Cruise lines cook up some tasty excursions

Tempting the tummy still lures us to the sea, and several lines are baiting their hooks with noted chefs and outstanding wines.

Holland America, for instance, will lard its galleys for the third year in a row with 70 celebrated guest chefs from all corners of the United States. The gourmet cruises will highlight the “wholesome fare of early American taverns to Southern-influenced prime seafood,” notes the line.

The roster of exceptional New York City chefs include Cornelius Gallagher, former chef at Oceana; Pichet Ong, chef at P*ong Restaurant; and Max McCalman, Artisanal Cheese. As well as these chefs: Bobby Stucky, master sommelier at Frasca Food and Wine, Boulder, Colo.; Eric Lee, executive chef at Simi Winery, Healdsburg, Calif.; Tenney Flynn, executive chef at GW Fins, New Orleans; Joel Antunes, chef of Joel Restaurant, Atlanta; and Susan Goss, owner and chef of the West Town Tavern in Chicago.

Besides gorging on gourmet meals, passengers aboard HAL’s 13-ship fleet also will have an opportunity to roll up their sleeves in state-of-the-art kitchens. The cruises offer culinary demonstrations, wine tastings and hands-on cooking classes aboard every sailing.

HAL’s workshop kitchens, part of a $13 million Culinary Arts Centers program, “resemble the elaborate show kitchens used by celebrity chefs on television cooking programs,” boasts the promotional material.

For more information, consult a travel agent, call (877-724-5425) or visit hollandamerica.com.

No slouch in turning out exquisite gastronomic specialties on its own, Silversea Cruises now plans to dish out an expanded schedule of gourmet cooking classes in conjunction with Viking Range Corp., a manufacturer of top-end commercial-type appliances, on select voyages visiting virtually every part of the globe next year.

Most alluring, the cooking classes and specialties prepared in these kitchens reflect each vessel’s itinerary, which could range from Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to the South Pacific and Far East. The Viking Cooking School cruises will have you embroiled in exotic fragrances and flavors.

For complete voyage details and the latest information on Viking Cooking School cruises, visit silversea.com.

If eating rather than cooking is more your thing, consider barge cruises in Europe. For instance, an uber-exclusive weeklong gourmet river cruise for six aboard the Elisabeth, a French canal barge, will test your will and waistline with all the chocolate and wine you can eat and drink. Of course for $21,000, you had better be a chocoholic or wine aficionado.

But here’s what you get on your gastronomic voyage on the Burgundy Canal between Poullenay and Tanlay: chauffeured transfer to and from Paris to the barge, all meals, of course, open bar, all excursions and gloriously devilish and addicting chocolate desserts, fine wines and cooking demonstrations.

For more information, call 800-880-0071, or visit bargeladycruises.com.