Taste your way across the world with Oceania Cruises’ unique Culinary Discovery Tours and other epicurean excursions. Exotic towers of spices, vines overflowing with luscious grapes and fragrant fresh produce hint at the culinary culture of your destination as you enjoy privileged access to vibrant local markets and renowned wineries. Then, be granted an insider’s perspective through immersive tastings and hands-on culinary lessons to gain even more insight into the authentic dishes of the region.
Follow the Flavors of the Land
Prime your palate for delectable discoveries as you touch, taste and inhale the scents of local ingredients within your destination, followed by a bounty of culinary experiences that forever connect you to the locale.
Hydroponic Greenhouse in Blue Harbor Tropical Arboretum, Roatán, Honduras
Honduran cuisine is the highlight in Roatán with a Farm- & Ocean-to-Table Experience that begins at Blue Harbor Tropical Arboretum. In addition to tropical flowers and plants, the trees in the fruit plantation are heavy with favorites like avocado and mango. You’ll even pluck your own hydroponic lettuce from the Plantation Gardens. With your lettuce harvest in hand, a speedboat shuttles you to La Palapa on Big French Key Beach, where a local chef will demonstrate how your greens provide the perfect bed for plump shrimp just harvested by Honduran fisherman.
Moroccan tajine pots at a souk in Marrakech
Visit the Central Market of Casablanca and the cosmopolitan city’s famous olive market with a chef, where you’ll forage together for preserved lemons, herbs, breads, rose water and argan oil. You might even choose a tagine earthenware pot to recreate your cooking lesson at home, as back on board the ship, the chef prepares a pot of mint tea to sip as you help create Moroccan dishes during a 90-minute class and luncheon.
The Culinary Center
The vibrant open-air market of Antibes is your gateway to a perfect day in Provence. Along with a knowledgeable chef, you’ll be welcomed into bustling stalls to sample quintessential flavors, from wood-fired flatbreads to pungent French cheese. Once you gather the essential ingredients for a Provençal lunch, return on board to The Culinary Center for your personal cooking class that will leave you simultaneously satiated yet craving even more.
Preparing pizza dough at the Torre a Cenaia winery
Experience one of the world’s most renowned culinary regions during a market visit to Livorno’s Mercato Centrale. Armed with a shopping list from your Culinary Center chef, select Tuscan treats like cured meats and fresh-pressed olive oil before touring Torre a Cenaia winery. You’ll sip sangiovese and little-known vermentino wines while admiring rows of cypress trees, followed by a hands-on lesson in a traditional kitchen preparing pizza, herbed focaccia and other flavors of Tuscany.
Parmesan cheese wheel
Authentic tastes of Italy accompany your entire voyage onboard at Toscana restaurant, where Oceania tradition dictates that the head chef always be a native Italian. This means exacting standards for every dish, like the ravioli made from double-zero flour sourced in Naples or the nutty Parmigiano-Reggiano atop your pasta, shaved from an 80-pound wheel direct from Parma.
Whether you’re honing your knife skills with a seasoned chef, dining in Master Chef Jacques Pépin’s eponymous restaurant or even joining the legendary restaurateur as he personally hosts Rome- and Lisbon-bound voyages this fall, Oceania’s reputation for presenting “The Finest Cuisine at Sea” is more than a promise — it’s the hallmark of each and every sailing.
Comments