4 Puerto Rican Top Chefs Spotlight the Island’s Cuisine on the High Seas

What’s your favorite part of being in Puerto Rico? Yes, we live for its beaches, tropical gorgeousness, live music, and wandering the streets of Old San Juan. But if we had to pick our No. 1 favorite? No contest: Puerto Rico’s food. Its criollo cuisine captures the soul of the island in a way that, for us, informs and shapes how we experience every other aspect of life in this tiny Caribbean archipelago.

What if we could experience the best of Puerto Rico’s food and drink as we make our way to and from the island, too? And which top chefs known for their Boricua cuisine would showcase its one-of-a-kind local ingredients, techniques and sabor at their most inspired and elevated?

That’s what Ronnie Rodriguez and Kathleen Squires, proprietors of New York City’s Chef’s Dinner Table, asked themselves when they were first invited by luxury tall-ships cruise line Sea Cloud to curate a San Juan Guest Chef Series for its January 2025 sailings to the island.

The two Boricua-cuisine experts hand-selected four of their favorite Puerto Rican chefs for the series of high-seas voyages aboard the Sea Cloud Spirit: Wilo Benet (January 4 to 10, sold out); Julie Carrion (January 10 to 17); Francis Guzman (January 17 to 24); and Mario Pagan (January 24 to February 1).

Special Cruising Offer for Familia Kitchen Foodies

Familia Kitchen friends, if you’d like to set sail on any one of the four Sea Cloud itineraries to Puerto Rico, start your planning here. As a special invitation, Familia Kitchen community members are invited to receive a 2-for-1 BOGO special offer when booking any one of the Sea Cloud Spirit sailings featuring one of these four chefs. Book your passage with this special offer by contacting Maritza Moreno and using promo code FAMKIT24. To book: email: [email protected] or call 888-732-2568.           

Meet Sea Cloud Spirit’s San Juan Guest Chef’s Week Co-Curator Ronnie Rodriguez, the Ultimate Puerto Rican Foodie

Ronnie Rodriguez and his business partner: award-winning food journalist, co-proprietor, and wife Kathleen Squires are two of our first Familia Kitchen true believers. They regularly travel between Puerto Rico and New York City, where they live and run Chef’s Dinner Table, a private kitchen and culinary salon. We asked Ronnie about his vision and inspiration for this Puerto Rican high-profile culinary series partnership on the high seas.

Q: What are you most excited about in this new Chef’s Dinner Table at Sea culinary series with Sea Cloud Cruises?

You just can’t help feeling excited when a world-class, top-notch outfit like Sea Cloud taps into the world-class, top-notch culinary talent that Puerto Rico has to offer. Not only am I fiercely proud of the mark Puerto Rican talent is making in the culinary space, but to be asked to build the bridge between the worlds of luxury yachting and luxury dining is an honor and a privilege.

Q: How did you and Kathy select the star chefs you invited to represent the island’s culinary legacy on the cruise? And what is  one dish that stands out to you from each one to whet people’s appetites?

First, let me say that narrowing down the list to just four chefs was an excruciating endeavor given the vast and deep pool of talent available on the island. We landed on chefs whose names you might have seen on Top Chef Masters, The Next Iron Chef or were cited by the James Beard Foundation Awards. Francis Guzman, for example, was nominated for Outstanding Chef in the Nation, representing the first time a P.R. chef has been recognized for this most prestigious award. That came on the heels of Natalia Vallejo [of the Puerto Rican restaurant Cocina al Fondo] having just won Best Chef: South James Beard Foundation Award in 2023.

The first trip which runs from January 4 to 10 features Wilo Benet, widely known as the godfather of elevated Puerto Rican cuisine. My favorite invention of his is his pegao with chipotle mayo.

The next voyage from January 10 to 17 features pasteles from chef Julie Carrion, who spent the early part of her career in New York City, where her experience included Restaurant Daniel. Pasteles are a centuries-old blend of Taino (Puerto Rico’s indigenous people), Spanish and African flavors made with a mash of green bananas and plantains bolstered by sturdy Caribbean root crops like yautia and yuca. Wrapped in a smoky-sweet banana leaf, they’re typically filled with seasoned pork, stained with sunset-hued annatto oil, and boiled up by the dozen. (Check out Julie Carrion’s sofrito here, an essential ingredient in making pasteles. We will be posting her pasteles recipe very soon, stay tuned.)

As for Francis Guzman, whose cruise itinerary runs from January 17 to 24, his palette of dishes is so extensive that it’s just about impossible to identify the one dish that he is known for. At the moment, his acclaimed restaurant, Vianda, is featuring sorullitos de maiz (corn fritters), which is a childhood favorite of mine.

Finally, I am sincerely hoping that on the final voyage, running from January 24 to February 1, The Next Iron Chef Mario Pagan will serve up his famous tuna tartare tostones, which I never miss when I go to his flagship restaurant Mario Pagan.

Q: How would you describe Puerto Rican food, one of the world’s great cuisines?

I am thrilled that the premise of your question builds on the notion that Puerto Rican cuisine is “one of the world’s great cuisines” because it bears directly on why a small nation of just 3.2 million people makes such an impact around the globe — whether it be in terms of music, sports, beauty pageants and countless other fields. My personal theory as to why is the fact that Puerto Ricans are blessed with just the right mix of European, African, and Native American DNA (there’s even an academic study explaining why Puerto Ricans are the most perfect humans!). Similarly, our cuisine benefits from the same diversity. .. with pasteles, the dish that chef Julie Carrion is serving during her week aboard, being the quintessential representation of our unique heritage.

This is part 1 of our series on this delicioso Puerto Rican culinary partnership inviting Boricua chefs to showcase the island’s cuisine on the high seas. In part 2, we will talk to chef Julie Carrion about her approach to her Sea Cloud Spirit menu during her week aboard. She’ll be sharing her legendary recipe for pasteles, in preparation for the interactive pastelada she’ll be leading during her showcase week, January 10 to 17, 2025. In the meantime, you can find chef Julie’s personal sofrito recipe here.

For information or to book your Sea Cloud San Juan Chef Series cruise, visit Chef’s Dinner Table on the High Seas