From “cosmetic disaster” to Taiwan’s most beautiful cruise ship

Moving Kitchen is Taiwan's first high-end culinary train, which was launched at Taipei's Nangang Railway Station in March 2022. It is part of The Future rail travel plan, developed by the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) since November 2020. Immediately, the diverse dishes, creativity and aesthetic style of this train received strong attention from local residents and tourists.

It started with an open letter

Johnny Chiu, founder of JC Architecture, is responsible for the entire redesign of The Future train, including the gourmet dining cars. Looking at the new look with its luxurious black and orange color scheme, it's hard to believe that when it was first launched in 2019, the domestic media called it an "aesthetic disaster".

At that time, after the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) - the government's railway agency - released the first photos of the Future train, the whole country was stunned.

"The kitchen bar was a dull white plastic, like a hospital reception desk. The trash cans were public trash cans. On the walls were colorful, flashy flowers. Everyone went crazy. Photos of the train were shared all over social media," Johnny Chiu recalled.

"In Taiwan, traveling by train is an important part of our lives," he shared. "Whether it's going to the army, going home for the Lunar New Year, meeting your lover or visiting your grandparents, most people travel by train. It's deeply engraved in everyone's memory."

Feeling sad that such a meaningful image of Taiwan had such an inelegant design, Johnny Chiu wrote an open letter expressing his opinion that this was an opportunity for the Railway industry to change towards modernization, and hoped that someone would pass the message on to TRA for him.

Surprisingly, TRA representatives publicly admitted their shortcomings to the media: "We know how to build ships, construct and repair trains. But we don't know anything about design or aesthetic work."

TRA then responded to the criticism by assembling a creative team to find solutions to make the ship more beautiful. One of the team read Johnny Chiu's open letter and contacted him.

"I received an email that said:Johnny, great. We're glad to see your positive feedback. Please let us know your ideas in two weeks." - Johnny recounted.

After two weeks of sleepless nights and whiskey-fueled brainstorming sessions, Johnny and his team finally completed a makeover plan to present to the TRA. They were then given full authority to work on the project.

The Future 2.0: Taiwan's first luxury food train

The Future was actually a refurbished diesel locomotive from the 1970s. As a result, it had numerous structural, wiring, and interior quality issues. Johnny Chiu’s firm, JC Architecture, had to replace everything inside and repaint the entire train.

After 7 months of refurbishment, the 50-year-old train finally received a completely new look. The Future was reintroduced to the public at the end of 2019, and received continuous praise from domestic media. Then in 2020, the Future won the Japan Transportation Industry Design Award in an international competition.

Riding on the success, TRA continues to launch the second The Future: Moving Kitchen.Mobile kitchen), a culinary ship model specializing in serving high-class, luxurious dishes for "gourmet" diners.

Gourmet trains or dining trains are a relatively new type of tourist train in Asia; they offer a dining experience on board a train carriage during a short round trip. In contrast to regular trains, the main purpose of culinary trains is to allow diners to leisurely eat and drink while enjoying the scenery outside the window as the train moves.

"Food trains are a familiar concept in Japan and Europe. This has never happened in Taiwan before," said Victor Cheng, senior director of Lion Travel, which handles train bookings. "But Taiwanese people love trains and they love food, so it makes sense to combine the two."

As The Future's sole travel distributor and the largest travel agency in Taiwan, Lion Travel spent more than a year working with JC Architecture and TRA before launching Moving Kitchen in March this year.

"To complete this high-end culinary train, we first had to solve the lack of electricity and cooking water. Fresh water and ingredients will be supplied when the train stops at mid-journey points," Victor shared.

"Next is the problem of building a high-class restaurant on a moving train. The waiters are trained for a long time to be able to walk steadily and maintain their demeanor, despite the shaking space along the way. The serving time of each dish must also be precise.

For example, the first course of a two-day culinary tour on the cruise is abalone, which is introduced to diners when the ship arrives at Turtle Island, a famous place for mollusks in Taiwan.

"The second course was a seafood salad served on a blue plate, served as the train passed the deep blue scenery of the east coast.

The following dishes were followed by: hot spring greens (watered by local hot springs), duck, and purple sweet potatoes.

"And because Moving Kitchen is a cruise ship, we don't have to rush from station to station on a schedule. The train can slow down when passing through the most beautiful routes, and pause while diners dine in front of unforgettable scenery" - Victor shared about the special train.

A “hot” journey in the culinary world

Stepping onto Moving Kitchen, visitors not only enjoy high-class dishes, but also have the opportunity to experience many meaningful sightseeing activities, such as visiting local rice farms and fishing ports, to learn about the foods they are served on board.

“So it’s not just about a few delicious meals on a train. Moving Kitchen is a combination of food, scenery and local tourism as a comprehensive journey,” says Victor Cheng.

Moving Kitchen has added two new dining cars with 54 seats on board, a brand new bar and kitchen, and a marble floor imported from Hualien County. There are even furniture made from rattan handcrafted by the aboriginal tribes of southern Taiwan. It was this detail that inspired Johnny Chiu to design a special rattan chair for the Moving Kitchen train. The chair has armrests that are tilted at a 45-degree angle, allowing passengers to recline comfortably while still maintaining a sense of stability on the train.

The lights on the carriages are also specially designed to make the dishes look more delicious and especially "photogenic" if diners want to check-in on Instagram. There is always a phone holder and menu on the table. The wall lamps can also be adjusted to any shape, through thin tin foil lampshades.

Thanks to the spectacular transformation of The Future and the new tourism model, Moving Kitchen has become a "hot" train that is enthusiastically sought after by people and tourists in Taiwan: it was only launched on March 30, 2022, but the train has sold out until the end of September.

“On the first train, we had a black and orange dress code to match the train’s colors. I noticed that many tourists were dressed up and kept taking photos on the train. We were all very happy and touched by the great support from everyone,” Victor Cheng recalled.

"When we learned that the overgrown trees were blocking the view of the sea at the train stop, TRA had people weed and prune the trees along the entire journey. I'm very proud of that, of this whole railway project, because it's special in a very Taiwanese way," said Victor Cheng. "I also think there are many other historical and cultural aspects that we can dig into and develop in a new direction like this. If the Railway Administration can do it, then other agencies can do it too."

More information

Moving Kitchen currently offers one- or two-day food tours, with guests staying overnight at a hotel near the final stop.

There are six monthly trips on the Moving Kitchen and six on The Future, each with a seasonal theme and lasting between one and four days. The Future has four business class cars, each with 33 seats.

See more information and book tickets atThis.

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