Following its great success in attracting a broad public to cruising with “Dancing with the Stars” at sea, Holland America Line (HAL) is launching an onboard relationship with PBS’ extremely popular television series “America’s Test Kitchen” to entice the culinary crowd.
The line’s Culinary Arts Centers, which pioneered shipboard instructional enrichment for foodies, will be transformed to replicate the set of the PBS show, offering 45-minute cooking demonstrations and 90-minute hands-on workshops.
“America’s Test Kitchen,” appearing on more than 350 stations since 2001, is famous for its intensive testing to achieve consistent, foolproof dishes made with ingredients accessible to the home cook. More than 400,000 people pay to access its online recipes. Staff from the show are training HAL chefs to host the onboard sessions, and guests will have 24-hour access to episodes of “America’s Test Kitchen” in their staterooms. (There are no plans at this time to televise shows from the ships.)
The program will be launched on Westerdam on Oct. 18 for the ship’s Mexico season and on Nieuw Amsterdam on Nov. 13 for the Caribbean season. It should be fleetwide by next June.
“Holland America has the most complete and immersive culinary program at sea,” said Orlando Ashford, president of HAL.
Ashford says the strategy is aligning the brand with “awesome partners,” a policy it has followed with other prestigious entities, including Lincoln Center, B.B. King, Billboard, Food & Wine and the Rijksmuseum.
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