Some of the fashionable features of Windstar’s partnership with the James Beard Basis is its chef-led culinary cruises. In 2025, Windstar invited 5 cooks – Jennifer Hill Booker, Jamilka Borges, José Mendin, Jennifer Jasinski and Amy Brandwein – to host cruises. Itineraries ranged from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe to Canada/New England.
On board, they lead chef demonstrations, host a Chef’s Desk, and work with the ships’ culinary group to craft distinctive new recipes. Simply probably the most fashionable adventures happens in ports of calls, the place the visitor cooks lead excursions to native markets to select up regional foodstuffs. Later that day, the substances that friends and the cooks have chosen discover their approach right into a festive galley buffet the place all aboard can style and pattern.
Curious to listen to what it’s like for the visitor cooks who take part, we reached out to Jennifer Hill Booker, who in June traveled to Northern Europe on Star Legend. She shared some insights and experiences about what it’s prefer to host these voyages that go approach past the precise actions’ menu.
The proprietor of Bauhaus Biergarten in Springdale, Arkansas, she headed to northern Europe’s Baltic. Her restaurant is a German- model biergarten that makes a speciality of imported German and European beers and genuine German delicacies, so she was significantly enthusiastic about making new discoveries on the 11-day voyage from Stockholm to Copenhagen, with calls at Helsinki, Estonia’s Tallinn, Latvia’s Riga, Sweden’s Visby, Lithuania’s Klaipeda, Poland’s Gdansk and Germany’s Warnemunde.
What did she convey again residence together with her? She shares reminiscences, experiences and buying suggestions with Windstar’s friends, crew and cooks.
The project:
I hosted two full-on cooking demonstrations, led friends on a tour of the native market in Tallinn and ready a tasting menu from the meals we purchased there. I additionally created a chef’s dinner that we served in all three eating places and beloved assembly and greeting everybody all through the night time. Finest dish? I completely beloved the braised quick ribs with pimento cheese grits and tobacco onion. Additionally on the menu was snapper papillote poofed up with the steam earlier than presenting it. It was a dramatic reveal and enjoyable to see how friends responded to the spectacle.
Favourite moments:
I actually loved merely assembly and chatting with our friends and the ship’s cooks. Windstar Cruises will spoil you for some other type of cruise expertise. The employees, all the time completely satisfied, was so partaking useful and gracious, I felt like a part of the crew and in addition a part of the friends.
One in all my favourite elements of every day was heading to the lounge day by day at 5 p.m. for trivia. Then we’d change for dinner and have a pre-dinner cocktail, connecting with different friends alongside the way in which. That was actually the very best down time each night.
Inform us in regards to the market the place you led your chef’s tour:
Tallinn’s Central Market actually shocked me. From the skin, it seemed rustic and outdoorsy and but inside, it was gleaming and up to date. We purchased a lot! Cheese, produce, seafood, chocolate, sausage, and patisserie. We additionally introduced again pesto, pickled herring, and recent cherries….
Was there a teachable second in any of your cooking demos (both for you or for vacationers?):
Throughout my cooking demonstrations, my model is casual and interactive, and in each instances I requested for a volunteer to help. For friends, one teachable second was, when demonstrating a recipe for citrus brined shrimp with solar dried tomatoes, Rob, my helper-guest and I had an impromptu competitors – on plating. The visible attraction – in spite of everything you eat along with your eyes first so plating, or arranging the presentation – is a vital a part of the meal. Ultimately, mine had top and colour and garnish; his was simply three items of meals flat on the plate. All of us had enjoyable with it.
For me: Chef Georg, Windstar’s government chef throughout the fleet, is an exacting Austrian, particularly in terms of measuring substances for a dish. And all of Windstar’s recipes have been in metric, not imperial measurement. “Freedom measurements,” as he known as out the way in which many American cooks prepare dinner by eyeballing substances, “will not be actual.”
Which ports did you want finest?
My first favourite was Finland’s Helsinki, a cute metropolis proper on the wharf. Lots of locals have been on trip catching the ferry to the island the place Korkeasaari Zoo is situated. Bordering Helsinki’s South Harbour are two markets: The historic Previous Market Corridor (Vanha Kauppahalli), options regionally ready dishes and has cute little cafes inside. Simply across the nook is the Hakaniemi Market Sq., outside, and it additionally sells freshly ready Finnish conventional dishes however as effectively has some actually fascinating souvenirs fabricated from reindeer bones and wooden, like handcrafted picket buttons.
In Germany’s Warnemunde, an idyllic seaside city, we hit all of the grocery shops. I like to take a look at butcher retailers and acquired a piece of smoked bacon with a rind. It was very totally different from the bacon we purchase in America; it was lean and the fats was creamy. The operating joke was I used to be going to attempt to sneak it residence, however we stayed in Copenhagen a number of further days after the cruise and I cooked it there.
We tasted beer in each port of name, sampled bratwurst, and checked out all of the chocolate and occasional we may. The international locations that make up each the Baltic area and Scandinavia have turn into very targeted on farm to desk substances and the produce was so recent and vibrant it was even higher than the very best farmer’s market at residence.
The journey has impressed me to import a few new beer discoveries, and I adored the Danish “Smørrebrød,” open-faced sandwiches on sturdy grain bread with a shrimp or fish topping. We could effectively introduce a pop-up at our biergarten in Arkansas and serve them there.
And if you happen to go to Copenhagen, you’ve obtained to strive the unimaginable Danish hotdogs. I additionally suggest a go to to Magasin, the town’s historic division retailer. For culinary fanatics, we beloved Mad&Vin, its vibrant meals market within the basement, and the Danish cafes on the highest flooring.
One final query: Any Windstar recommendation you need to share?
You’ve obtained to include Windstar’s fabulous laundry service into your journey finances. I felt so pampered, and beloved the way it was delivered, neatly tucked into bins and packages (or in hanging luggage). It’s the final word luxurious, an actual recreation changer.
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