Celebrity Treatment At Ground and In the Air

Air New Zealand Food Gets Celebrity Treatment At Ground Level As Well As In The Air

Air New Zealand, one of the first airlines to take top chefs into the air, is now delivering this concept on New Zealand soil.

Following the success of the acclaimed chef programme for long-haul flights,

the airline has appointed an award-winning New Zealand chef to overhaul Koru Lounge cuisine in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Joining the airline's quartet of acclaimed inflight chefs - Peter Gordon of The Providores and formerly The Sugar Club in London, Philip Johnson of e'cco in Brisbane, Chef Katsuo 'Suki' Sigiura of the Beverly Hills Hotel, Los Angeles and Tony Adcock of Auckland's Harbourside - is Rex Morgan of newly opened Citron, Wellington.

As New Zealand's Chef of the Nation in 2001 and just voted Des Britten Wellington Chef of the Year 2002-2003 for his work at the acclaimed Bouquet Garni restaurant, Rex's task has been to revolutionise the Koru Lounge food offering.

"The aim was to move away from the select-a-sandwich style and introduce innovative café cuisine with restaurant quality food," he explained.

"We wanted taste to come first. Our aim is to exceed peoples' expectations so eating in the Koru Lounge isn't just a case of refuelling, it's a pleasurable experience."

Huntly-born Rex, who trained at Waikato Polytechnic, spent two and a half years overseas developing his skills in Switzerland, Paris and London before returning home to work at Huka Lodge, Taupo and the Icon restaurant at Te Papa in Wellington. He has just opened his own restaurant, Citron, in Willis Street, Wellington.

Peter Gordon, back in New Zealand briefly, met up especially with Rex to welcome him onboard the Air New Zealand chef team.

"Rex has all those qualities that are best about New Zealand chefs - an obsession with flavour and quality plus the belief that things can, and often should, be done differently," he said.

"It's great to see the attention that we, as international chefs, focus on Air New Zealand's inflight food offshore, being given to the new Koru Lounge offering on the ground in New Zealand."

The new-style Koru Lounge food, created by Rex Morgan, is now being served in the key Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch domestic lounges.

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