170 INTERVIEW A feast on the waves Jason Worth of Oceania Cruises talks with Alex Smith about the cruise brand’s focus on food and how it plans to refresh its culinary offering “ We’re very excited to take what we’ve learned with Vista and deliver a great experience on Allura” Food is at the heart of the Oceania Cruises experience. The cruise line employs one chef for every 10 guests onboard its seven luxury ships, with a variety of different cuisines on offer on each vessel at their selection of complimentary speciality restaurants. “When the brand began over 21 years ago, it was founded by foodies as a foodie cruise experience,” says Jason Worth, vice president of international sales for Oceania Cruises. “It’s a pillar of our brand, and we’ve done some revolutionary things in our dining experience. Our O-class ships Marina and Riviera were the first in the cruise industry to have culinary schools, something we’ve continued with our latest ships Vista and Allura.” Guests have grown to have high expectations of “the finest cuisine at sea”, says Worth, and the cruise line has looked to keep delivering on those standards with new experiences. “To keep things fresh and inventive, we’ve introduced a number of new onboard offerings,” he says. “We added our pan-Asian restaurant Red Ginger onboard Marina, Riviera, Sirena and our Allura-class vessels. On our new ship Vista, we launched Ember, an American dining venue, and Aquamar Kitchen, which offers a healthier option inspired by our Aquamar Spa. Aquamar has also now been introduced onboard Marina following a recent refurbishment.” A recent initiative has been the introduction of ‘Relaxed Yet Refined’ venues across the fleet, which offer a more casual dining experience than Oceania’s speciality restaurants. A sushi station offering 45 new recipes will be A new sushi station at Terrace Café is among the additions being made as part of the ‘Relaxed Yet Refined’ initiative Photo: Oceania Cruises
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