RFT former Editor, Bobbie Hasselbring (center) teams up with Christie Morrison of Cook’s Country and America Test Kitchen Host Erin Montgomery to whip up some terrific pasta.

It’s well known that you’ll eat well–if perhaps too much–on many of the world’s cruise lines. However, Holland America Line, a company that features beautifully appointed mid-sized ships and gracious service, puts a strong emphasis on their culinary program. Their innovative partnership with America’s Test Kitchen (ATK), the recipe testing, magazine/book publishing public television icon, has ensured the company takes center stage with foodies who love to cruise. Former RFT Editors, Bobbie Hasselbring and Anne Weaver traveled on Holland America’s Zuiderdam on their 10-day Panama cruise that featured not only one of America Test Kitchen’s host-chefs, but also two of ATK’s stars from their popular television shows for hands-on classes, fun trivia contests and informative lectures and cooking demonstrations.

Even without America’s Test Kitchen, Holland’s Panama cruise itinerary is filled with plenty to do both on and off the ship. At the many ports of call, we enjoyed activities like monkey-viewing, cruising through the Panama Canal on a small ship, visiting jungle animal rehab centers, and enjoying sun and fun and beach barbecues on Holland’s sugar-sand private island. On-board was equally busy. Guests could indulge in spa treatments, fitness classes, high tea, casino gaming, art auctions, feature movies, computer/digital device workshops, and much more. But, for us, it was the cooking classes with America’s Test Kitchen staff that really put this cruise over-the-top for us.

Dan Souza, Cook’s Illustrated Editor-in-chief and food science expert share tips at the ATK Q&A.

Many Holland America cruises feature chef/hosts trained at America’s Test Kitchen and, on special cruises like the one we took, stars from America’s Test Kitchen come aboard to provide even more food-oriented programming. For those unfamiliar with the 25-year-old America’s Test Kitchen company, ATK has earned a stellar reputation for operating a kitchen where nearly 50 highly-trained test cooks test and re-test (sometimes 50-60 times) recipes to develop no-fail instructions for home cooks on everything from pot roast to homemade pasta. They also rigorously test kitchen tools and equipment to recommend the best for home use. And they do all this without any advertising or assistance from companies producing what they test. They steadfastly refuse to accept samples from companies and they use not only their own professional cooks to exhaustively test recipes, they have a cadre of home cooks who test recipes and provide even more feedback. From all of their careful work, they produce two magazines, Cooks Illustrated and Cook’s Country; two public television shows, “America’s Test Kitchen” and “Cook’s Country;” dozens of cookbooks; and an online cooking school.

It’s ATK’s depth of culinary knowledge and stellar reputation that motivated Holland America to partner with the company to bring cruise guests informative programming. And Holland’s ATK classes really are informative. Both Anne Weaver and I are experienced cooks and we’ve been writing about and photographing food for more than 15 years, yet both of us learned a great deal from the on-board cooking classes. For us, our Holland-America’s Test Kitchen experiences really were the highlight of our cruise.

Throughout the cruise, ATK Host Erin Montgomery led guests through cooking demonstrations.

Chef Erin Montgomery was our ATK chef/host. Erin is an experienced chef who’s worked in a number of restaurants, catering companies and has operated her own cooking school. She was excited when she heard about the opportunity to teach cooking classes on-board Holland America ships. After being hired, she traveled to Boston and spent time learning from America’s Test Kitchen pros, including Christie Morrison, the ATK-Holland program coordinator and on-air talent on the “Cook’s Country” television show.

“I love continuing to learn,” said Chef/Host Erin about her job with Holland America where she conducts cooking demonstrations and hands-on classes. “Teaching our guests on-board is so fun.”

“Our relationship with Holland America,” Christie told us, “enables us to expand how we share what we do at America’s Test Kitchen. It puts us in front of live audiences and helps us translate what we do into everyday language.”

Both Christie Morrison and Dan Sousa, who is the editor-in-chief of Cook’s Illustrated magazine, joined Chef/Host Erin on our Panama cruise. Most of the classes took place in the intimate “B.B. King Lounge” where there are comfortable chairs and tables and a well-lighted stage they transform into a demo kitchen.

Cook’s Country Christie Morrison shares tips and laughter at the on-board America’s Test Kitchen sessions on Holland America’s cruise to Panama.

Dan and Christie launched the program with a Q&A session where guests could ask the stars questions about the test kitchen process, the television shows, the magazines, and more. Both hosts proved themselves to be fun, comfortable and informative in front of the filled-to-capacity live audience. They shared insider insights like the fact that the crew films 26 episodes of “American’s Test Kitchen” in a dizzying three weeks; they grill-test year round, even in the snow; they never take product donations or advertising, but when they find a winner like All Clad cookware, they stock their kitchens with it; the company gives away their television shows to public broadcasting and relies on subscriptions, book sales and sponsorships with companies like Holland America for income; and that, sometimes, giggle fests take over filming like the time show co-hosts Bridget and Julia couldn’t contain their laughter as they stuffed their faces with sticky buns.

Cook’s Illustrated editor-in-chief, Dan Souza, and ATK chef Erin Montgomery kept cooking demonstrations fun and informative.

Host Erin and Dan Sousa came together for the “Italian Favorites” demo session. Erin did the actual cooking, while Dan filled in on the science behind what they were doing. And their back-and-forth banter, especially Dan’s dry, quick wit, proved lively and entertaining. After Dan explained a scientific concept, he deadpanned, “Isn’t that the nerdy-est thing you’ve ever heard about cooking?”

ATK tries to teach guests not only no-fail recipes (recipe cards provided), but cooking principles. Dan explained, “Instead of giving someone a fish, we’re teaching people to fish.” For instance, adding chunks of cold butter to a sauce enables you to thoroughly mix in the butter and creates a silkier sauce. Both Anne and I were amazed at how much we learned.

On another day, in the Main Stage Theater, Dan conducted a class on “The Science of Cocktails” that included both wine and chocolate

The Science of Cocktails and hands-on experience for a volunteer on Holland America.

samples. One of the mistakes, he told us, is that people pair dark chocolate with red wine. When we sampled the wine and chocolate together, we understood what he was saying. The chocolate made the wine taste sour. Then he had us taste chocolate with a ruby port and the result was amazing—the port’s flavors were brightened and enhanced by the chocolate  and vice-versa.

Dan also invited a few lucky guests on stage to try cocktails made in different ways such as shaking versus pouring over ice. Being a science guy, he explained exactly what happens, for instance, when you shake certain ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice or when you add egg white to a drink. He also talked about different types of glassware. Did you know that champagne tastes more bubbly in a tall flute? And he gave the audience tips on how and when to open red wines to allow them to “breathe.”

Christie and Erin demonstrated how to successfully make succulent Chinese dumplings (shu mai).

Christie and Erin presented a fascinating class on making Asian dumplings and one on cooking salmon. Both included recipes I can’t wait to try.

A real highlight for Anne and I was the hands-on pasta making class. They often hold these small (eight students) activity classes one or two times per cruise depending on the length of the trip. Erin demonstrated an easy way to mix up pasta dough in a food processor and then roll the dough into thin, nearly see-through sheets with a pasta roller.

It took Anne and me a little practice to master the rolling technique, but we produced a half-dozen long sheets of pasta that we cut into rounds to make ravioli. We filled the ravioli with an easy-peasy onion-mushroom filling and popped them into salted, boiling water. Then we tossed them into a delicious butter, garlic, olive oil sauce and ate them. Delicious!

The price of the pasta class included bright red America’s Test Kitchen aprons ($30 value) and I can’t wait to don my apron and make ravioli at home.

ATK chef Erin taught cruise goers how to make a simple and delectable Chocolate Pot de Creme; a perfect sweet ending for our cruise.

Between classes, they held three fun—and challenging—trivia contests. These events packed the room with experienced foodies eager to compete for bragging rights and first-place prizes. Some of the teams had as many as six contestants. Anne and I made up our own RFT team of two. Being experienced cooks and food writers, we felt pretty confident about our chances, but we were surprised at how difficult and technical many of the questions were. Our team came in second or third twice, but we came in first once and re-claimed not only our dignity, but also two handsome Holland America Panama pins that we proudly displayed on our hats throughout the rest of the trip. – Bobbie Hasselbring, former RFT Editor; photos by Anne Weaver, former RFT Editor

Hungry for more? Read this foodie lover’s guide to a Holland America Cruise.