A Culinary Voyage Closes Marriott’s ‘Across the Table’ Aboard Luminara

The Luxury Group by Marriott International has confirmed the third edition of its Luxury Dining Series, themed ‘Across the Table,’ running from August to October 2026 — and, for the first time, it concludes not in a grand hotel dining room but at sea, aboard Luminara, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, from 9 to 18 October.

The series moves across five countries and six host venues, beginning on land and ending on water. The terrestrial chapters unfold at JW Marriott Phu Quoc, The Naka Island Phuket, St. Regis Maldives Vommuli, Mandapa Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Bali and The Ritz-Carlton Kyoto, before the programme transfers to Luminara for its closing passage through the Asia-Pacific. It is a structure that lets a guest sample the series as a single themed journey rather than a one-night event.

The theme itself is unusually considered. ‘Across the Table’ is framed around curiosity, connection and what the company calls the emotional heart of dining — the idea that a shared meal is as much about the people opposite as the plate in front of you. Oriol Montal, Regional Vice President of Luxury for Marriott International Asia Pacific, describes the series as an exploration of ‘how stories unfold, flavors linger, and connections deepen when meals are shared.’ It is a quieter ambition than the usual celebrity-chef circuit, and the better for it.

The centrepiece of the at-sea finale is a Chefs [At The] Table event featuring Chef Katsuhito Inoue and a four-course menu shaped by the philosophy of shichijuni-kou — the traditional Japanese division of the year into seventy-two micro-seasons, a sensibility at the root of Kyoto’s kaiseki tradition. Translating that almost obsessive attentiveness to seasonality onto a moving yacht is the experiment here, and the menu arrives with curated cocktail pairings rather than a conventional wine flight.

Across the wider series, the formats are clearly delineated. Chefs [At The] Table delivers the intimate, chef-led dinners; The Grand Banquet stages larger gatherings at iconic local sites; Heirloom AM/PM menus revisit dishes with personal or regional provenance; Journey To Exceptional Taste runs as a masterclass; and Spirited Social takes the form of bar takeovers. The range allows the programme to read differently at each property — a banquet at one, a tutored session at another — while holding to a single editorial idea.

The beverage programme is produced in collaboration with Moët Hennessy across the participating destinations, which lends a coherence to the pairings from Phu Quoc through to the final nights aboard Luminara — and helps explain the emphasis on cocktails alongside the more expected wines.

The roster of visiting talent is the other reason to take note. The series draws on chefs including Olivier Elzer, Emmanuel Stroobant, Agustin Balbi and Syrco Bakker, with a contribution from Pierre Hermé Paris — names that span French haute cuisine, modern Asian cooking and pâtisserie. For a traveller plotting a route, that breadth means the experience changes meaningfully depending on which property and which date one chooses.

What a discerning guest should know is that this is positioned as an immersive, chef-guided way to discover destinations rather than a static dining ticket. The land legs each carry the character of their setting — an island in the Andaman, an atoll in the Maldives, a riverside reserve in Bali, a machiya-quiet address in Kyoto — and the yacht segment binds them with a coastal itinerary across the Asia-Pacific. Those drawn to the Kyoto philosophy at its source may find the Inoue dinner aboard Luminara the most natural conclusion, marrying the city’s seasonal exactitude to the rare setting of an ultra-luxury yacht. With the dates now confirmed and six venues in play, the practical task is simply deciding how much of the journey to take.

Source: Marriott