Forget the era of the endless cruise buffet. High-seas dining has arrived, with quality to rival the finest tables on land. Nowhere is this culinary evolution more evident than Celebrity Xcel’s Le Voyage by Daniel Boulud, the first cruise ship restaurant to earn a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star award.
A new study from the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science found that dining is the single strongest predictor of overall cruise satisfaction — more than any other onboard feature. The Five-Star debut of Le Voyage on Celebrity Xcel, which had its inaugural sail in November, is a response to a new era where the plate is as important as the port.
Inside the First Five-Star Kitchen at Sea
On the 4,000-passenger Xcel, only 50 guests each day can dine at Le Voyage, an intimate spot with soft tones, banquettes and a double entryway for added privacy. For Boulud’s first restaurant at sea (Le Voyage is also in Celebrity’s Ascent and Beyond), the chef took inspiration from the ship’s destinations, applying French techniques to dishes from all over the world.
Everything is made on board from scratch daily — the chefs butcher their own meat and fish, bake all the bread and pastries, and craft the petit fours and desserts using ingredients sourced at each port — to immerse guests in the regions they’re visiting. The results show on the globe-spanning à la carte menu with selections like duck pithivier with Chinese five spice and bok choy or Moroccan lamb shank with butternut squash, green olive, couscous and tagine.
The five-course tasting menu is where Boulud’s talents are on full display. It features dishes like steak au poivre (coated with black peppercorn and doused with a creamy sauce) and cabillaud Basquaise (paprika-crusted baked cod). A plant-based tasting menu comes with dishes like Thai curry, risotto aux morilles (with morels) and truffled potato mille-feuille.
The most exclusive seat is the chef’s table at Le Voyage. Available up to four times each sailing — depending on the voyage’s length — your experience begins with a champagne reception and a galley tour to meet the onboard chef followed by a five-course tasting menu at a communal table with other gourmands. Diners go home with the evening’s printed menu, a photograph of the experience and a Boulud cookbook.
Don’t skip the more than 500-bottle wine menu — Celebrity has Wine Spectator’s most awarded wine program at sea.
“Our goal has been to bring the same level of excellence to our restaurants at sea as we have in our locations in New York City and around the world,” says Boulud, known for his flagship Upper East Side restaurant Daniel, a 16-year Five-Star winner.
Boulud says designing a menu for a ship starts the same way it does on land. The difference is everything that comes after: ingredients have to be sourced globally as the vessel moves from port to port, galleys are smaller than restaurant kitchens and crew rotates regularly.
“Everything from the ingredient delivery and preparation to the timing of the service must be calculated carefully — so delivering fine dining at sea requires discipline and a strong sense of excellence to succeed,” says Laura Hodges Bethge, president of Celebrity Cruises. “The ship’s itinerary and daily schedule also have an impact.”
Famous Chefs Head to Sea
The competition for marquee chefs is fierce. French master Alain Ducasse sails with Ponant, Italian chef Fabio Trabocchi with The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s Ilma, Nobu Matsuhisa of Nobu fame with Crystal, Aussie celebrity chef Curtis Stone with Princess and revered French icon Jacques Pépin with Oceania. Disney enlisted chef Scott Hunnel of Five-Star Victoria & Albert’s and French chef Arnaud Lallement for its Ratatouille-inspired Remy. And the Orient Express Corinthian will debut a restaurant with French chef Yannick Alléno when it launches later this year.
The strategy has data behind it: the aforementioned study found that premium and luxury lines — especially those partnered with acclaimed chefs — consistently scored significantly higher dining satisfaction ratings than their mainstream counterparts.
Celebrity pioneered bringing celebrity chefs onboard in the 1990s with Michel Roux, who led the renowned Le Gavroche restaurant in London. And it started partnering with Boulud in 2019. But it wasn’t just for his cooking — the cruise line was looking for someone who specialized in hospitality.
“Delivering consistent, elevated hospitality is our North Star,” Hodges Bethge says. “Hospitality is over five times more important to Celebrity guests than anything else.”
What Celebrity Guests Asked For — and Got
While endless buffets are most synonymous with cruising, today’s ships are doing far more than asking you to grab a plate and get in line. Celebrity outfits its vessels with up to 32 restaurants and bars to cater to all tastes. The launch of Celebrity Edge in 2018 changed the model: instead of one large main dining room, guests could choose between four distinct main dining options — Cosmopolitan, new American with global influences; Normandie, contemporary French fare; Cyprus, seafood-focused Greek cuisine; and Tuscan, Southern Italian plates — each with an à la carte menu.
Other experiments followed: Eden, the first open kitchen at sea, and Le Petit Chef, where 3D animations play across the table between courses. Most dramatic is Dinner on The Edge — guests eat 13 stories above the ocean on the ship’s cantilevered Magic Carpet platform. Hodges Bethge says guest feedback prompted the debut of Xcel’s rooftop Bora, the line’s first brunch restaurant, complete with an extensive bloody mary bar.
She says that guests crave authentic dishes that reflect the regions they are visiting. “They want their meals to be a delicious extension of their vacation experience,” she says. “A taste of the destination to blend the ship and shore experience.”
It was the impetus for Xcel’s The Bazaar, a three-story venue where the music, food and atmosphere change daily to match the ship’s location. During the inaugural Caribbean season, its restaurants Mosaic and Spice served Caribbean-influenced menus; when the ship repositions to Europe in April, the flavors shift to the Mediterranean.
“For years we have rotated menus based on destinations in our casual dining areas, but this takes the concept to a new scale,” Hodges Bethge says.
The cruise line also is seeing the open bar changing with the growing demand for non-alcoholic options. “This isn’t just for younger cruisers — people of all ages are becoming more health-conscious, and we’re always striving to provide them fresh choices,” she says. Celebrity’s response: mocktail menus built with the same techniques as the cocktails — fat washing, clarifying and smoking ingredients.
While Boulud is keeping busy with on-land openings — Terrace Boulud Hong Kong and Brasserie Boulud in New York in the spring, and Café Boulud London in the fall — he says with the growth of his restaurants at sea, “we are increasingly becoming a global business, and plan to continue in that direction.”
“Each new ship is a chance to create fresh and exciting experiences for guests,” he says. “Cruise diners have high expectations for our restaurants, and we do everything possible to elevate their culinary experience.”
Last week, we revealed our 2026 Forbes Travel Guide Star Awards. Click here to see the list of winners.
