Food-led cruising is having a moment, and Atlas Ocean Voyages just upped the ante for 2027. The expedition line has added two big names to its Epicurean Expeditions roster: Crista Luedtke, a chef, restaurateur and Food Network champion, and Anthony Giglio, contributing editor at Food & Wine, who joins as a guest wine expert. They'll sail alongside returning chefs including Massimo Capra, Bobby Marcotte, Ippy Aiona, Martin Gimenez Castro, pastry chef Anna Wilamowska and Julieta Davey.

The concept is simple enough: pick your voyage by appetite. Each sailing pairs a chef or wine expert with a route built around what the region actually eats and drinks, aboard Atlas's small ships World Traveller, World Navigator and World Voyager.

Luedtke makes her Atlas debut on an eight-night run from Las Palmas to Málaga on 15 April 2027, tracing culinary influences across the Canary Islands, Morocco and southern Spain. Giglio joins a nine-night Livorno to Dubrovnik sailing on 20 August 2027, a proper Mediterranean wine crawl taking in Tuscany, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily's volcanic soils and Montenegro's up-and-coming wine scene.

The returning names bring plenty of options. Massimo Capra has three sailings, including a Canary Islands and Madeira trip in April and an eight-night Monte Carlo to Lisbon voyage in October covering the French Riviera, Spain, Morocco and Portugal. Bobby Marcotte heads from Seville to Casablanca in April for tapas, tagines and Moorish food history. Ippy Aiona does back-to-back April and May sailings from Málaga to Nice and Nice to Naples. Martin Gimenez Castro covers Lisbon to Bordeaux — think Galician shellfish and Basque pintxos — plus an 11-night Athens roundtrip through the Greek Islands and Turkish coast. Pastry fans get Anna Wilamowska on three departures, from Spanish-Moroccan confectionery to Mediterranean sweets and a chocolate-and-wine theme on the August Adriatic sailing, while Julieta Davey leads a seven-night Naples to Valletta trip dedicated to Sicily's pastries and chocolate.

Who is this for? Travellers who want more than a buffet and a port stop. The ships are small expedition vessels, so you're trading mega-ship entertainment for intimate access to chefs, tastings and destination-focused programming. If you've ever planned an entire trip around a meal, these sailings are aimed squarely at you.

Booking-wise, dates run from April through October 2027, with most voyages between seven and 11 nights and a heavy focus on the Mediterranean, Iberia and the Canaries. The most distinctive sailings — the wine-focused Adriatic route with Giglio, the Morocco-heavy Seville to Casablanca trip, and the dessert-themed Naples to Valletta run — are the ones likely to fill first with food-motivated cruisers.

Story credit: Cruise Industry News