Cruise line has appetite for new food programs

Celebrity Cruises is expanding its “Savor” culinary-and-wine-spirits pillar of Celebrity Life to include a line-up of special interest cruises aimed at inviting guest chefs and other food and wine experts on board.
 

Celebrity’s new “Savor Your Destination” themed cruises kicked off recently when its newest ship, Celebrity Eclipse, set sail with Australian chef Benjamin Christie onboard.
 

Said Jacques Van Staden, Celebrity’s Vice President, Culinary Operations:
 

“By expanding the already robust ‘Savor’ series of our Celebrity Life program to include the ‘Savor Your Destination’ themed cruises, we are not only giving our guests a unique opportunity to interact with exceptionally talented chefs, but also celebrating the fact that, from a culinary perspective, our ships and the restaurants onboard are destinations in themselves.”
 

During each Savor Your Destination cruise, guests will attend a meet-and-greet-style cocktail hour where they will be able to interact with the chef and have side-by-side photo opportunities.

Each guest chef will lead a cooking demonstration in the ship’s largest venue, the theatre, where he or she will highlight the techniques, ingredients and flair specific to their individual style.
 

Guest chefs who have published cookbooks will hold book signing events.
 

On every Celebrity Cruises sailing (with the exception of Celebrity Xpedition, the 90-guest mega-yacht that sails year-round in the Galapagos Islands), the Celebrity Life Savor series includes a “Star Chefs” competition in the ship’s theatre.
 

During the event, guests are selected from the audience, then guided by the ship’s own highest-ranking chefs to compete in a cook-off judged by a panel of spontaneously selected guests.
 

“Guests who wish to elevate their own culinary knowledge can participate in hands-on cooking classes led by the chef in the ship’s main galley. There, under the tutelage of the guest chef, with assistance from Celebrity’s own award-winning culinary operations team, guests can gain invaluable hands-on experience that will help them gain new insight into the joy of cooking,” says the cruise line.
 

By David Wilkening