Teri West
This week, Four Season Yachts announced a program that will come to its first ship when it sets sail next year.
The program, called chef-in-residence, will host four different visiting chefs aboard seven sailings, where they will curate unique tasting menus.
What do each of the chefs have in common? They all helm restaurants at Four Seasons properties.
For example, Guillaume Galliot will be taking a break from life at Four Seasons Hong Kong to sail along the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. Paolo Lavezzini will cruise in September on a trip through Italy; he can otherwise be found in Il Palagio at the Four Seasons Hotel Firenze.
And people who have enjoyed Luca Piscazzi's Michelin-star cuisine at Pelagos, a restaurant at Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens, may seek to join him on one of the spring cruises through Greece. And those who have visited Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat, A Four Seasons Hotel on the French Riviera, can find Yoric Tieche of its restaurant Le Cap on two French Riviera itineraries.
Celebrity-chef partnerships and visiting chefs aren't new within the industry: Think Oceania's relationship with Jacques Pepin, or Windstar's longstanding series with the James Beard Foundation.
But I think what's interesting here is that Four Seasons can tap into its existing resources. It doesn't have to source new talent to feature Michelin-star chefs -- it's employed them for years.
I also see this as an example of how hotel branded cruise lines plan to tempt their established customer base of hotel guests to join them at sea.
Travelmation advisor Melanie Kostrab told me her clients enjoy the ease of having fine dining right at their hotels and could envision them being drawn to a ship for the same reasons.
"You have these Michelin star chefs on the cruise with you," she said. "You have all this elevated dining while you're sailing to all these different countries."
Four Seasons Yachts CEO Ben Trodd has worked in the Four Seasons ecosystem for decades and in an interview described the cruise line as an example of a product that offers "new alternatives for our guests."
He said the passengers-to-be are a split between those trying their first cruise because of the Four Seasons brand and those who have cruised before and are looking for a new experience at sea.
While legacy cruise brands can tempt passengers back to sea by bringing familiar favorite restaurants to new ships or expanding their partnerships, newbie hotel-branded cruise lines can look within for their guests' favorites.