Small ship cruise line Windstar Cruises has announced its line-up of James Beard Foundation®-affiliated guest chefs for its series of three culinary-themed cruises in 2023. The trio of acclaimed visiting chefs are Washington DC’s Jerome Grant; New York’s Ayesha Nurdjaja; and Boston’s Tracy Chang.
Windstar is the Official Cruise Line of the James Beard Foundation (JBF). The non-profit organisation’s mission is to celebrate, support and elevate the people behind America’s food culture and champion a standard of good food anchored in talent, equity and sustainability. The Foundation firmly aligns with Windstar’s commitment to fresh and local epicurean experiences around the world, as well as efforts to reduce food waste.
All three themed cruises include two on-board cooking demonstrations, as well as four dishes by the JBF visiting chef at a hosted dinner with wine pairings. Each chef will also lead a market tour, gathering fresh and local ingredients for dishes served on board. In addition, all three chefs will provide multiple recipes to be featured on Windstar’s menus across all cruises—adding to a growing menu of James Beard Foundation-affiliated chefs’ special menu items, served across the fleet on every sailing.
“As the Official Cruise Line of the James Beard Foundation, we’ve hosted dozens of top chefs over the years. One of the best by-products possible is a delicious and constantly rotating selection of JBF dishes on our menu – on all of our sailings,” explains Windstar President Christopher Prelog. “It doesn’t get any better than sailing with a James Beard Foundation guest chef on a special culinary cruise. Not only will you get to eat their food, you’ll get to know them. You may even learn a few tips and tricks for being a better cook yourself, and you’ll definitely have a richer and deeper travel experience because of it.”
4th March 2023: a seven-day Caribbean cruise on Star Legend from Panama City to Oranjestad with calls in Bocas del Toro, San Blas, Cartagena and Santa Marta as well as a transit of the Panama Canal.
Chef Jerome Grant grew up mostly in the United States and picked up the basics of Filipino cuisine from his mother and the Caribbean flavours of his Jamaican heritage from his paternal grandparents. Currently with the Dacha Restaurant Group in Washington DC, Grant was previously inaugural chef of the Sweet Home Café inside the National Museum of African American History & Culture where his recipes and menus took the café from a simple concept to a James Beard Award. Grant is a 2019 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Award Semi-finalist for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic. Sweet Home Café is a 2017 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Award semi-finalist for Best New Restaurant and the restaurant is inspiration for the 2019 James Beard Media Award Nominated “Sweet Home Café Cookbook.” Grant is excited to join Windstar in the Caribbean, reconnecting with the Caribbean flavours of his Jamaican heritage along the way.
17th June 2023: a nine-day cruise on Wind Surf from Venice to Athens with calls in Zadar, Hvar, Kotor, Dubrovnik, Corfu, Katakolon and Monemvasia.
Chef Ayesha Nurdjaja is the executive chef at Shuka in New York City’s SoHo neighbourhood, as well as sibling restaurant Shukette. Born and raised in Brooklyn, she is the daughter of an Indonesian father and Italian mother. Nurdjaja has helped lead the kitchen teams at Bar Artisanal, Michelin-starred Picholine and at Michelin-starred A Voce under chef Missy Robbins. She also spent time as executive chef at Il Bordello and most recently at Brooklyn neighbourhood favourite Red Gravy, where she offered her take on modern southern Italian cuisine. In 2015, Nurdjaja joined with restaurateurs Vicki Freeman and Marc Meyer to create Shuka, with a menu that draws on the vibrant flavours found throughout Italy, Morocco and Tunisia. Shukette followed to great acclaim in 2021. Nurdjaja is a 2022 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Award Nominee for Best Chef: New York State. Nurdjaja is a frequent traveller to the Aegean and is thrilled to lead Windstar guests on a culinary journey through one of her favourite places on the planet.
21st September 2023: a nine-day cruise on Star Breeze from Yokohama to Osaka with calls in Shimizu, Kagoshima, Hashima Island, Nagasaki, Busan, Karatsu, Hiroshima and Takamatsu.
Chef Tracy Chang is the chef/owner of PAGU restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, celebrating Spanish and Japanese style tapas paired with natural wines, sakes, sherry and more. Prior to PAGU, Chang founded a pop-up restaurant, Guchi’s Midnight Ramen, and hosted events with restaurants, start-ups, non-profits and universities, including Harvard where she is a teaching fellow. During Covid-19, she co-founded two non-profit initiatives, Off Their Plate (OTP) and Project Restore Us (PRU), to provide essential worker communities with food and groceries. The standard operating procedures she created for her restaurant PAGU, as well as for Off Their Plate, have been compiled into a comprehensive guide by the James Beard Foundation, World Central Kitchen and the Aspen Institute. Chang is an alumna of the James Beard Foundation Chef Bootcamp for Policy & Change, James Beard Foundation Women’s Entrepreneurship Leadership Program and a 2020 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Award semi-finalist for Best Chef: Northeast. Chang looks forward to sailing in Japan, exploring her family’s roots and celebrating her grandmother’s culinary legacy in the process.
For further information and reservations call 0808 178 2233 or visit www.windstarcruises.com
