of different ones that are really good to make at home, either for a date night, a family celebration, a family meal that you want to make a little bit special, or for entertaining guests. It’s a small recipe book that makes it really easy for you to make elegant appetizers easily, ones that are delicious, and lift your meal to the next level. Like I said, they sound a lot like what you get on a French train.
Then in Italy, there’s panini, which is a pressed sandwich with fillings like mozzarella, prosciutto, and tomatoes. There are pasta dishes of course – things like penne arrabbiata, pasta puttanesca, and spaghetti alla carbonara. There are frittatas, which are a type of Italian omelette with a mix of vegetables. Risotto, which is a creamy rice dish, is often found on the premium trains.
In Germany, there are sausages and pretzels. There are a lot of hearty meats like sausages – bratwurst or weisswurst with mustard and a traditional soft pretzel. Maybe there’ll be schnitzel. Veal or chicken schnitzel, breaded and fried, and served with potatoes or salad, is amazing. Kartoffelsalat is a special German kind of potato salad. There’s bierwurst and brots, which are cold cuts and a type of sausage with bread and pickles, so that would be similar to a charcuterie.
In Spain they serve bocadillos, which are Spanish sandwiches made with crusty bread and cured ham, tortillas, chorizos, and paella, the Spanish rice dish made with seafood. They also have tapas, which are a selection of small plates with various items; for instance, fried potatoes with spicy sauce, cured ham, olives, and empanadas, which is pastry filled with savoury fillings like meat or seafood.
In Belgium there are mussels served with fries. Fries are very popular in Belgium, and they’re called frites. They’re long, thin fries, and they’re found often on trains, and everywhere else. Belgian waffles are served as a sweet snack with whipped cream and chocolate or fruit. There’s a Flemish style beef stew called stoofvlees, which is also often served with fries or bread.
In the Netherlands, raw herring is served with onions and pickles as a traditional Dutch snack. Bitterballen are Dutch deep fried meatballs, and are also a snack or appetizer. There’s kroket, made with meat ragout and breaded, and then cooked.
Imagine the beautiful hills of New Zealand with the little hobbit houses inside, traveling through that beautiful scenery. Even though they often have hot meals on longer scenic journeys, like the Transalpine or the Northern Explorer – there’ll be roast beef or lamb with vegetables or potato, similar to the British dish, stews or casseroles, and again fish and chips from their British heritage – colder meals are served on a New Zealand train. You might find salads, sandwiches, and wraps, with chicken, ham or vegetarian fillings. There are snacks like muffins, nuts, and cheese platters with crackers. There are traditional New Zealand desserts, like pavlova, which is a meringue based dessert. There are desserts with kiwi fruit, and there are lamingtons, which are an Australian dessert, but are also found in New Zealand. They have coconut on the outside of a gooey chocolate cake. Delicious!
Last of all, let’s look at trains in the USA. On long distance trains like the Cardinal Lakeshore Ltd, Amtrak has dining cars. Passengers who are in what they call roomettes or sleeper cars receive complimentary meals, or you can buy your own meals. Breakfast options include scrambled eggs with sausage or bacon, pancakes, French toast with syrup, breakfast burritos, and oatmeal with fruit and nuts. Then for lunch and dinner, a typical meal could be grilled chicken or beef with vegetables and potatoes, or hot roast meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy, pasta dishes like spaghetti with marinara sauce, fresh salads with chicken or tuna. Then there are sandwiches like the turkey club and the roast beef, as well as vegetarian wraps. There are various cakes, pies, and cookies for dessert.
Often there’ll be cafe cars or snack bars, and these don’t have the full dining service, but they sell all kinds of interesting kinds of coffee, light meals and snacks, such as pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, and sandwiches. Those are not nearly as delightful as going to a dining car. On some of the special trains, they have the gourmet meals or fine dining like you’d find in a fancy restaurant.
Food on trains holds a special kind of magic. It’s not just the meal, but it’s the experience that intertwines with the journey of where you’re going. Even a simple sandwich is amazing while you have the view of the rolling hills, the distant mountains, or a river in a forest. There’s something about eating on a train that I’ve always felt was special, even when I was a little girl. My dad always taught me to listen for the rhythm of the train on the tracks – that regular rhythm, and there was always this sense of adventure with the train journey. Food on trains can bring back memories or help you to imagine times in history, especially aboard trains like the Orient Express or the Indian Railways. There’s the magic of the food and the dining car, and the fact that you’re traveling to somewhere new.
So, if you like the idea of going to a dining car with the elegant table setting and a beautiful view, I recommend looking up any train journeys that are nearby. Perhaps you can take a day trip on a train, or a half day and one that includes a dining experience is amazing. I hope you enjoyed thinking about all these meals on trains as much as I did, and I do hope you get to experience one soon.
