Small ship cruise line Windstar Cruises has introduced its lineup of James Beard Basis®-affiliated visitor cooks for its collection of three themed culinary cruises in 2023. The trio of acclaimed visiting cooks embrace D.C.’s Jerome Grant; New York’s Ayesha Nurdjaja; and Boston’s Tracy Chang.
Windstar is the Official Cruise Line of the James Beard Basis (JBF). The nonprofit group’s mission is to have a good time, assist, and elevate the individuals behind America’s meals tradition and champion a typical of excellent meals anchored in expertise, fairness, and sustainability. The Basis firmly aligns with Windstar’s dedication to recent and native epicurean experiences world wide, in addition to efforts to scale back meals waste.
All three themed cruises in 2023, detailed on the hyperlinks under, embrace two on-board cooking demonstrations, in addition to 4 dishes by the JBF visiting chef at a hosted dinner with wine pairings. Every chef can even lead a market tour, gathering recent and native components for dishes served on board. As well as, all three cooks will present a number of recipes to be featured on Windstar’s menus throughout all cruises—including to a rising menu of James Beard Basis-affiliated cooks’ particular menu objects, served throughout the fleet on each crusing.
“Because the Official Cruise Line of the James Beard Basis, we’ve hosted dozens of prime cooks through the years. Probably the greatest byproducts doable is a scrumptious and continually rotating part of JBF dishes on our menu – on all of our sailings,” explains Windstar President Christopher Prelog. “It doesn’t get any higher than crusing with a James Beard Basis visitor chef on a particular culinary cruise. Not solely will you get to eat their meals—you’ll get to know them. You could even be taught a couple of ideas and tips for being a greater prepare dinner your self, and also you’ll positively have a richer and deeper journey expertise due to it.”
3/4-11, 2023 on Star Legend within the Caribbean, from Panama Metropolis to Oranjestad with Chef Jerome Grant
Jerome Grant grew up largely in the USA—New York, Oklahoma, California, Maryland—and picked up the fundamentals of Filipino delicacies from his mom and the Caribbean flavors of his Jamaican heritage from his paternal grandparents. After graduating from Pennsylvania Culinary Institute, Grant moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands, the place he gained his first essential discover whereas helming the Renaissance St. Croix Carambola Seashore Resort. Again stateside, Grant accepted an govt sous chef place at Urbana Restaurant in Washington, D.C. earlier than working as govt chef of the Mitsitam Native Meals Café contained in the Nationwide Museum of American Indian. Grant then turned the inaugural chef of the Candy Dwelling Café contained in the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition. His recipes and menus took the café from a easy idea to changing into a James Beard Award acknowledged restaurant and cookbook. Since 2020, Grant has been with Dacha Restaurant Group in D.C., together with Jackie Restaurant, which pays homage to Grant’s Filipino-American roots, and Dacha Beer Gardens. He’s additionally getting ready for the upcoming launch of Mahal, an open-fire kitchen.
Grant is a 2019 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Award Semifinalist for Finest Chef Mid-Atlantic. Candy Dwelling Café is a 2017 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Award Semifinalist for Finest New Restaurant, and the restaurant is inspiration for the 2019 James Beard Media Award Nominated “Candy Dwelling Café Cookbook.”
Grant is happy to affix Windstar within the Caribbean, reconnecting with the Caribbean flavors of his Jamaican heritage alongside the best way.
6/17-26, 2023 on Wind Surf within the Mediterranean, from Venice to Athens with Ayesha Nurdjaja
Ayesha Nurdjaja is the chief chef at Shuka in New York Metropolis’s SoHo neighborhood, in addition to sibling restaurant Shukette. Born and raised in Brooklyn, she is the daughter of an Indonesian father and Italian mom. Nurdjaja graduated from culinary college in 2006 and, after watching chef Lidia Bastianich prepare dinner on PBS, walked into Lidia’s restaurant, Felidia, and requested for a job. They introduced her on as a line prepare dinner and he or she labored her means up the ranks to change into sous chef. Since then, Nurdjaja has helped lead the kitchen groups at Bar Artisanal, Michelin-starred Picholine, and at Michelin-starred A Voce beneath chef Missy Robbins. She additionally frolicked as govt chef at Il Bordello and most just lately at Brooklyn neighborhood favourite Pink Gravy, the place she provided her tackle trendy southern Italian delicacies. In 2015, Nurdjaja joined with restaurateurs Vicki Freeman and Marc Meyer to create Shuka, with a menu that attracts on the colourful flavors discovered all through Italy, Morocco, and Tunisia. Shukette adopted to nice acclaim in 2021.
Nurdjaja is a 2022 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Award Nominee for Finest Chef: New York State.
Nurdjaja is a frequent traveler to the Aegean Sea and is thrilled to steer Windstar friends on a culinary journey in one in all her most favourite locations on the planet.
9/21-30, 2023 on Star Breeze in Asia, from Tokyo to Osaka, Japan with Chef Tracy Chang
Tracy Chang is the chef/proprietor of PAGU restaurant in Cambridge, MA, celebrating Spanish and Japanese fashion tapas paired with pure wines, sakes, sherry, and extra. Chang’s love for the restaurant trade started at an early age—her grandmother immigrated to Boston within the Eighties and opened a number of Japanese eating places. Previous to PAGU, Chang based a pop-up restaurant, Guchi’s Midnight Ramen, and hosted occasions with eating places, startups, nonprofits, and universities, together with Harvard, the place she is a educating fellow. Throughout Covid-19, she co-founded two nonprofit initiatives, Off Their Plate (OTP) and Mission Restore Us (PRU), to offer important employee communities with meals and groceries. The usual working procedures she created for her restaurant PAGU, in addition to for Off Their Plate, have been compiled right into a complete information by the James Beard Basis, World Central Kitchen, and the Aspen Institute.
Chang is an alumna of the James Beard Basis Chef Bootcamp for Coverage & Change, James Beard Basis Girls’s Entrepreneurship Management Program, and a 2020 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Award Semifinalist for Finest Chef: Northeast.
Chang seems ahead to crusing in Japan—exploring her household’s roots and celebrating her grandmother’s culinary legacy within the course of.
