Oceania Cruises is set to celebrate 15 years of The Culinary Center, a hands-on cooking school at sea, with an array of new classes for 2025 and beyond. Announced 15 years ago ahead of the launch of Marina, the first purpose-built foodie-ship for the line, Oceania Cruises’ Culinary Center is now available on four of its ships, Marina, Riviera, Vista and Allura, its newest ship, due to join the fleet in summer 2025.
The Culinary Center offers more than 60 current classes taught in custom-built teaching kitchens with individual stations and professional-grade equipment. The classes offer the chance to explore a destination’s culture and history through food, or to hone core kitchen skills thanks to the faculty of dedicated Chef Instructors. The new culinary classes for 2025 will put the spotlight on dishes from the Pacific Northwest of the United States, Polynesia, and Australia, among others.
Chef Kathryn Kelly, Oceania Cruises’ director of culinary enrichment, is the founder and driving force behind The Culinary Center and oversees Oceania Cruises’ team of 11 Chef Instructors. She is also the chief architect of the line’s signature range of Culinary Discovery Tours, a key part of The Culinary Center program. These chef-led excursions, which are available in more than 40 destinations worldwide, offer the opportunity to learn to cook destination-inspired dishes back on board after a morning of shopping for ingredients in local markets, or to learn from local experts and artisans about the food and culture of the region. Chef Kelly is planning a new swathe of chef-led tours for 2025, which will be announced in the coming months.
When not on board, the team lives in locations all over the world, from Christchurch, New Zealand, to Riga, Latvia, to San Francisco, California, to bring the latest culinary trends to the kitchen classrooms on board. The Culinary Center Chef Instructors have hundreds of years of experience and career histories between them. The team comprises graduates from The Culinary Institute of America, Le Cordon Bleu and Boston University’s gastronomy program.
New classes for 2025 include:
- Culinary Northwest Passage: The Pacific Northwest has become one of the trendiest regions in the culinary world. This class celebrates the farmer and the fisherman, drawing inspiration from chefs from Seattle to Anchorage. Known for its farm-to-table and sea-to-table American cuisine, the region’s food scene highlights seasonality. Guests will also explore their favorite fish and seafood fundamentals.
- Down Under Abundance: When the cruise line's chefs travel to New Zealand and Australia, they marvel at the abundance of ingredients in the region; the seafood is diverse and the meats are prized all over the world. Working with Oceania's “Down Under” chef colleagues, the line has created a class that celebrates the sea, the mountains, and the vineyards of this special region of the world.
- It's a Dessert Party: Indulge in a dessert and beverages class at 8 p.m., held between dinner and the evening show. Guests can prepare a lava cake paired with a glass of Champagne or whip up crêpes Suzette complemented by a Grand Marnier spritzer.
- South Seas Salt Life: After a day of lounging and swimming, guests can savor grilled seafood paired with an exotic fruit drink. Polynesian cuisine showcases fresh, seasonal and local ingredients influenced by French and Chinese traditions.
- Snow Days Brunch: Guests can celebrate snowy mornings with warm cinnamon rolls or a savory egg casserole. No snow day brunch is complete without warming or bubbly cocktails, and the line's mixologists will share their most popular recipes for taking the chill off.
For additional information, visit www.oceaniacruises.com.
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