Oceania Cruises celebrates 15 years of the Culinary Center

Announced 15 years ago ahead of the launch of Marina, The Culinary Center features on four ships: Marina, Riviera, Vista, and Allura, its newest ship due to join the fleet in summer 2025.

In celebration of this 15-year milestone, Oceania Cruises has added new culinary classes for 2025, putting the spotlight on dishes from the Pacific Northwest of the US, Polynesia, and Australia, among others.

The Culinary Center boasts more than 60 current classes taught in custom-built teaching kitchens with individual stations and professional-grade equipment. The classes offer the chance to explore a destination’s culture and history through food, or to hone core kitchen skills thanks to the faculty of dedicated chef instructors.

Chef Kathryn Kelly

Chef Kathryn Kelly, Oceania Cruises’ director of culinary enrichment, is the founder and driving force behind The Culinary Center and oversees Oceania Cruises’ team of 11 instructors.

She is also the chief architect of the line’s signature range of Culinary Discovery Tours, part of The Culinary Center program. These popular chef-led excursions, which are available in more than 40 destinations worldwide, feature the opportunity to learn to cook destination-inspired dishes back on board after a morning of shopping for ingredients in local markets, or to learn from local experts and artisans about the food and culture of the region.

Collaborative team

Chef Kelly talked about the collaborative team and evolution of the product over the past 15 years from the first Culinary Center aboard Marina, followed by Riviera, to the more expansive Culinary Centers on board Vista and her sister Allura, which have twice the number of individual stations.

‘When not on board, the team lives in locations all over the world, from Christchurch, New Zealand, to Riga, Latvia, to San Francisco, California, making them perfectly placed to keep their fingers on the global food pulse to bring the latest culinary trends to the kitchen classrooms on board,’ Chef Kelly added.