Kids know there’s more to life than a Big Mac and a malt.

Some cruise lines are getting the message and appealing to the culinary tastes of the Millennium generation.
Holland America Line, for example, launched a kids and teens joys-of-cooking program last year. Utilizing the line’s million-dollar kitchens, reflecting those high-tech sets on cable TV food shows, HAL now teaches youngsters how to whip up delectables for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks in complimentary classes lasting 45 minutes each.

The preparations range from simple to “teen sophisticate,’’ according to the line. For example, 8-year-olds and younger learn to make “Bear Tracks’’ and “Denali Peaks’’ (two Alaska-themed confectionary creations), “Fruit Leather’’ (fruit roll-ups), “Salad People Art,’’ and ice cream sandwiches. Kids 8 and older can try their hand at making soft pretzels, granola bars, saltwater taffy, and pita chips and hummus

Gourmet gusto, though, isn’t limited to tykes and tyros. The line’s adult passengers get the full treatment too. More than 70 top chefs, wine experts and cookbook authors from around the world will sail on HAL ships this year, and classes and demonstrations are offered on every sailing.

HAL’s passengers can sample the culinary creations of such noted and up-and-coming chefs as Susan Goss, owner and chef of the West Town Tavern in Chicago; Pichet Ong, chef at P*ong Restaurant in New York; Bobby Stucky, master sommelier at Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, Colo.; Joel Antunes, chef of Joel Restaurant in Atlanta; and dozens more. (www.hollandamerica.com)

For more than a decade, Crystal Cruises has worshiped at the altar of Dionysus, hosting annual “Wine & Food Festival’’ cruises.

Beginning this summer, the line is offering five such cruises in the Mediterranean and New England. In addition to boasting a boatload of celebrity chefs, Crystal also will offer passengers the chance to participate in 14 enticing culinary excursions. These range from sampling fresh oysters from the famed Stone oyster beds in Dubrovink, Croatia, to wine tasting in the Sicilian countryside.

During the 12-day gustatory voyage in the Med departing July 31, world-renowned Italian chef Gualtiero Marchesi, the first chef in Italy to be awarded three Michelin Stars, will run the cooking demos. Headlining the roster of culinary stars on Crystal’s 12-day wine and food extravaganza leaving Oct. 18: Michelle Bernstein, former James Beard nominee and chef/owner of Michy’s in Miami, and Henri Brosi, executive chef of London’s Dorchester Hotel.

This year, Silversea Cruises hosts a new collection of 14 culinary- and wine-themed cruises. The palate-pleasing sailings will showcase the artistry of award-winning chefs of top dining establishments from around the world, including Relais & Chateaux-Relais Gourmands, the distinguished association of boutique hotels and restaurants, while wine experts from prestigious estates and wineries teach on the Wine Series voyages.

In addition, Silversea will launch the first Bon Appetit Supper Club on the high seas, which on land, according to the line, “has attracted a who’s who of elite from the worlds of entertainment, fashion, food and media.’’

For its passengers, Silversea will transform one of its restaurants into a New York-inspired venue “serving meals available nowhere else in the world,’’ claims the line. On Silver Shadow’s Nov. 18 sailing, renowned California chef and restaurateur Suzanne Tracht will re-create the Bon Appetit Supper Club experience aboard ship. (www.silversea.com)

If you can’t make it aboard any of the culinary voyages, you can still get a taste of the sea and of exquisite cuisine if you’re willing to do the work yourself.

SeaDream Yacht Club has created “Dream Cuisine,’’ a recently published cookbook by its executive chef d’ cuisine, Robert van Rijsbergen. The book presents the culinary skills of the line’s corps of chefs aboard the twin yachts SeaDream I and II.

The cookbook provides descriptive accounts of the line’s menu items and more than 90 recipes. Some of the mouth-watering offerings include gratineed escargot, served with aubergine caviar and mushrooms; terrine of foie gras with fig compote, truffle dressing and brioche; and l’oeuf poule au caviar surprise, an unusual first course with caviar served in an eggshell.

The cookbook is available on the line’s Web site — www.seadream.com — for $30 per copy, plus shipping. That’s a lot less than a cruise!

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