In recent years, culinary tourism has emerged as a top travel trend thanks to a growing interest in cultural exploration and authentic experiences. On cruise ships, buffet dining doesn’t have as much appeal as it used to with more and more cruisers looking for elevated onboard culinary experiences that offer an opportunity to delve deeper into a destination through its food.
Destination-inspired gourmet dining and culinary exploration are a natural fit for luxury cruise lines that focus on destination immersion and enriching onboard activities like Carnival-owned Holland America Line and Norwegian’s luxury Oceania Cruises.
Related: Holland America has a new offer for foodies
Heading into 2025, both of these enrichment-focused cruise lines are rolling out new and enhanced culinary activities on board their ships to offer passengers even more opportunities to experience local cultures through cuisine.
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Image source: Holland America
Holland America Line cooking demos will share destination-inspired recipes
After refreshing its Pinnacle Grill steakhouse menu to reflect the flavors of each destination its ships visit, Holland America Line is now taking its focus on regionally-inspired cuisine a step further.
Bringing back a tradition it first started in 2016 through a partnership with public television show America’s Test Kitchen, Holland America Line is launching a new style of onboard cooking shows highlighting the cooking techniques and culinary history of the regions its ships visit.
Offered fleetwide at least twice per seven-day sailings and more often on longer itineraries, the new cooking demonstrations will be co-hosted by each ship's executive chef and cruise & travel director. Dishes highlighted in the cooking show will be served in the dining room the same evening and passengers will receive copies of the recipes to take home to remember their cruise while preparing them in their own kitchen.
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Recipes will vary by cruise itinerary with each show customized to focus on the ship’s current destination. Several of the cooking shows will feature Holland America's Global Fresh Fish program, with recipes using fresh fish sourced from a nearby port.
Dishes prepared during the shows will include fresh fish such as salmon in Alaska, Australian flathead and bass in Australia and New Zealand, red snapper in Asia, Bahamian grouper and rockfish in the Caribbean, Kauai-style poke in Hawaii, lomi-lomi salmon in the South Pacific, seared grouper with Chilean salsa in South America, and blackened tuna Oaxaca-style in Mexico.
Oceania Cruises is expanding its culinary class offerings for 2025
Oceania Cruises has long been a leader in culinary cruising. Fifteen years ago, the cruise line unveiled The Culinary Center, the first hands-on cooking school at sea, as it prepared to launch its first purpose-built foodie-ship, Marina. The Culinary Center is now available on four of its ships, Marina, Riviera, Vista, and Allura, Oceania's newest ship setting sail in summer 2025.
As Oceania celebrates 15 years of its cooking school at sea, the culinary- and destination-focused cruise line is launching new classes spotlighting trendy culinary regions including the Pacific Northwest, Australia and Polynesia.
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A Culinary Northwest Passage class inspired by innovative chefs from Seattle to Anchorage will celebrate the farmer and the fisherman. A Down Under Abundance class will highlight the sea, the mountains, and the vineyards of New Zealand and Australia and its abundance of ingredients.
Additionally, a South Seas Salt Life class will showcase Polynesian cuisine’s fresh, seasonal, and local ingredients with subtle influences from France and China, served in traditional, family gathering style.
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The new regionally-inspired classes are the latest offerings in the cruise line’s more than 60 current cooking classes taught in custom-built teaching kitchens with individual stations and professional-grade equipment. The classes offer passengers the chance to explore a destination's culture and history through food, or to hone core kitchen skills thanks to a faculty of dedicated Chef Instructors.
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