Probably the most standard points 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 staff to craft distinctive new recipes. Simply some of the standard adventures happens in ports of calls, the place the visitor cooks lead excursions to native markets to choose up regional foodstuffs. Later that day, the elements 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 notably 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 carry again dwelling together with her? She shares recollections, 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 liked assembly and greeting everybody all through the evening. Finest dish? I completely liked 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, at all times completely happy, was so participating useful and gracious, I felt like a part of the crew and in addition a part of the friends.
One among 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 perfect down time each night.
Inform us concerning the market the place you led your chef’s tour:
Tallinn’s Central Market actually stunned me. From the surface, it seemed rustic and outdoorsy and but inside, it was gleaming and modern. We purchased a lot! Cheese, produce, seafood, chocolate, sausage, and patisserie. We additionally introduced again pesto, pickled herring, and contemporary 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 circumstances 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 enchantment – in any case you eat together with your eyes first so plating, or arranging the presentation – is a vital a part of the meal. In the long run, 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 govt chef throughout the fleet, is an exacting Austrian, particularly on the subject of measuring elements for a dish. And all of Windstar’s recipes had been in metric, not imperial measurement. “Freedom measurements,” as he known as out the way in which many American cooks cook dinner by eyeballing elements, “are usually not actual.”
Which ports did you want greatest?
My first favourite was Finland’s Helsinki, a cute metropolis proper on the wharf. A variety of locals had 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 Outdated 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 properly has some actually attention-grabbing souvenirs made from reindeer bones and wooden, like handcrafted wood buttons.
In Germany’s Warnemunde, an idyllic seaside city, we hit all of the grocery shops. I really like to take a look at butcher retailers and acquired a bit 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 working joke was I used to be going to attempt to sneak it dwelling, however we stayed in Copenhagen a number of additional 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 low we may. The international locations that make up each the Baltic area and Scandinavia have change into very centered on farm to desk elements and the produce was so contemporary and vibrant it was even higher than the perfect farmer’s market at dwelling.
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 might properly introduce a pop-up at our biergarten in Arkansas and serve them there.
And in the event you go to Copenhagen, you’ve acquired to strive the unimaginable Danish hotdogs. I additionally advocate a go to to Magasin, the town’s historic division retailer. For culinary fans, we liked Mad&Vin, its vibrant meals market within the basement, and the Danish cafes on the highest ground.
One final query: Any Windstar recommendation you wish to share?
You’ve acquired to include Windstar’s fabulous laundry service into your journey finances. I felt so pampered, and liked the way it was delivered, neatly tucked into packing containers and packages (or in hanging luggage). It’s the final word luxurious, an actual recreation changer.
Supply hyperlink
