Finally, cruise ships are letting you taste the local food

When Celebrity Xcel launches on November 18 in the Caribbean, it will have several innovations, but what catches my eye is the debut of three-storey space The Bazaar.

Open-kitchen restaurant Mosaic will feature regional dishes and will also have a cooking school where guests can get acquainted with local ingredients and the dishes of port destinations.

Meanwhile, casual-dining restaurant Spice will also showcase regional bites from the Caribbean – and then from the Mediterranean when Celebrity Xcel relocates in 2026 to operate cruises from Barcelona and Athens.

This is all good news, since one of cruising’s downsides has been missing out on local flavours. European and American cuisine predominates on most ships.

That’s understandable since, unlike river ships, ocean ships are constantly on the move, which makes regional cuisines hard to keep up with. But now more premium and luxury ships are taking on the challenge, to the great benefit of our taste buds.

Seabourn Cruise Line recently expanded its entire culinary program, with new dinner menus, more food-focused shore excursions and expanded Shopping with the Chef experiences and late-night market tours, all in an effort to spotlight local ingredients and regional flavours.

Silversea sets an even higher bar with its SALT (Sea and Land Taste) program, which aims to provide destination-inspired culinary experiences, from foraging in Tasmania and truffle-hunting near Bordeaux to a culinary workshop in a Zen retreat in Osaka.

The menus in dining venue SALT Kitchen reflect regional cuisine and impressively change daily. Adjacent SALT Bar gets in on the act with creative cocktails.

On Australia sailings, for example, you can expect the likes of macadamia-crusted lamb, barramundi with lemon myrtle, emu and Shiraz pie with bush chutney, emu ravioli, and kangaroo fillet. Plenty of dishes reflect our Asian and Mediterranean influences, too.

Cunard has occasional themed cruises that highlight local cuisine, such as its notable 2024 Australian cruise on Queen Elizabeth that fed guests the likes of bush-tomato soup, braised wallaby shanks, and barramundi in paperbark.

In 2026, some Norway cruises on Queen Anne will feature Norwegian seafood every evening in the Carinthia Lounge as part of Cunard’s Le Gavroche at Sea collaboration with celebrity Michelin-star chef Michel Roux.

Another cruise line that has always made destination-oriented culinary efforts is Azamara, which has now upped the ante by introducing 150 new locally inspired dishes across its main dining venues.

Chefs from Croatia, France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain have provided input on Mediterranean voyages, and designed special multi-course menus that celebrate the culinary heritage of the regions that Azamara ships sail through.

Guests can now tuck into Portuguese fish stew, Greek sausage-and-capsicum dish spetsofai, tasty Spanish egg dish huevos rotos, and regional French dishes such as Bordeaux-style hake and Basque tuna. And if you don’t know what a Zagreb steak is, it’s time to find out. Here’s hoping it’s a taste of yet more to come.

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