One of the most popular themed cruises Windstar has offered over the past decade, its chef-led partnership with the James Beard Foundation, continues in 2025.One of the most popular themed cruises Windstar has offered over the past decade, its chef-led partnership with the James Beard Foundation, continues in 2025.
The five acclaimed chefs — Jamilka Borges, José Mendin, Jennifer Hill Booker, Jennifer Jasinski and, new to Windstar, Larry Forgione — will bring their regional culinary expertise and signature dishes to sea and host market tours on their itineraries. And it’s more than that: The appeal of Windstar’s culinary-themed cruises, guests can participate in cooking demos, enjoy special dishes inspired by the guest chef, and, one of the most popular activities of all: go shopping with the chef.
If you’re considering a James Beard Foundation cruise in 2025, we thought you might enjoy a rundown on each of the five guest chefs:
March 15, 2025, Caribbean: Windward Ways and Tobago Cays with chef Jamilka Borges
The trip: This seven day Caribbean cruise travels from Aruba’s Oranjestad to Barbados’ Bridgetown. Other destinations include Curacao, Bonaire, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad.
She began her career as prep cook at the industry-leading restaurant Legume and rose to the position of chef de cuisine. After leaving Legume, Borges held executive chef positions in some of the Pittsburgh’s most creative and progressive kitchens: Bar Marco, Spoon, Independent Brewing Company, Hidden Harbor and Lorelei. At each restaurant, Borges discovered another piece of her culinary voice.
Fun facts: “Someone said to me years ago, ‘Oh my God, you’re such a wild child!’ It’s always kind of stayed in the back of my mind. I’ve always done things in a very nontraditional way.”
April 12, 2025, Mediterranean: Spanish Symphony with Chef José Mendin
The trip: On Wind Surf, the eight day Spanish Symphony James Beard itinerary travels from Lisbon to Barcelona, with calls at Cadiz (for Seville), Gibraltar, Malaga, Almeria, Cartagena and Palma de Mallorca.
Your chef: Miami-based chef José Mendin, a native of Puerto Rico, who traveled to Spain to work with chef Jesus Ramior in Valladolid and, later, with chef Juan Pablo Felipe, of Madrid’s Michelin-starred El Chaflan. He also helped open Nobu Miami and Nobu London, with chefs Mark Edwards and Thomas Buckley.
Today, he is owner/partner of Pubbelly Global, which includes a portfolio of restaurants in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Paris. He’s a five-time James Beard Award semifinalist.
Fun stuff: Chef Mendin first discovered his interest in cooking while on a volleyball scholarship at college in Puerto Rico. He has appeared as a judge on Telemundo’s MasterChef Latino. And he likes to wind down after a long day by watching episodes of “Seinfeld.”
June 29, 2025, Northern Europe: Baltic Beauty with chef Jennifer Hill Booker
The trip: On this 11 day Baltic cruise from Stockholm to Copenhagen, Star Legend will visit places such as Helsinki, Estonia’s Tallinn, Latvia’s Riga, Sweden’s Visby, Lithuania’s Klaipeda, Poland’s Gdansk and Germany’s Warnemunde.
Your chef: Jennifer Hill Booker, based in Atlanta, is known for adding a French accent to her Southern culinary heritage — all aimed at creating dishes that reflect a seasonal, healthy approach. She trained at Paris’ Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, and has published cookbooks such as “Field Peas to Foie Gras: Southern Recipes with a French Accent,” and “Dinner Déjà Vu: Southern Tonight, French Tomorrow. “ She is president of the prestigious Atlanta chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International, a member of Slow Food-Atlanta, Atlanta’s No Kid Hungry Atlanta Society, and the James Beard Foundation Food Waste Advisory Council.
Chef Booker has published original recipes in publications such as Waste Not Cookbook, Southern Living, Garden & Gun and Essence. During her Food Network debut, as a finalist on “Cutthroat Kitchen,” she showcased her mélange of French and Southern inspirations.
Fun stuff: In her first illustrated children’s book, “Jelly Fries A Fish For Dinner,” (Tallahatchie Tales, March 2021), Booker highlights the foods of the Mississippi Delta through the eyes of her daughter Jenelle. The chef learned about French cuisine when living in Europe, where her then-husband, a U.S. Army officer, was stationed.
August 27, 2025, Mediterranean: Adriatic Archipelago and Greek Goddesses, with chef Jennifer Jasinski
The trip: This nine-day cruise from Venice to Athens takes place aboard Star Legend. Ports of call include Croatia’s Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik; Montenegro’s Kotor, and Greece’s Corfu, Katakolon and Monemvasia.
Your chef: Denver-based Jennifer Jasinski owns and operates a number of award-winning restaurants such as Rioja, Bistro Vendôme, Ultreia, and Stoic & Genuine. Each restaurant’s cuisine (such as Rioja for Spanish dishes, Bistro Vendôme for French, and Ultreia for tapas and Portuguese petiscos) reflects Jasinki’s passion for travel and global culinary cultures.
The chef was honored with a James Beard award for best chef in the Southwest and was a finalist on Top Chef Masters.
Her philosophy is that a fantastic restaurant experience is more than the cuisine. “You can have great food, but if you have bad service, nobody will come. Our philosophy is simple. On cooking, it’s straightforward: good ingredients, well executed. On the restaurant, it has to be a place where you can come and get taken care of, where the quality of service is always the same, where there is great attention to detail, and the product and service are always thoughtful and considerate. We train our staff to act like they are welcoming someone into their home. I am always out in the dining rooms of my restaurants, talking with guests about the menu, about our products, or about Denver and Colorado.”
Fun stuff: “In high school in Santa Barbara, I was either going to be a chef or a musician,” she said in an interview for Denver.org. “I thought about being a starving artist and figured, if I became a chef, at least I’d always have food! My first cooking job was at Taco Bell.”
October 7, 2027, Canada/New England: Southeast Canadian Explorations with chef Larry Forgione
The trip: Chef Larry Forgione is guest chef on the 12-day voyage onboard Star Pride. The cruise from Montreal to New York calls at ports such as Gaspé, Cap-aux-Meules, Louisbourg, Halifax and Portland, Maine.
Your chef: Forgione’s influence on American cuisine is profound. He helped pioneer the farm-to-table approach to food that’s now ubiquitous in American cuisine. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Forgione began his culinary career working at restaurants in Europe and the U.K. After heading back to the U.S., he was chef at top New York restaurants such as El Morocco, Regine’s and the River Café.
“It was at Regine’s where I started to get into research, and I followed through with the ingredients that I felt were not available in the states, and didn’t understand why they weren’t,” he said in an interview in Restaurant Insider magazine. “It dawned on me when I was working in London, all this beautiful produce and fresh butchered meats would come into the kitchens and it didn’t make sense to me that in America it was reversed. In Europe, farmers and producers were producing for restaurants and every day, cooks got to use the same ingredients, whereas in America everybody was producing for the masses, and the chefs also had to use what was produced. So when I came back I thought that it was time that we started to reverse the wheel a little bit, and I started working with a lot of farmers and producers.”
He opened his first restaurant, An American Place, in Manhattan in 1983 and ultimately expanded his empire to include numerous restaurants and cafés.
Forgione is the co-founder and culinary director of the American Food Studies: Farm-to-Table Cooking curriculum at the Culinary Institute of America. He’s also the founding trustee of the James Beard Foundation, founder of Fresh Start, and founder of the Annual American Chefs tribute to James Beard and Citymeals-on-Wheels.
He also is a prolific cookbook author. His “An American Place” cookbook received a James Beard Award for best American cookbook.
Fun stuff: Forgione’s son Marc Forgione is also a chef. He began his career at his father’s An American Place before ultimately owning his own restaurants and has gone on to be one of the youngest American chefs to be awarded a Michelin star. Father and son cooked together on “Iron Chef America.”
Editor’s Note: For more information on Windstar’s 10 year partnership with the James Beard Foundation, check out our Q&A with Peter Tobler.
