Regent Seven Seas Cruises is bringing its Culinary Arts Kitchen to its new ship, giving food-focused travellers a more active way to learn while sailing. The programme adds more than 60 cooking classes and 25 Epicurean Explorer Tours, placing cuisine, local markets, and guided technique closer to the centre of the voyage.
Culinary arts kitchen Classes run for two hours and start at US$129 per guest (approx. A$183). Themes include Argentine barbecue with South American varietals and a Mediterranean culinary journey featuring signature dishes from France, Greece, Italy, and Spain.
Why the Culinary Arts Kitchen Matters Aboard the New Ship
The Culinary Arts Kitchen gives guests a structured way to connect food with travel, rather than treating dining as the only culinary moment on board. For travellers who value enrichment, this type of programme adds a practical layer to days at sea and time between ports.
On Seven Seas Prestige, the kitchen also helps define the new ship’s personality from the start. It points to a style of luxury cruising where cuisine, culture, and participation sit alongside dining, service, and suite comfort.
Hands-On Classes Add Purpose to Time at Sea
The new ship will offer more than 60 cooking classes, giving guests a wide range of choices across global cuisines and cooking traditions. Each session runs for two hours, which gives enough time for instruction, preparation, and guided learning without taking over the full day. Starting from US$129 per guest (approx. A$183), the classes sit as a considered add-on for travellers who want a more active culinary experience.
This format suits guests who enjoy learning techniques they might use again at home. A cooking class at sea gives context around ingredients, flavour, and regional traditions, then links the lesson back to the destinations visited during the cruise. It also gives the day a different pace from shore touring, dining, or spa time, which helps vary the rhythm of a luxury voyage.
Image courtesy of Regent Seven Seas
Argentine Barbecue Gives Grill Enthusiasts a Clear Focus
One highlighted class theme focuses on Argentine barbecue. The session gives grill enthusiasts a closer look at a cooking tradition known for fire control, meat preparation, serving style, and bold regional flavour. Expert pairings of South American varietals bring wine into the lesson, making the experience more complete than a standard cooking demonstration.
For travellers who already enjoy grilling, this type of class offers practical value. It moves beyond watching a chef prepare food and gives guests more insight into how technique and pairing work together. That approach suits Regent’s luxury positioning, where enrichment should feel useful, refined, and tied to a sense of place.
Mediterranean Dishes Offer a Lighter Counterpoint
The Mediterranean culinary journey gives guests a different angle, with a focus on the region’s celebrated diet and signature dishes from France, Greece, Italy, and Spain. This theme suits travellers who prefer lighter fare, coastal ingredients, and familiar regional flavours presented through guided technique. It also connects naturally with cruise itineraries where Mediterranean ports shape the wider travel experience.
The value lies in how the class turns a broad food tradition into practical learning. Guests work through dishes linked to specific countries, rather than hearing a general talk about regional cuisine. That makes the experience easier to remember, especially when the method connects with a port visit, market stop, or restaurant experience ashore.
How Chef-Guided Tours Extend the Culinary Story
The addition of 25 Epicurean Explorer Tours carries the Culinary Arts Kitchen concept beyond the ship. These chef-guided shore excursions through local markets give guests a way to connect onboard learning with ingredients, producers, and food culture in the destinations they visit.
This is where culinary travel gains more texture. A market tour gives context to what appears on the plate, while a cooking class helps guests understand how ingredients become part of a regional dish.
Local Markets Bring Food Culture Into View
Chef-guided excursions through local markets place guests closer to the everyday food culture of each destination. Markets often show how locals shop, which ingredients are in season, and which flavours define a region. With a chef leading the experience, the visit becomes more focused and easier to interpret.
This style of touring suits guests who want a more intentional look at a destination. Rather than walking through a market without context, travellers gain insight into why certain ingredients matter and how they shape local cooking. It also gives the shore experience a practical thread, especially for guests taking related classes back on board.
Shipboard Learning Feels More Connected to Place
The Culinary Arts Kitchen works best when it feels connected to the itinerary. A class on Mediterranean dishes gains more meaning when guests have seen regional produce, tasted local flavours, or walked through food markets during the same journey. The Epicurean Explorer Tours help strengthen that link.
For Seven Seas Prestige, this creates a fuller style of culinary enrichment. Guests are not only choosing a class because they enjoy food, but they are also building a travel memory around a place, a dish, and a technique. That combination gives the programme more depth than a single dining event or one-off demonstration.
Image courtesy of Regent Seven Seas
Kathryn Kelly’s Role Adds Programme Continuity
The concept has been shaped by Kathryn Kelly, Regent’s executive chef and director of culinary enrichment. Her involvement gives the programme continuity with the Culinary Arts Kitchen first introduced aboard Regent’s Explorer-class ships. For returning Regent guests, that connection helps the experience feel familiar while giving the new ship its own culinary strength.
This continuity matters because luxury travellers often value consistency across a cruise line. When an enrichment programme moves from one ship class to another, guests expect the same level of care, structure, and service. Bringing the Culinary Arts Kitchen to Regent’s new ship shows how the line is carrying a proven concept forward while expanding the range of experiences available.
Who Does This Culinary Programme Suit Best
This culinary direction will appeal most to travellers who see food as part of the destination, rather than only part of onboard service. It speaks to guests who enjoy learning, tasting, asking questions, and returning home with a better understanding of the places they visited.
The programme also gives travel advisers and cruise specialists a clearer way to match guests with the right ship. For some travellers, the difference between one luxury cruise and another lies in these enrichment details, especially when suites, service, and dining standards are already high.
Food-Led Travellers Gain More Choice
Guests who plan trips around restaurants, markets, wine, or cooking traditions will find strong value in the breadth of classes. More than 60 options give the programme enough variety to suit different tastes, from grill-focused sessions to lighter Mediterranean fare. That range also helps guests choose experiences based on interest rather than availability alone.
This matters on a luxury cruise because choice should feel personal. A traveller who loves South American wine pairings needs a different experience from someone drawn to Greek, Italian, French, or Spanish dishes. The expanded class range gives Regent more room to serve different culinary personalities on the same voyage.
Couples and Groups Get a Shared Activity
Cooking classes also work well for couples, friends, and family members travelling together. A two-hour session gives them something active to share without requiring a full-day commitment. It also creates a natural conversation point for the rest of the cruise, especially after guests prepare dishes or learn techniques together.
This is useful for multi-generational groups or travellers with different shore touring preferences. Some guests might want an active market excursion, while others prefer a calmer onboard class. The wider culinary programme gives more ways to build a shared experience around food without making every traveller follow the same schedule.
Image courtesy of Regent Seven Seas
Luxury Cruisers Get More Than Fine Dining
Regent is already known for high-end dining, but this programme places more attention on participation. Guests are not only being served, but they are also learning how dishes take shape and why regional traditions matter. That shift gives the culinary experience a stronger sense of involvement.
For travellers comparing ultra-luxury cruise lines, this distinction matters. Fine dining remains important, while enrichment adds another layer to the decision. A ship with structured cooking classes and chef-guided market tours gives guests a more active way to engage with food while still enjoying the ease of luxury cruising.
A strong culinary programme adds another layer to your cruise decision. Class themes, ship choice, itinerary style, and shore excursion options all influence whether a voyage feels aligned with your interests.
Compare available luxury cruise options through Cruise Finder, especially when weighing culinary enrichment against itinerary, ship, and suite preferences. It is a useful starting point before narrowing down the best fit with a cruise specialist.
Choose a Cruise Designed Around Taste and Place
Regent’s Culinary Arts Kitchen gives its new ship a strong enrichment story, with more than 60 cooking classes and 25 Epicurean Explorer Tours linking onboard learning with food culture ashore. For travellers who value cuisine as part of the journey, the programme adds more purpose to time at sea and more context to time in port.
If you want help comparing Regent sailings, culinary experiences, and luxury cruise options, speak with S.W. Black Travel about your next cruise and plan a voyage shaped around your preferred pace, palate, and destination style.
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