Culinary Classes

[Lane412000]

We have cruises in April and September on the Riviera and Marina, but do not see culinary classes listed.  Are these still available or because of Covid these have been discontinued?

[Queen of DaNile]

The recent classes on Riviera were observation only. Guests were refunded the fees and watched Chef Stef prepare the meal. Perhaps O is waiting to see how things develop before offering participation classes again.

[Flatbush Flyer]

42 minutes ago, Lane412000 said:

We have cruises in April and September on the Riviera and Marina, but do not see culinary classes listed.  Are these still available or because of Covid these have been discontinued?

We’re signed up for classes on an upcoming January Riviera cruise. You may be too early. 

[jagoffee]

42 minutes ago, Queen of DaNile said:

The recent classes on Riviera were observation only. Guests were refunded the fees and watched Chef Stef prepare the meal. Perhaps O is waiting to see how things develop before offering participation classes again.

We would be disappointed.  

41 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

We’re signed up for classes on an upcoming January Riviera cruise. You may be too early. 

We are signed up as well.

[Cliff-FLL]

1 hour ago, Lane412000 said:

...but do not see culinary classes listed.  Are these still available or because of Covid these have been discontinued?

We were on Marina 26 Oct - 9 Nov and the classes were offered.  However, we were only able to book on line shortly before the cruise and only one of us could get in the class.  When we called Oceania, they said that we could probably book the 2nd slot after we got on board.  The reason the classes were filling up so fast was because they only had one person per station, rather than the usual two.  We were able to get the additional slot after boarding but the class, when it finally took place, was completely full.

[gaeltrav]

We were on the Riviera trans Atlantic on Nov17th and did one cooking class. The only difference was there was only one person per station so as I was with my husband we had 2 stations and twice the amount of food to taste!   Don’t book a specialty Restaurant that night

[tipsygirl]

My husband and I are signed up for 2culinary classes on our Feb. cruise. I am on a gluten free diet. How will that be handled? 
 

[jagoffee]

1 hour ago, tipsygirl said:

My husband and I are signed up for 2culinary classes on our Feb. cruise. I am on a gluten free diet. How will that be handled? 
 

I am only guessing based on by Culinary class experience on a Regent ship, but I would say worst case that you would just leave out any Gluten items from your recipe.  

[babysteps]

2 hours ago, tipsygirl said:

My husband and I are signed up for 2culinary classes on our Feb. cruise. I am on a gluten free diet. How will that be handled? 
 

Make sure the Culinary Class folks know that you have a restricted diet. They will make adjustments for you on ingredients if memory serves, so it should be set for you (I am gluten free and it's been a while since we did an onboard class, I don't recall any particular problems). If you are gluten free by medical necessity (not by choice), I would suggest you don't select a class that has a lot of wheat flour involved, too easy for cross-contamination from the next station imo.

[DENIE]

Been following this on our June 2022 Riviera booking.  So far it seems we are too far out, but will just keep checking back.  My wife and her sister would really love to do one of these.

[Jockocruiser]

Just booked some classes for Marina Jan and Feb dates without issue. 

[PhD-iva]

On 12/20/2021 at 9:30 PM, gaeltrav said:

We were on the Riviera trans Atlantic on Nov17th and did one cooking class. The only difference was there was only one person per station so as I was with my husband we had 2 stations and twice the amount of food to taste!   Don’t book a specialty Restaurant that night

I was also on the Riviera on the 17 November transatlantic cruise. I had booked three culinary classes and was able to attend the first two. As soon as this ship entered waters in which CDC rules applied, O was told by the CDC to cancel all the culinary classes. The two that I took, “Viva España” and “If it swims” were both excellent.
Chef David was very good. I made videos of his hands-on preparation/demonstration. Then after we watched how he showed us how to do things, we went back to our stations and we did it ourselves, with support when needed.

At the end of the class he had available for sale his book Mediterranean Summers. I have started to read it, and I am really enjoying it. It talks about his time learning how to cook in southern France and Italy. He also was an onboard chef on a yacht for four summers as it cruised in the Mediterranean. I am really enjoying his book. I really enjoyed his classes as well.