Food for Thought

At the start of 2007, Holland America Line (HAL) launched an advertising campaign designed to provoke target consumers into thinking about which cruise line would best suit their ideal holiday. This multimillion-dollar magazine campaign first appeared in the January issue of Vanity Fair, which arrived in homes during the first week of December 2006.

"Our new campaign takes an emotional approach to capture the attention of cruisers, with vibrant, stunning visuals," said Richard D Meadows, executive vice president of marketing, sales and guest programmes. "These are supported by our signature brand messages. We are not changing our brand; we are changing how we communicate our brand to reach the youthful mindset of the baby boomers. Our goal is to reach emerging consumers and rattle their perceptions about what they think our brand is and show them that we are multi-layered and offer the experiences they seek in a premium style."

ON-BOARD ENRICHMENT

HAL’s Signature of Excellence concept was created to set up new standards of good taste and service. As part of this initiative the company has recently completed a $225m upgrade programme, and all the line’s staterooms are now outfitted with a number of luxury items, such as plush Euro-top Mariner’s Dream beds, deluxe waffle/terry cloth robes, new pillows and flat-screen TVs.

The investment programme also included the provision of a range of cultural enrichment programmes encompassing the ever-increasing popularity of cookery. Like most aspects of cruising, this latest trend has been adapted to suit the tastes of today’s cruisers. "Many of our guests have mentioned that they’d like to know more about the culinary arts," says Meadows.

With a culinary arts programme, passengers can sample fine dining and learn how to recreate meals. Meadows points to HAL’s well-received Culinary Arts Center programme, presented by Food & Wine magazine, where culinary demonstrations and cooking classes are held on every cruise, featuring celebrated chefs. Cruises with a culinary twist may be found heading to Alaska, the Caribbean, Europe and the Mediterranean.

Cooking demonstrations and classes are held during days at sea and sometimes while the ship is in port to provide an alternative for those who choose not to go ashore. As a fleet-wide enhancement, the Culinary Arts Center is being retrofitted on all 13 existing ships and will also be incorporated into the upcoming 14th ship, due to launch in the summer of 2008.

Each Culinary Arts Center includes theatre-style seating, a state-of-the-art show kitchen, plasma screens that allow every participant to see the demonstration, a display counter for easy viewing and space for guests to participate in preparing some of the dishes. Upgrades to all existing HAL ships were completed in the summer of 2006, allowing each ship to include Culinary Arts Center activities during each cruise.

Over 60 top chefs are scheduled to appear or have appeared on HAL ships, including Nick Stellino, chef and host of Nick Stellino’s Family Kitchen V; Jacques Torres, chocolatier, pastry chef and cookbook author; Aaron Sanchez, chef and owner of Paladar in New York; Michelle Bernstein, owner and chef of MB restaurant in Cancun; Neal Gallagher, chef of Oceana in New York (and voted Best New Chef of 2003); and Charles Dale, founder of Aspen’s Renaissance, Range and Rustique restaurants.

INDUSTRY-WIDE FLAVOUR

Beyond food service, most cruise lines have turned their attention to cooking demonstrations and instruction as part of their overall enrichment offerings. Across the industry, programmes vary in content. Some cooking seminars are modest in scope, involving only a moderate amount of participation, while others are more extensive, offering classroom-style instruction that is 100% hands on.

Some presentations are free, while other culinary activities incur an additional cost, depending on the cruise line. When applicable, fees generally range from $32 to $51 per person and are charged to a stateroom account. There are also lines that charge upwards of $382 for a full instructional curriculum.

Culinary programmes can be complemented by wine appreciation with tastings, seminars and other educational offerings, and some lines have gone so far as to create their own brands of private label wines. Programming may be part of the overall line-up of ongoing enrichment, or be held as a special event, such as a festival or theme cruise on selected departures. Some of the culinary enrichment programmes available across the industry are as follows.

Celebrity Cruises has, for the past two years, hosted Savour the Caribbean sailings on board the Fort Lauderdalebased Millennium. A cadre of 16 master chefs joins these specially designated sailings, and all recipes and demonstrations are designed to incorporate the Caribbean’s culinary influences and cooking traditions. Celebrity also focuses on wine education, with enrichment seminars, wine-tasting events and its own brand of private-label wines, the Cellarmaster Selection.

Crystal Cruises is also presenting its 9th annual Crystal Wine & Food Festival, which in 2007 is featured on 15 sailings to Alaska, the Mexican Riviera, Europe, New England/Canada, Asia and the South Pacific. In addition, the line’s Creative Learning Institute, found on board all three Crystal ships, partners with the Society of Wine Educators for seminars on wine tasting and pairing.

Crystal has also created its own proprietary wine label, known as Wines. Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 has a dedicated space for culinary arts. Among its ten restaurants is a unique facility known as the Chef’s Galley. For about $45, each guest can watch their meals being prepared.

HAL’s culinary arts programme is one of the most ambitious at sea. It consists of three components: free demonstrations, classes (for a fee) and special quarterly theme cruises. Several times during each cruise, one-hour demonstrations are presented covering topics such as appetisers, main courses or desserts. A more in-depth experience is available to those who sign up for private interactive sessions at about $50 per person. These classes last for two-and-a-half hours and are conducted in groups of 16.

Princess/P&O Cruises includes culinary studies in its ScholarShip@Sea programme of on-board enrichment. Classes are on the lighter side; the curriculum may include complimentary cooking shows in a portable demonstration kitchen, featuring recipes drawn from the line’s own cookbook, or lessons in the fine art of fruit-and vegetable carving. Martini mixing focuses on the latest trends, while winetasting seminars may be scheduled at a cost of about $10 to $32 per person.

Silversea Cruises’ Viking Cooking School at Sea made its debut in mid-2005, with passengers invited to use professional-calibre Viking Corporation cooking equipment. Beyond shipboard instruction, the school ventures ashore into local marketplaces in search of fruit and vegetables, as well as herbs and spices prevalent in that region’s cuisine. The line also offers a series of culinary arts-themed cruises, presented in cooperation with Relais & Chateaux, and has further plans in the works for a series of wine cruises.