How This Star-Studded Foodie Event Made a Satiable Splash at Sea

MIAMI—More than 2,000 cruise-loving foodies from the U.S. and Canada boarded the second sailing of Chefs Making Waves, a food, wine, and spirits festival at sea, which embarked on a four-night journey out of the Port of Miami May 5-9. Sixthman, in partnership with A21 and EBG, took over the Norwegian Cruise Line’s (NCL) midsize Gem ship for the extravaganza, which made one midway stop in Cozumel, Mexico. The second rendition invited 13 famed chefs, two mixologists, three vineyards, one specialty spirit, one yoga instructor, and five musical acts for four jam-packed nights of indulging, imbibing, and entertainment.  

“This is so much more than just the food; we are breaking down barriers and creating opportunities for access between talent and fans that can’t be experienced anywhere else,” shares Sixthman CEO Jeff Cuellar. “We had the opportunity to rethink the event for year two, and continue putting guests at the forefront, in a playground of different ways to get involved—from demos to games that reveal the personalities of talent you watch on TV, to indulging in their food all throughout the ship, and more.” 

Chefs gathered to welcome guests aboard for sail-away on Monday, May 5.Photo: Rich Johnson

Formulating the 2025 recipe

An event of this caliber is planned 16 months to two years in advance, according to Cuellar, due to its complexities. While A21 and EBG curate the talent—which included renowned chefs like Robert Irvine, Scott Conant, Jonathan Waxman, Tom Colicchio, Geoffrey Zakarian, Maneet Chauhan, Antonia Lofaso, Richard Blais, Nyesha Arrington, and others—Sixthman runs point on all things programming, partnerships, charter logistics, and guest services. 

With 24 years of experience executing more than 150 vacations for upward of 300,000 guests, Sixthman is no stranger to successful strategies at sea, although its bread and butter is typically music-driven, whereas Chefs Making Waves had more food- and beverage-focused programming.

“For Chefs Making Waves events, the focus is less so on the talent onstage, and more so on the natural community surrounding food,” shares Cuellar. “Even watching something like Top Chef, your relationship with that talent is different, because everyone has a kitchen; everyone, in some way, dabbles in cooking, so there’s an intimacy and familiarity with it, which is more communal, and slightly different than playing music. So, on board, you're sharing conversations and making more intimate connections centered around the communal experience of food and cooking.”

Antonia Lofaso’s challah French toast cooking demo brought a packed house to the pool deck Tuesday afternoon. The dish was also served during breakfast in the buffet as part of the Chef’s Spotlight culinary partnership.Photo: Rich Johnson

A total of 75 onboard events around the ship gave guests access to various options at all times. A rotating roster of chefs hosted cooking demos in two venues: outdoors on the main pool deck for cruisers who wanted to enjoy the fresh air, pool and hot tub time, and sunshine, as well as inside the Stardust Theatre for those who wanted to escape the heat. There were also culinary conversations, viewing parties, and an interactive food challenge, plus Bacardi-sponsored mixology demos, tasting sessions, and cocktail hours to round out the flavor. 

On Thursday, cruisers went head-to-head in a cocktail-fueled Cruise Feud battle as one of the onboard activities on the final day at sea.Photo: Rich Johnson

Not to mention, a slew of typical cruise activities kept everyone engaged, including trivia, karaoke, dueling pianos, boozy bingo, wine-accompanied canvas painting and line dancing, and a nightly silent disco aka headphone dance party. Plus, there were three theme nights on deck: Cinco de Mayo (Cuellar says it was kismet that sail-away—to Mexico—was on May 5), formal-optional A Night to Remember, and ‘80s Dance Party. 

The dish on dining 

With food at the forefront and talented chefs in abundance, one of the highlights of Chefs Making Waves was the nightly restaurant takeover service. Six of the onboard restaurants remained the same in aesthetic, but each venue was assigned a team of two to three celebrity chefs who curated the menus, trained the NCL culinary teams to execute the dishes, and made rotating cameos to greet guests and pose for photos each night—one of the takeover concepts repeated at two restaurants. 

Most of the restaurant takeover work begins before the ship sets sail, though.

“If you think about how many times one dish has to be touched before it’s ready to be included in a menu on board, you start to get an idea of the extensive preplanning and provisioning that goes into this festival well before we sail,” Cuellar explains. “The attention to detail here is especially important, because once we’re out at sea, there’s no running to the store to pick up more of one ingredient or another. We do all of this from the lens of maintaining the highest-quality standards while being able to feed 2,000-plus people, so the planning has to be meticulous.” 

Tom Colicchio’s grilled octopus with salsa verde was a hit appetizer at his Cagney’s restaurant takeover.Photo: Rich Johnson

This year’s process differed slightly from year one, where all five restaurants were overtaken by one group of chefs that served the same food each night; in year two, the chef teams were stationed at one designated restaurant, and cruisers rotated among venues and menus to different nightly culinary experiences. 

In addition to the five restaurant takeovers, there was a daily Chef’s Spotlight food station at the buffet, which featured various bites based on each chef’s culinary specialty (think: Maneet Chauhan’s Indian-inspired delicacies, Claudette Zepeda’s Mexican-themed bites, and Scott Conant’s Italian eats) as well as tastes of the recipes that chefs cooked in their onboard demos. These recipes were also shared with cruisers via scannable QR codes throughout the ship, so they could recreate the culinary magic in their own kitchens once back home. 

For a daily treat, San Bernardo Ice Cream popped up with artisanal flavors available at some restaurant takeovers as a dessert option, at the pool deck, in the buffet, and in the nightly headphone dance party to indulge any lingering late-night sweet tooth. 

Cruisers could purchase $65 guided wine tasting tickets from the three small vineyards on board, which included McKinney Family Vineyards, Red Car Wine, and Sosie Wines. Or, they could opt into the $45 self-guided wine tastings to enjoy the pours on their own.Photo: Tammy VegaWine to pair

To further season the sailing, Cuellar and his team tapped a small handful of wine partners to pour on board. Wine enthusiasts could enjoy tastings from three small vineyards: McKinney Family Vineyards, Red Car Wine, and Sosie Wines. Cuellar notes that honoring small craft wine was especially important to the Chefs Making Waves team.

“With some of the world’s top chefs and the opportunity to showcase McKinney Family Vineyards’ exceptional wines, this cruise was an easy and exciting choice for us to be a part of,” adds owner and proprietor Matt McKinney.

While each vineyard hosted its own scheduled guided wine tasting and seminar for an added cost ($65 included one wine tasting, a cheese pairing, and a Chefs Making Waves insulated wine tumbler), guests could also opt for a self-guided tasting ($45 per winery) where they could taste the offered wines in a lounge on their own time. 

The Secret Sauce was a successful first-time partnership between Chefs Making Waves and Kentucky-based Justins’ House of Bourbon. Sixthman’s team led the charge transforming the existing lounge into a Prohibition-era speakeasy. Cruisers could purchase vouchers, which allowed them to taste spirits at various ticket values, or they could request craft cocktails for one ticket per drink.Photo: Rich Johnson

The Secret Sauce 

Another addition to 2025’s successful finish was the debut of The Secret Sauce, a speakeasy pop-up concept presented by Kentucky-based Justins’ House of Bourbon, which houses the world’s largest bourbon collection available for sale and tasting. Cuellar and partners Justin Sloan and Justin Thompson first collaborated on a music festival in Kentucky produced by AC Entertainment a few years back. In 2023, the Justins boarded Sixthman’s Keeping the Blues Alive cruise out of Greece to get their first taste of the at-sea experience, and by June 2024 (following Chefs Making Waves' first sailing), Sloan was sketching out what an immersive onboard presence could look like. 

The result was a full takeover of an existing lounge, where Sixthman’s team physically converted the space into a Prohibition era-themed speakeasy.

“They completely transformed the ship’s Bliss Lounge, turning an idea into something you could actually feel the moment you walked in,” shares Sloan. “They built tables, hung beautiful drapes, rewrapped the columns, and added themed artwork. Every little detail was thoughtful, intentional, and, honestly, it blew me away.” 

Operationally, cruisers could prepurchase 10-packs of tasting tickets for $110, which came with a commemorative insulated The Secret Sauce tumbler, and vouchers were valid for use on all four nights. The Justins brought up to 80 different spirits on board, including vintage rum, bourbon, mezcal, and Armagnac.

“The goal was to make it approachable, so we priced things in a way that let guests sample a few different pours,” offers Sloan. “For those looking for a standout, once-in-a-lifetime kind of pour, we made sure those special bottles were available too.” 

Justins' House of Bourbon created a small-batch, limited-edition, 8-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in Kelvin Cooperage Charred & Toasted Barrels at 105 proof, available for $150 per bottle to commemorate Chefs Making Waves 2025.Photo: Rich Johnson

Cuellar and the Justins also collaborated to create a small-batch, limited-edition, 8-year-old Chefs Making Waves Bourbon, based on Sloan’s involvement with Blackwood Toasted Bourbon, which sold for $150 per bottle and shipped to cruisers after disembarkation. “Creating a bourbon specifically for the cruise added something really special,” says Sloan. “It gave guests a way to take a piece of the experience home with them—a bottle that brings back memories of the moments we shared on board every time they pour a glass.” 

The Secret Sauce was so well received that the concept already received the green light to return. From vintage cocktails and hands-on demos to showcasing more rare and unique spirits, Sloan says his wheels are already in motion. “What stood out the most to me was just how much the guests truly appreciated our presence—and how much they valued having us there to guide them through some of the special pours,” shares Sloan. “Being part of their experience in that way was incredibly rewarding.” 

Real-time tweaks and post-feast critiques 

Sixthman leans into cruisers to refine the event in real time. For example, team members engage with cruisers when they check in to dinner reservations, in the elevators, and on short walks to their activities.  

“Every single one of our team members is, in the moment, taking notes and making observations on how to make improvements for upcoming events,” Cuellar says. “We take what we learned on the first day of sailing and make those changes to provide the best guest experience possible throughout the rest of the event.” 

Elevators featured a Chefs Making Waves-friendly event map to make onboard navigation easier for guests.Photo: Tammy Vega

The process continues after disembarkation as well. “We read every comment on the post-event surveys we send to all guests after each event, and based on this feedback, identify opportunities to make improvements.” 

So, what’s next for Chefs Making Waves? The second ideation, Destination: New England, sets sail Oct. 24-28 out of Boston, with plans to integrate more programming into the ports (Portland, Maine, and Saint John, New Brunswick), and the third Miami sailing in 2026 is already confirmed with talks of upgrading to a larger NCL ship. 

Below, peruse more moments from Chefs Making Waves...

On Tuesday, cruisers kicked off the day with a morning yoga class on the pool deck led by instructor Kate Smith.Photo: Rich Johnson

On Thursday night, Richard Blais hosted a Spill-the-Tea-themed panel with Nyesha Arrington, Antonia Lofaso, Geoffrey Zakarian, and Lindsay Autry in the Stardust Theatre. The transparent chat shed light on chef life on and off camera. Blais also fielded questions from the audience.Photo: Rich Johnson

In Cozumel, Maneet Chauhan and Claudette Zepeda hosted the Salsa & Salsa excursion ($199 per person), which was hosted at Cozumel Hotel & Resort by Wyndham and included salsa making and salsa dancing.Photo: Tammy Vega

On Wednesday night, Robert Irvine: Culinary Chaos brought a packed house to the Stardust Theatre. The culinary challenge invited preselected cruisers into the buffet kitchen to choose ingredients Irvine would then use to craft a cohesive and tasty dish, with plenty of twists and turns along the way.Photo: Tammy Vega