From Phu Quoc to Kyoto — and finally, to sea — the Luxury Group by Marriott International’s annual Luxury Dining Series makes a compelling case for eating your way across a continent.
There is a particular kind of dinner that stays with you. Not because of what was served, but because of what happened around the table — the chef who pulled up a chair, the forager who led you into the jungle that morning, the sommelier who opened something extraordinary as the sun met the horizon. The Luxury Dining Series 2026 exists for moments like these.
Now in its third edition, the Luxury Dining Series 2026 runs under the theme ‘Across the Table’ from August to October, touching six destinations across Asia before concluding at sea. Produced by Luxury Group by Marriott International — whose portfolio spans The Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, and JW Marriott across more than 560 properties worldwide — it runs in partnership with Moët Hennessy throughout. At each stop, the experiences exist specifically for the series: unavailable before the dates begin, unreachable through a standard reservation.
“Our hope is that discerning travellers will be inspired to discover somewhere new, and in doing so, rediscover the art of gathering,” says Oriol Montal, Regional Vice President of Luxury, Marriott International Asia Pacific.
The Experiences That Define the Luxury Dining Series 2026
Each destination in the Luxury Dining Series 2026 comes alive through seven distinct dining experiences:
- Chefs [At The] Table — Intimate dinners where chefs sit among guests and talk through the menu.
- The Grand Banquet — Multi-chef tasting dinners at landmark outdoor venues, anchored in local heritage.
- Heirloom AM/PM — Morning and evening menus built around a single heirloom ingredient or traditional technique.
- The Shared Memory Menu — Cocktail pairings that connect mixology to memory and place.
- Spirited Social — Bar takeovers by visiting bartenders.
- Journey to Exceptional Taste — Foraging walks, cultural masterclasses, and immersive exchanges ending in a private meal.
- Page to Plate — A curated recipe collection from participating chefs.
At most destinations, guests move across several of these over two to five days — less a dining event than a way of reading a place through its food.
Which Destinations Are Part of the Luxury Dining Series 2026?
Vietnam — JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay Resort & Spa (5–9 August)
Phu Quoc carries its culinary history quietly — in fish sauce aged in wooden barrels, in seafood pulled from the South China Sea each morning, in home recipes passed between generations without ever being written down. The Luxury Dining Series 2026 begins here.
Pink Pearl is the centrepiece: an eight-course menu by Chef Olivier Elzer and Chef Summer Le moving between French classical technique and Vietnamese culinary tradition, built on seasonal produce and precise instinct. The Grand Banquet, Vietnam in Celebration, brings in Chef Cuong Nguyen alongside a drinks programme by Marco Dongi. A Vietnamese Heritage Dinner with Madam Anh Tuyet and Chef Nguyen Hai Hung goes further back — a homage to home cooking that rarely appears on any menu, because it was never designed to.
The Bittersweet Chocolate Masterclass rounds out the week with an introduction to Phu Quoc’s emerging cacao culture: a side of the island most food itineraries never reach.
Thailand — The Naka Island, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Phuket (12–15 August)
Chef Bo Songvisava arrives on Naka Yai with three other chefs in tow, and the energy shifts accordingly. The Phuket leg is the most collaborative of the series — five chefs, multiple kitchens, four days on a private island off the Phuket coast.
The eight-hands culinary journey at restaurant Aiyara is led by Songvisava alongside Chefs Laongdao “Aong” Tohkhot and Ratchanee “Kob” Nu-On, with cocktail pairings by Jane Kaew-Yod. It is the event most anticipated by those who follow Thai contemporary cooking. The Grand Banquet at The Beach Lawn takes a different direction — Chefs Agustin Balbi, Arnaud Sauthier, Joseph Talbot, and Pastry Chef Sylvain Constans present a tasting dinner against the Andaman coastline, four distinct sensibilities working in concert.
The Journey to Exceptional Taste programme here is the most varied in the series. A craft spirits lunch pairs Southern Thai produce with The Distillery Phuket. An artisan gin blending session with Kilo Spirits produces something guests take home. A natural dye textile workshop with Bang Wan Phatthana Women Farmers Community Enterprise connects the table to the land in ways that don’t arrive on a plate. Sunset at Zbar, meanwhile, brings Bangkok’s celebrated Bar Us to the shores of Naka Yai.
Maldives — The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort (26–30 August)
The Indian Ocean on every side, the horizon uninterrupted. The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort sets the tone for a programme that is precise, unhurried, and focused.
Chef Emmanuel Stroobant and Chef Ahmet lead An Atelier: a four-hands cooking session conceived as a shared act of making rather than a formal service. The ALBA Dining Experience with Chef Stroobant moves into contemporary Mediterranean; a curated omakase lunch at T.Pan with Chef Takato Kitano offers a more concentrated pleasure. Wine at Sunset with Master Sommeliers Thomas Ling and Kuday is a guided tasting on terroir and provenance, held beside the sea. The one-night-only Sunset at The Whale Bar with Brian Gonzalez draws on island botanicals and the particular character of tropical evenings here.
Indonesia — Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, Bali (9–11 September)
Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, sits in a river valley above Ubud, flanked by jungle and the Ayung River — one of the most distinctive settings in the Luxury Group’s portfolio. The series uses it fully.
Two Chefs, One Story of Indonesian Heritage — the Grand Banquet — pairs Chef Syrco Bakker with Chef Bayu Timur for a multi-course menu tracing the arc of Indonesian gastronomy, set to live cultural performance. A Four-Hands Dialogue of Land and Fermentation with Chef Eka Sunarya and Chef Lee Daejin places Bali’s native ingredients in conversation with international culinary perspective, the fermentation focus producing something neither chef would arrive at independently.
Forage, Feast & Unwind covers the most ground: a guided jungle foraging walk along the Ayung River, a locally sourced lunch with Chefs Sunarya and Adi San, a 90-minute treatment at Mandapa Spa, and dinner at Kubu — all within one day.
Japan — The Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto (23–26 September)
Kyoto’s culinary philosophy is built on restraint — on washoku, the seasonal cooking attuned to the rhythms of the Japanese year. The series programmes accordingly.
Chefs Ryo Okamoto and Shuichi Yamashita lead The Flow of Kaiseki: a multi-course narrative rooted in traditional hospitality and the quality of Kyoto in late September. Chef Tomohiro Goda’s Preserving Perfection Edomae-style is an intimate omakase counter focused on Edo-period technique and the provenance of each piece of fish. Kyoto’s Seasons at Mizuki is more fluid — a walk-around tasting with Chefs Yamashita, Takuji Fujisawa, and Ryuta Iizuka, each course a translation of the landscape into flavour.
An Afternoon with PIERRE HERMÉ PARIS brings the pâtissier’s seasonal pastry work into a Kyoto afternoon tea setting. The cocktail programme, A Celebration of Japanese Craftsmanship, is a monozukuri masterclass with bartenders Yosuke Asano, Yasuhiro Kawakubo, and Hajime Oshima — Kyoto’s understated elegance alongside the energy of Tokyo’s cocktail scene.
At Sea — Luminara, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection (9–18 October)
Open only to guests booked on the Japan voyage, the programme aboard Luminara is not an extension of the series. It is ten days on the water, with a culinary team assembled specifically for the crossing.
Chef Katsuhito Inoue presents A Kyoto Culinary Journey: a four-course menu shaped by shichijuni-kou, the 72 micro-seasons of the Japanese calendar, with curated cocktail pairings throughout. Chef Kenji Yamanaka contributes a seasonal Kyushu menu guided by his home region’s rhythms. Kentaro Wada’s cocktails — precise, seasonal, understated — complete the bar programme. The Pastry Edit with Richard Long runs across multiple sessions during the voyage, including a live demonstration, making it one of the few recurring programmes in the series rather than a single sitting.
Is the Luxury Dining Series 2026 Worth Travelling For?
Three things set it apart from the broader field of hotel dining events. First, every Grand Banquet, chef atelier, and bar takeover is created exclusively for the series — none of it exists within these hotels’ regular programmes, and none can be reserved before or after the dates. Second, the chef roster is genuinely rare: Michelin-recognised names, leading Southeast Asian culinary voices, and international specialists — Chef Bo Songvisava in Phuket, Chef Emmanuel Stroobant in the Maldives, PIERRE HERMÉ PARIS in Kyoto — rarely converging across these destinations in the same season. Third, Marriott Bonvoy members can bid for select dining experiences using Marriott Bonvoy Moments points, making this one of the more considered uses of loyalty currency available. Hotel stay packages cover all land destinations; Luminara is exclusive to Japan voyage bookings.
For travellers who plan trips around the table, the 2026 calendar just got more interesting.
How to Reserve Your Place
The Luxury Dining Series ‘Across the Table’ runs August to October 2026 across Vietnam, Thailand, the Maldives, Bali, Kyoto, and at sea. Spots are limited and select experiences fill before the programme opens.