Musk ox and reindeer sausage are not staples of cruise cuisine, but on a growing number of cruise lines, you can try these kinds of local specialties on board. Sustainable seafood, hyperlocal ingredients, and regional recipes are all finding their way onto the dinner menus of cruise lines seeking to create a more culturally immersive experience for their guests.
If you love to explore new destinations through your taste buds, you don’t need to give up that joy when you set sail. In addition to embracing authentic food culture by bringing locally sourced, sustainable cuisine on board, culinary-focused cruise lines are also curating excursions that take you to eco-conscious farms, introduce you to Indigenous cooks, and let you sample local brews and vintages.
From small expedition lines to well-established luxury brands, here is a sampling of cruise lines going overboard to bring you the best in local cuisine.
Chef Masaharu Morimoto helped kick off Holland America Line’s Global Fresh Fish program in 2023 by hosting pop-up restaurants aboard HAL ships that showcase fresh, locally caught seafood.
Courtesy of Holland America Line
Holland America Line
Holland America Line embraces locally sourced, sustainable seafood on its ships with its Global Fresh Fish program, which launched in 2023. The program began in the cruise line’s signature destination, Alaska, where it committed to serving 100 percent fresh and wild local seafood, based on guidelines provided by Certified Seafood International. Then it expanded worldwide, partnering with ecolabels the Marine Stewardship Council (wild-caught seafood) and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (responsibly farmed seafood).
In Alaska, the cruise line goes beyond fish. Its once-a-cruise Alaska brunch features fresh regional ingredients, such as native berries, reindeer sausage, and local mushrooms. Themed dinners in its Lido Market buffet highlight Alaskan specialties such as charred sugar-crusted salmon with juniper berries. Bartender Sam Ross, known for his award-winning New York City bar, Attaboy, and the popular craft cocktail called Penicillin, has created six Alaskan-themed cocktails for these sailings, among them the apple-cinnamon-flavored Klondiker served with sustainably harvested glacial ice.
You can see what type of fresh catch is available where you’re sailing by checking the Global Fresh Fish program’s comprehensive port-to-plate guide.
Look to the line’s shore excursions for additional culinary and cultural deep dives. Alaska cruises that visit Prince Rupert, British Columbia, offer a Kitsumkalum Glacial Heritage & Gastronomy Trail shore excursion. Guests can meet Kitsumkalum First Nations community members and enjoy a meal made from Indigenous ingredients, such as raw fireweed honey, stinging nettles, bison, and bannock.
Aqua Expeditions
Aqua Expeditions specializes in small-ship luxury cruising (seven to 20 suites max per ship) to remote destinations such as the Amazon, Mekong, Galápagos, and Indonesia. It not only tailors its onboard menus to each region but also partners with renowned local chefs to promise an authentic, superlative dining experience.
The line’s partners include Pedro Miguel Schiaffino, an innovative Peruvian chef who led the trend in highlighting Amazonian cuisine. He now brings his rainforest-to-table menus to the line’s Aqua Nera vessel, incorporating native ingredients such as the river fish Paiche. Guests can try their hand at traditional cooking techniques, such as steaming fish in banana leaves, during onboard workshops. Look for chef-hosted sailings in 2025 and 2026 to travel with Schiaffino and experience guided market tours and other special events ashore.
In Indonesia, Australian chef Benjamin Cross incorporates produce and seafood from the islands to create dishes that blend Indonesian flavors with European cuisine. And in Vietnam and Cambodia, Aqua Mekong’s chefs procure ingredients from riverside markets along the famed river that shares the ship’s name to create the menus on board.
A Nordic afternoon tea spread featuring smoked reindeer and Pacific salmon sandwiches and an assortment of scones, jams, cakes, and macaroons, served during a Hurtigruten Culinary Voyages sailing.
Photo by Nicole Edenedo
Hurtigruten
Since the 1890s, Hurtigruten’s ships have plied the coast of Norway, transporting people and goods, and now travelers looking to explore the country’s seaside cities and villages. The line’s head chef, Oistein Nilsen, hails from northern Norway, and his menus source ingredients from 70 local farms, bakeries, and other purveyors. Plus, the line composts food waste into fertilizer used by a Lofoten Island farm, which in turn grows food that Hurtigruten purchases for onboard use.
But if you want your exploration to hone in on regional culinary specialties, look for the line’s new Culinary Voyages, which mix a short sailing from Bergen with farm stays in the country’s northern islands above the Arctic Circle. Guests can immerse themselves in Norwegian culinary traditions with special events, such as a seaweed-infused lunch in the Lofoten Islands, a family-style dinner at the Myklevik Gard biodynamic farm, and tours and tastings at a Norwegian brewery and a woman-owned distillery.
To learn more about the Sámi people of Lapland and northern Scandinavia, sign up for a four-course meal designed by Hurtigruten’s Sámi culinary ambassador, reindeer farmer Máret Rávdná Buljo.
Silversea Cruises
Luxury cruising isn’t just about multicourse French-inspired degustation menus featuring lobster, caviar, and free-flowing champagne anymore. While Silversea offers those indulgences, it also leans into the luxury of culinary exploration with the S.A.L.T. (Sea and Land Taste) program on its newest ships.
The multifaceted approach immerses guests in the sailing region’s food culture, both on board and ashore. Each ship’s S.A.L.T. Kitchen and S.A.L.T. Bar change the dinner and cocktail menus daily to reflect the flavors of that day’s port. At the S.A.L.T. Lab demonstration kitchen, accomplished chefs teach guests how to make regional specialties. In the evening, the space transforms into an intimate Chef’s Table dinner venue with a curated selection of small plates that highlight local ingredients, paired with regionally inspired beverages.
During S.A.L.T. Experiences shore excursions, guests might tour a family-owned winery, pick vegetables on a biodynamic farm, or learn cooking techniques from villagers.
Inuit chefs host Quark Expeditions’ Tundra to Table add-on culinary experience.
Courtesy of Quark Expeditions
Quark Expeditions
Polar-focused Quark Expeditions was the first cruise line to bring the cuisine and culture of Greenland’s Inuit and Nunavut people on board its ships in 2022. (HX Expeditions launched a similar program this year.) Quark’s Tundra to Table add-on experience is a crash course in Indigenous culture via its cuisine. It’s available on select Canadian Arctic and Greenland sailings on Quark’s Ultramarine ship.
The four-course meal is hosted by Inuit chefs, who tell stories and introduce guests to their cooking heritage and mainstay ingredients. Guests can sample fusion-style dishes, such as beer-braised musk ox, South Greenlandic lamb, or honey-glazed ptarmigan, all plated on tableware sourced in Greenland. Quark says that local suppliers provide 30 to 40 percent of the ingredients, including crowberries, Labrador tea, Arctic thyme, harebell flowers, and craft beer.
The dinner costs $125 per person. Quark uses the proceeds from the Tundra to Table experience to support the partner chefs and their culinary outreach efforts, as well as Qajuqturvik, an organization that fights food insecurity and promotes food culture and cooking skills in Nunavut.
The truly adventurous can also sign up for an overnight camping adventure in tents onshore. During your time in the wilderness, a local chef will take you foraging in the tundra and use the ingredients you find to prepare the evening’s meal.
