Kulinarische Ausflüge

AB MONTE CARLO, MONACO
Hier haben Sie die Gelegenheit, auf Nizzas Freiluftmärkten lokale Köstlichkeiten zu kaufen. Anschließend genießen Sie ein Gericht in einem Boutique-Hotel bei fantastischem Ausblick. Accompanied by your Chef Instructor from Culinary Arts Kitchen, you’ll stroll beside the pastel-hued architecture of Nice’s Cours Saleya, the air suffused with intoxicating scents of fresh produce, fragrant spices and colorful flowers. Enjoy time to shop and explore, with your Chef Instructor nearby to point out favorite vendors for olive oil, confections, herbes de Provence and souvenirs. You’ll rejoin your Chef Instructor for a tasting of freshly made socca, a chickpea crêpe hot from the wood fired oven and teeming with freshly cracked pepper. Journey to nearby Èze, a stunning medieval village perched on a craggy peak, for a brief guided walk to Château Eza, a luxurious boutique hotel with an equally impressive restaurant. While overlooking the fabulous French Riviera, relish a carefully curated menu developed in collaboration with the Executive Chef with each course presented with an eye toward the ingredients and cooking techniques. Lunch will be paired with Provençal rosé, a summertime favorite with locals and the perfect libation with which to toast your extraordinary day.

AB BILBAO, SPANIEN
Shop like a local at Bilbao’s Mercado de la Ribera, enjoy tapas in the city’s Old Quarter and join a regional cooking class on this culinary adventure. Your group of no more than 18 guests will receive an overview of local cuisine and a shopping assignment from your Chef Instructor before departing for fabulous Bilbao. Seek out quality ingredients at the magnificent Mercado de la Ribera, a 1929 landmark featuring latticed windows that flood the market’s vibrant stalls with natural light. After completing your purchases with funds provided, you’ll stroll through Bilbao’s picturesque Old Quarter, stopping at the chef’s favorite gourmet shops to pick up extra virgin olive oil and Basque delicacies. In the neoclassical Plaza Nueva, savor a tasting of pintxos, Basque-style tapas, accompanied by a local white wine known as txakoli. On your return trip, you’ll pass by the Guggenheim Museum, an architectural masterpiece clad in swooping titanium plates and curving glass panes that is the pure, unmistakable signature of the starchitect Frank Gehry. Conclude your gastronomic journey aboard your ship in the Culinary Arts Kitchen for a cooking class utilizing your ingredients and toast a glass of wine over pinxtos with your newfound foodie friends.

AB HARVEST CAYE, BELIZE
Harvest ingredients from a spice farm and botanical gardens in the country and then return to the cruise ship for a hands-on cooking class. Following an enlightening introduction to the day’s events in Culinary Arts Kitchen, you will head toward the Belize Spice Farm and Botanical Gardens in the foothills of the Maya Mountains. While touring the fertile grounds in a farm vehicle, you will discover how the spices grown here are essential to traditional Belizean dishes and then harvest some of the key ingredients. All the while, the delightful scents of fresh spices such as cardamom, clove, nutmeg and vanilla will be wafting through the air. Back on board in Culinary Arts Kitchen, you will participate in a cooking class using the ingredients from the spice farm. The highlight will be learning how to store, prepare and utilize spices for maximum flavor in our stunning hands-on cooking school.

AB RIGA, LETTLAND
This Chef-Led Tour immerses you in a true Latvian ‘farm to table’ experience – from market shopping to prep, plating and savoring. Your Chef Instructor from Culinary Arts Kitchen and a local culinary guide will shepherd you on a tour through Riga’s extraordinary Central Market, its five pavilions a brilliant re-use of historic German Zeppelin hangars. Over 3.000 trade stands occupy an area equal to five roofed football fields, and you and your partner will have about an hour to shop for your assigned ingredients for today’s lesson, and then explore this culinary mecca on your own. Your shopping bags and imaginations full, the group will set off on a panoramic orientation drive around Riga – traveling boulevards lined with breathtaking buildings, handsome parks and the city’s unrivaled bounty of impeccably-preserved German Art Nouveau structures. Returning to the ship, you will head straight into your cooking session in Culinary Arts Kitchen The day’s menu will vary by season, but typically features Latvian classics. After prepping these gastronomic delights, you’ll savor them for lunch – accompanied by delicious locally-inspired beverages.

AB MÁLAGA, SPANIEN
EExperience Málaga like a true gourmand, visiting Atarazanas Central Market, meandering through the Old City, and participating in an exclusive tapas luncheon cooking class, complete with Sangria and local wines. After a seaside drive to Málaga’s city center with your Chef Instructor from The Culinary Center, stroll among breathtaking Moorish-influenced buildings to the Atarazanas Central Market, which is housed in a 14th-century shipyard. You’ll admire the neo-Arabic façade’s impressive mosaics and enter the market to views of colorful produce, fresh fish, hanging jamones and regional cheeses illuminated by the glass-ceilinged roof.You’ll receive a market orientation from your Chef Instructor and begin purchasing the items assigned to you and your partner, later relishing free time to absorb the lively ambiance and the myriad Spanish specialties on display. After the market visit, your group will stroll through Málaga, and your Chef Instructor will acquire olive oil, wines, and other delicacies for the class. Back on board, you’ll learn the art of tapas-making, featuring recipes from southern Spain and especially Málaga, all while you sip local sherry, a tasty conclusion to your gourmet journey.

FROM MARSEILLES, FRANCE
Your senses will rejoice as you accompany a Culinary Arts Kitchen chef through one of Aix-en-Provence’s liveliest and most aromatic daily markets. What could be more entrancing than the scent of fresh lavender wafting through air, samples of delicacies like fennel-laced sausage and a riot of produce so colorful that even Aix-en-Provence-born artist Paul Cézanne would be inspired. Your culinary adventure will continue with a cooking demonstration conducted by the renowned third-generation owner of Auberge la Fenière, Nadia Sammut. An authentic Provençal lunch follows complete with local wines and seasonal ingredients. La Fenière is the only gluten-free restaurant awarded a Michelin star- all due to the culinary super star (and celiac) Chef Nadia. Following lunch, you’ll return to the ship for a tasting of tapenade and rose purchased at the AIX market – the perfect way to end your day of touring and begin your evening onboard.

AB SEVILLA (CÁDIZ), SPANIEN
Enjoy the bounty of land and sea on this visit to a lively market, a square brimming with flowers and a renowned traditional Andalusian restaurant. Join your Chef Instructor from the Culinary Arts Kitchen and a local guide for a stroll through Cádiz’s glorious Old Quarter to the bustling Mercado de Abastos, where you’ll browse a cornucopia of seafood, produce, meats and cheeses. Admire the lobsters, which are often sizeable, and exotic creatures such as sea urchins and sea snails. In Plaza de las Flores, an enchanting square in which the city’s flower vendors offer their vibrant wares, you’ll delight in the surrounding elegant buildings and perhaps pause at a local café for a refreshment. Continue to an authentic restaurant acclaimed for its time-honored Andalusian cooking and particularly its tapas, among which you may indulge in marinated anchovies, a fried shrimp omelet, leeks topped with cheese and cured ham on apple compote, all accompanied by a glass of wine or sherry. To walk off your satisfying repast, stroll through several lovely squares to the waterfront and imagine Christopher Columbus returning from the New World to Cádiz with news that would dramatically alter the course of history.

AB BARCELONA, SPANIEN
It’s no coincidence that Barcelona is hailed as a culinary mecca. Its cacophonous, colorful markets are laden with every delicacy imaginable, as you will discover first at La Boqueria. Incredibly, farmers first brought their goods to this market in 1217, and the concept is still the same—display only the freshest, seasonal produce, meats, and sales will flourish. Your Culinary Center chef will enthusiastically describe how the market’s ingredients are used in traditional Catalan cuisine, an insider’s perspective that will be re-enforced as you next browse Santa Caterina Market. Although similar in concept, this newer market is considered an architectural treasure, as it features a massive, multi-colored roof shaped like cresting waves. Duly enlightened with the staggering array of foods available in the region, you will then head to a restaurant for a delightful meal of tapas. Chances are it will seem even tastier now that you know so much about the ingredients. After lunch, you’ll stop by the chef’s favorite pastry shop, pick up a treat and return to Culinary Arts Kitchen for a tasting of cava and a wrap up of the day’s memorable experience.

FROM ARGOSTOLI, GREECE
Join your chef from Culinary Arts Kitchen for a walking and foraging tour through the charming town of Argostoli then enjoy a delightful local repast before learning to create traditional foods with your market and bakery finds. Walk with your chef and fellow epicureans through the local market and bakery to gather your assigned ingredients for traditional dishes like Dakos or Riganada ; the food of shepherds, made with grated tomatoes on barley rusks, topped with feta cheese and extra virgin olive oil. Search for the freshest and most seasonal ingredients, such as vegetables and barley rusks. Purchase traditional confections to enjoy during your class, like decadent baklava or the creamy milk custard in phyllo dough known as galaktoboureko. You’ll buy Greek extra virgin olive oil, dried oregano, local cheeses and, of course, wine. Stop at a local taverna for a Greek beer and meze, all which you’ll recreate later in class. Eager to make authentic Cephalonia-inspired dishes in Culinary Arts Kitchen, you’ll soon cook a Greek feast with your classmates and chef, as you share your insights into the Mediterranean diet and appreciate your enriching experience.

AB TOSKANA (LIVORNO), ITALIEN
Add a notch to your culinary bucket list on this adventure to Livorno’s stellar central market and a former Medici villa for a Tuscan cooking demonstration and divine wine-paired lunch. After an orientation with your Chef Instructor in Culinary Arts Kitchen transfer to Livorno’s fabulous Mercato Centrale, which reveals a uniquely Parisian influence in its stunningly high ceilings and leaded glass windows. Wander among 230 stalls and marvel at the artisanal cheeses and meats, fresh fish, seasonal produce and breads on display as you breathe in the smell of freshly ground coffee.You’ll drive to stately Villa Dianella, situated in the heart of the beautiful Chianti DOCG wine-growing region. Learn this quintessentially Tuscan villa was once the country home of the Medici family during hunting season and that its 222 acres are rich with ancient olive trees and the vines of five regional varietals. Enjoy a cooking demonstration by a famed Tuscan Chef and sit for a magnificent Tuscan lunch, each course paired with wines from the estate. After lunch, stroll in the gardens or take a tour of the cellars.