On February 6, 2022, award-winning small ship cruise line Windstar Cruises has its first themed culinary cruise of 2022 with James Beard Foundation chefs ready to set sail. Don’t worry, there are two more culinary cruises this year, plus you can sample James Beard Foundation chefs’ dishes nightly on every Windstar cruise.

Windstar ship (Photo by Raphael GAILLARDE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Windstar Cruises and the James Beard Foundation partnered to bring chefs and sommeliers on board Windstar ships to further enhance Windstar’s 180 Degrees from Ordinary cruises.

The Seattle-headquartered company has six ships — the flagship five-masted sailing ship Windsurf, two four-masted sailing ships, plus three newly-expanded and -renovated all-suite, 312-passenger yachts. Windstar ships sail around the world and focus on small ports of call that other cruise ships can’t reach.

The food and beverage program has always been important on Windstar Cruises, but now there are new restaurants and experiences, culinary shore excursions, as well as select James Beard Foundation cruises. These cruises feature chef-hosted dinners with wine pairings, onboard cooking demonstrations (complete with recipes to try at home) and, local conditions permitting, market tours with the chef. Here are the three on offer for 2022.

Author and TV personality Chef Jennifer Hill Booker says she specializes in “modern Southern healthy cuisine with a French accent,” linking her Southern heritage with her Cordon Bleu training in Paris. Chef Hill Booker is also the Culinary Explorer for the Georgia Department of Tourism and Travel. Her James Beard Foundation cruise is called In the Wake of the Spanish Armadas.

Departing February 6, 2022 from Oranjestad, Aruba, this eight-day cruise is aboard Windstar’s flagship, the 342-passenger, five-masted motor sailing yacht Windsurf. In addition to Aruba, the cruise visits Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica. Leaving the Caribbean for South and Central America, Windsurf first sails to Colombia’s oldest city, Santa Marta, and then on to Cartagena and its UNESCO World Heritage Old Town. In Panama, the ship stops in the Bocas del Toro archipelago before heading to Puerto Limón/Moin in Costa Rica, and then back to Panama, to Colón.

Eating tips: Look for cashews — both the fruit and nut — from Puerto Limón, tropical fruits, plus Colombia’s national dish bandeja paisa with its rice and red beans, plus proteins like ground beef, chorizo and fried egg.

Author, Food Network host, and executive chef/owner of Oakland, California’s Brown Sugar Kitchen restaurants, Chef Tanya Holland advocates for inclusivity and equity in the hospitality industry. Her 10-day James Beard Foundation: West Coast Epicurean Extravaganza cruise is aboard the 312-passenger, all-suite Star Breeze which was stretched to add 84 feet to its center in 2020 via Windstar’s $250 million Star Plus Initiative.

The Star Breeze begins this culinary cruise in San Diego and visits Santa Barbara and San Francisco and then goes into the Columbia River with a stop in Portland. Before entering Canadian waters, the Star Breeze stops in Seattle.

Ship surgery — part of Windstar Cruises' massive renovation project

The cruise then visits the capital of British Columbia, Victoria, on Vancouver Island. Passengers disembark in BC’s mainland city of Vancouver, where it should be perfect weather for patio dining.

Yaletown neighborhood restaurant patios, Vancouver, BC. Canada.

Eating tips: Local and sustainably-harvested spot prawns might be available by May, and vegetables like asparagus will be plentiful. It will be too early to eat local cherries, but cherry trees will likely still be blooming in Victoria and Vancouver.

Chef Irene Li is the James Beard Foundation chef aboard this 11-day Canada-U.S. cruise. Chef Li opened Mei Mei in 2013 — it’s a family-run Chinese restaurant in Boston that, like Chef Li, advocates for fair and ethical sourcing and employment practices.

The cruise is aboard the 312-guest, all-suite Star Pride, the third of Windstar’s yachts to be stretched and renovated. Star Pride will resume passenger sailings in Greece and Turkey beginning in spring 2022, before heading to Portugal, Scotland, Ireland and Iceland. There’ll be several long cruises between Reykjavik and Montreal before Star Pride cruises between Boston and Montreal, all before hosting Chef Li’s James Beard Foundation: Southeast Canadian Explorations cruise which departs October 12, 2022.

Montreal, from across the St. Lawrence River

Beginning in Montreal, Star Pride first overnights in Quebec City before heading east along the St. Lawrence River — where you might see whales — and then out to other Quebec destinations of the Gaspé and Cap-aux-Meules, the gateway to the Magdalen Islands. In Nova Scotia, Star Pride visits Louisbourg in Cape Breton, the provincial capital of Halifax, and the picturesque town of Lunenburg. In Maine, ports of call are Bar Harbor and Portland before the cruise ends in Boston.

Eating tips: Count on sampling the region’s fresh lobster, mussels, and oysters, as well as local cheeses. In Canadian shops and farmers’ markets, look for Quebec’s Chèvre Noir — a sharp goat-milk cheddar — and Nova Scotia’s Dragon’s Breath — a unique bleu cheese sold in a container of black wax.