Probably the most standard themed cruises Windstar has provided over the previous decade, its chef-led partnership with the James Beard Basis, continues in 2025.Probably the most standard themed cruises Windstar has provided over the previous decade, its chef-led partnership with the James Beard Basis, continues in 2025.
The 5 acclaimed cooks — Jamilka Borges, José Mendin, Jennifer Hill Booker, Jennifer Jasinski and, new to Windstar, Larry Forgione — will deliver their regional culinary experience and signature dishes to sea and host market excursions on their itineraries. And it’s greater than that: The enchantment of Windstar’s culinary-themed cruises, company can take part in cooking demos, take pleasure in particular dishes impressed by the visitor chef, and, one of the crucial standard actions of all: buy groceries with the chef.
For those who’re contemplating a James Beard Basis cruise in 2025, we thought you may take pleasure in a rundown on every of the 5 visitor cooks:
March 15, 2025, Caribbean: Windward Methods and Tobago Cays with chef Jamilka Borges
The journey: This seven day Caribbean cruise travels from Aruba’s Oranjestad to Barbados’ Bridgetown. Different locations embrace Curacao, Bonaire, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad.
She started her profession as prep prepare dinner on the industry-leading restaurant Legume and rose to the place of chef de delicacies. After leaving Legume, Borges held government chef positions in a few of the Pittsburgh’s most artistic and progressive kitchens: Bar Marco, Spoon, Unbiased Brewing Firm, Hidden Harbor and Lorelei. At every restaurant, Borges found one other piece of her culinary voice.
Enjoyable details: “Somebody mentioned to me years in the past, ‘Oh my God, you’re such a wild little one!’ It’s at all times form of stayed behind my thoughts. I’ve at all times carried out issues in a really nontraditional means.”
April 12, 2025, Mediterranean: Spanish Symphony with Chef José Mendin
The journey: On Wind Surf, the eight day Spanish Symphony James Beard itinerary travels from Lisbon to Barcelona, with calls at Cadiz (for Seville), Gibraltar, Malaga, Almeria, Cartagena and Palma de Mallorca.
Your chef: Miami-based chef José Mendin, a local of Puerto Rico, who traveled to Spain to work with chef Jesus Ramior in Valladolid and, later, with chef Juan Pablo Felipe, of Madrid’s Michelin-starred El Chaflan. He additionally helped open Nobu Miami and Nobu London, with cooks Mark Edwards and Thomas Buckley.
At this time, he’s proprietor/companion of Pubbelly World, which features a portfolio of eating places in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Paris. He’s a five-time James Beard Award semifinalist.
Enjoyable stuff: Chef Mendin first found his curiosity in cooking whereas on a volleyball scholarship at school in Puerto Rico. He has appeared as a choose on Telemundo’s MasterChef Latino. And he likes to wind down after a protracted day by watching episodes of “Seinfeld.”
June 29, 2025, Northern Europe: Baltic Magnificence with chef Jennifer Hill Booker
The journey: On this 11 day Baltic cruise from Stockholm to Copenhagen, Star Legend will go to locations comparable to Helsinki, Estonia’s Tallinn, Latvia’s Riga, Sweden’s Visby, Lithuania’s Klaipeda, Poland’s Gdansk and Germany’s Warnemunde.
Your chef: Jennifer Hill Booker, based mostly in Atlanta, is understood for including a French accent to her Southern culinary heritage — all aimed toward creating dishes that mirror a seasonal, wholesome strategy. She skilled at Paris’ Le Cordon Bleu Faculty of Culinary Arts, and has printed cookbooks comparable to “Subject Peas to Foie Gras: Southern Recipes with a French Accent,” and “Dinner Déjà Vu: Southern Tonight, French Tomorrow. “ She is president of the celebrated Atlanta chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier Worldwide, a member of Gradual Meals-Atlanta, Atlanta’s No Child Hungry Atlanta Society, and the James Beard Basis Meals Waste Advisory Council.
Chef Booker has printed unique recipes in publications comparable to Waste Not Cookbook, Southern Residing, Backyard & Gun and Essence. Throughout her Meals Community debut, as a finalist on “Cutthroat Kitchen,” she showcased her mélange of French and Southern inspirations.
Enjoyable stuff: In her first illustrated youngsters’s e book, “Jelly Fries A Fish For Dinner,” (Tallahatchie Tales, March 2021), Booker highlights the meals of the Mississippi Delta by means of the eyes of her daughter Jenelle. The chef realized about French delicacies when dwelling in Europe, the place her then-husband, a U.S. Military officer, was stationed.
August 27, 2025, Mediterranean: Adriatic Archipelago and Greek Goddesses, with chef Jennifer Jasinski
The journey: This nine-day cruise from Venice to Athens takes place aboard Star Legend. Ports of name embrace Croatia’s Zadar, Break up and Dubrovnik; Montenegro’s Kotor, and Greece’s Corfu, Katakolon and Monemvasia.
Your chef: Denver-based Jennifer Jasinski owns and operates quite a lot of award-winning eating places comparable to Rioja, Bistro Vendôme, Ultreia, and Stoic & Real. Every restaurant’s delicacies (comparable to Rioja for Spanish dishes, Bistro Vendôme for French, and Ultreia for tapas and Portuguese petiscos) displays Jasinki’s ardour for journey and international culinary cultures.
The chef was honored with a James Beard award for greatest chef within the Southwest and was a finalist on High Chef Masters.
Her philosophy is {that a} implausible restaurant expertise is greater than the delicacies. “You’ll be able to have nice meals, however when you’ve got dangerous service, no one will come. Our philosophy is straightforward. On cooking, it’s simple: good components, nicely executed. On the restaurant, it must be a spot the place you possibly can come and get taken care of, the place the standard of service is at all times the identical, the place there’s nice consideration to element, and the product and repair are at all times considerate and thoughtful. We prepare our employees to behave like they’re welcoming somebody into their dwelling. I’m at all times out within the eating rooms of my eating places, speaking with company concerning the menu, about our merchandise, or about Denver and Colorado.”
Enjoyable stuff: “In highschool in Santa Barbara, I used to be both going to be a chef or a musician,” she mentioned in an interview for Denver.org. “I considered being a ravenous artist and figured, if I turned a chef, at the least I’d at all times have meals! My first cooking job was at Taco Bell.”
October 7, 2027, Canada/New England: Southeast Canadian Explorations with chef Larry Forgione
The journey: Chef Larry Forgione is visitor chef on the 12-day voyage onboard Star Satisfaction. The cruise from Montreal to New York calls at ports comparable to Gaspé, Cap-aux-Meules, Louisbourg, Halifax and Portland, Maine.
Your chef: Forgione’s affect on American delicacies is profound. He helped pioneer the farm-to-table strategy to meals that’s now ubiquitous in American delicacies. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Forgione started his culinary profession working at eating places in Europe and the U.Ok. After heading again to the U.S., he was chef at prime New York eating places comparable to El Morocco, Regine’s and the River Café.
“It was at Regine’s the place I began to get into analysis, and I adopted by means of with the components that I felt weren’t obtainable within the states, and didn’t perceive why they weren’t,” he mentioned in an interview in Restaurant Insider journal. “It dawned on me once I was working in London, all this stunning produce and recent butchered meats would come into the kitchens and it didn’t make sense to me that in America it was reversed. In Europe, farmers and producers have been producing for eating places and daily, cooks bought to make use of the identical components, whereas in America all people was producing for the plenty, and the cooks additionally had to make use of what was produced. So once I got here again I believed that it was time that we began to reverse the wheel slightly bit, and I began working with a variety of farmers and producers.”
He opened his first restaurant, An American Place, in Manhattan in 1983 and in the end expanded his empire to incorporate quite a few eating places and cafés.
Forgione is the co-founder and culinary director of the American Meals Research: Farm-to-Desk Cooking curriculum on the Culinary Institute of America. He’s additionally the founding trustee of the James Beard Basis, founding father of Contemporary Begin, and founding father of the Annual American Cooks tribute to James Beard and Citymeals-on-Wheels.
He is also a prolific cookbook writer. His “An American Place” cookbook obtained a James Beard Award for greatest American cookbook.
Enjoyable stuff: Forgione’s son Marc Forgione can be a chef. He started his profession at his father’s An American Place earlier than in the end proudly owning his personal eating places and has gone on to be one of many youngest American cooks to be awarded a Michelin star. Father and son cooked collectively on “Iron Chef America.”
Editor’s Be aware: For extra data on Windstar’s 10 yr partnership with the James Beard Basis, take a look at our Q&A with Peter Tobler.
