Through a partnership with the James Beard Foundation, Hill-Booker will be creating recipes for Windstar’s 2022 cruises, leading on-board cooking demonstrations and interacting with guests. “I guess the fact that I’ve been invited back means I’ve done a good job!” he told Seatrade Cruises at F&B@Sea in Miami, where he participated in the “Culinary Horizons: Land-Based Chefs Take on Cruise Cooking” panel. “I’m really looking forward to it! It’s a top-notch cruise line. I’ve met everyone there, from the president, Chris Prelog, to the people pouring the drinks, and they’re all so lovely and passionate about what they do.”
Baltic Beauty’s itinerary includes Copenhagen, Germany and Poland. “I’m getting ready to create some recipes,” said Hill Booker, who is rejoining the cruise line as a James Beard Award-winning chef. He said participating in F&B@Sea has given him the opportunity to see a variety of vendors, products and ideas for further inspiration.
sustainability
A professional chef, cookbook author, culinary advocate and culinary instructor, she began her career in the cruise industry eight years ago when she was first invited aboard a cruise ship as a guest chef. What excited her most about cruise ship food and beverage was the idea that guests could “visit 10 countries, try 20 different cuisines and meet 100 people in one trip.”
Today, at her Arkansas restaurant, Bauhaus Beer Garden, she orders ingredients from local producers and makes it a priority to reuse and repurpose ingredients to prevent food waste. Growing up, her family ran a farm, where she saw firsthand the effort that goes into growing food. “Sustainability is very important to me. I grew up on a farm.”
On her food waste reduction journey, Hill Booker has traveled across the U.S. as part of the James Beard Foundation’s No Waste Impact fellowship. “I’ve talked to chefs, cooks, restaurateurs, encouraging them to reduce their food waste. It’s not a fun conversation until we start talking about money and you tell them that for every dollar they make, 40 cents goes in the trash. Then they sit up a little bit and start to listen.”
For example, “Let’s say you have a mushroom. I love the cap of a shiitake mushroom, but what about the stem? How do I make it more appealing? We’ve been talking about this for years, [it’s about] We strongly encourage our chefs to create menus that use a lot of locally available ingredients and repurpose food waste.”
A Le Cordon Bleu Paris certified chef, Hill Booker shares her culinary style not only in her restaurants, but also through her culinary company, Your Resident Gourmet, in two cookbooks, Field Peas to Foie Gras: Southern Recipes with a French Accent and Dinner Déjà Vu: Southern Tonight, French Tomorrow, and on her website, ChefJenniferHillBooker.com.
“I love talking about food and teaching people how to cook and create because it’s empowering,” she explained. “If I can teach someone how to feed themselves and their family, that’s a skill and a power that no one can take away from them.”
Next year’s F&B@Sea will take place at Mana Wynwood Convention Center from April 9-10, coinciding with Seatrade Cruise Global 2025 at the Miami Beach Convention Center from April 7-10.
