Our Holland America Culinary Cruise to Alaska

I had an amazing time on my recent culinary cruise to Alaska. There were 22 of us in the group. It was a fantastic group of people.

Dinner in Seattle

The night before the cruise, some of us stayed at the Vintage Park Hotel in Seattle. Ten of us had dinner together at Tulio, the hotel restaurant, an incredible Italian restaurant that made everything from scratch. The next morning, after a gorgeous sit-down breakfast, we enjoyed a walking tour of Seattle, then took the shuttle to the ship. It was the beginning of seven wonderful days.

Everyone in the group wanted to eat together, so we had dinner together every evening at 8 p.m. Holland America did an outstanding job on the food, and the staff was wonderful. We also got a private kitchen tour, which was really interesting and it showed us all the thinking and preparation that goes into cooking for a cruise line.

Dinner on the ship

I did two cooking demos on the ship. Sean Carmichael, who won a free cruise in the recipe contest, worked with me. We worked well together, had great rapport, and immediately felt comfortable with each other. For the first demo, we made roasted shrimp with a mayonnaise caper sauce base, seared scallops with a jalapeno lime sauce, and new potatoes with fresh lemon and olive oil. For the second demo we made halibut wrapped in prosciutto, poached salmon with a caper sauce, and risotto.


The sommelier (wine expert) on the ship did a private wine tasting for our group. We tasted five different wines, including a lovely French champagne. He also did some food and wine pairings. 

We enjoyed three stops: Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka. Glacier Bay was stunning. Alaska is really an amazing place so full of history and breathtakingly beautiful.

With the sommelier

Everyone on the tour had such a great time that we already started talking about next year’s cruise. I’m thinking of the Panama Canal or the New England Coast. Keep watching the blog for updates.

Click here to see more pictures from the cruise.

Cooking Demo