Holland America Line And Food & Wine Savor Successful Recipe For Culinary Cruises

Celebrity Chefs Perform in Culinary Arts Centers Worldwide

Seattle, WA (June 16, 2006) – Holland America Line continues its successful on-board culinary program through 2006 and 2007 in conjunction with Food & Wine magazine. The multi-year partnership provides guests on select Holland America Line cruises an opportunity to experience demonstrations and seminars conducted by top chefs, wine experts and leading cookbook authors affiliated with Food & Wine. The partnership developed in response to consumers’ increasing interest in learning about fine wines and international cuisine.

The initiative is part of the line’s Culinary Arts Center program, which is offered on every sailing. As a part of the line’s $225 million Signature of Excellence initiative, Holland America Line has spent more than $13 million to create and install the Culinary Arts Center facilities. The Culinary Arts Centers are now in place on all but one of the fleet of 13 premium cruising vessels including the new 1,918-passenger ms Noordam; the remaining ship ms Oosterdam will be completed in October of 2006.

Resembling the elaborate show kitchens used by celebrity chefs on television cooking programs, each Culinary Arts Center features an innovative theater-style venue. The state-of-the-art “show kitchen at sea” has two large plasma video screens to display overhead and close-up video views of the food preparation, and a large cooking display counter where guests can learn new cooking techniques and dishes. Culinary demonstrations are filmed and aired on the in-stateroom televisions.

The Culinary Arts Center presented by Food & Wine magazine brings the pages of the epicurean magazine alive on dozens of sailings of the world’s leading premium cruise line. The program debuted in Fall of 2005.

“This collaboration has been a total success and we could not be more pleased. The dynamic partnership with Food & Wine magazine demonstrates how travelers love the opportunity to hone and enrich their epicurean knowledge and skills,” said Richard D. Meadows, CTC, Holland America Line’s senior vice president, marketing and sales. “Our guests learn from and mingle with acclaimed culinary experts, these are rare experiences found exclusively on Holland America Line.”

"Our enthusiasm continues to grow with the myriad possibilities of this partnership," said Julie McGowan, Food & Wine's senior vice president/publisher. "By pairing Holland America Line's stellar reputation and worldwide itineraries with Food & Wine's expertise and celebration of the epicurean lifestyle, we attract the most dynamic, sought-after talents in the world of food and wine."

Guests learn tricks-of-the-trade from top professionals and can try their hand at preparing dishes and tasting wines representative of specific ports-of-call. Food & Wine also designs and provides recipe cards and wine-tasting notes that guests can take home along with copies of the magazine. Other opportunities include book signings, question-and-answer sessions, market tours in ports of call, specially designed on-board menus and more.

Food & Wine provides chefs, wine experts and cookbook authors who appear in the magazine’s pages as well as those featured at the publication’s premier culinary events, specifically the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Colorado held each June. The following culinary experts are scheduled to sail in the latter half of 2006: