Chefs in the Sky: Michael Meredith Gives Air New Zealand Dishes Local Flavor
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APEX Insight: APEX Media caught up with chef Michael Meredith and Master Sommelier Cameron Douglas to get a taste of the local flavor they’re bringing to Air New Zealand’s passengers.
Air New Zealand brought on local chef Michael Meredith in 2016, to join longtime Air NZ consultant chef Peter Gordon. Meredith, whose eponymous Auckland eatery is known for using seasonal, local ingredients, brings a concentrated New Zealand focus to the food served in the airline’s business and premium economy classes
“The biggest thing for us is that we want to highlight New Zealand ingredients as much as possible,” Meredith explained during a recent conversation with APEX Media. “That said, we want to bring in a lot of texture into the food, because when you lose your taste buds at that high altitude – which you do – you need things with texture, things that crunch. So for example, we use a lot of potato, crispy fried potato. We use that on top of our short ribs, to give a nice crunch when you bite into it.”
The Samoa-born New Zealand transplant knows that when it comes to airline meals, care must be taken with every dish. “Ingredients are the most important thing, with origin of ingredients being the key,” he explained. “But with airline food, your thought process is always on balancing flavors. With airline food, that is a bigger step, it’s not natural that you are eating at altitude, so we actually have to add more moisture into the food, trying to create fresh flavors, while at the same time, the way we season the food does change. It has to be adjusted so that it stands up to the altitude change.”
That means ever-changing seasonal onboard menus that include dishes like Harissa lamb shank or salmon dusted with New Zealand lemon kelp, all done in a style Meredith describes as “simple but elegant, that’s the Kiwi way.”
Enhancing New Zealand’s reputation for elegant wine is the second of the airline’s “localvore” initiatives. Enlisting the advice of Cameron Douglas, the only certified Master Sommelier in New Zealand, plus six other oenology experts, Air NZ sought out to determine, according to Douglas, “the best of the best of New Zealand wine, and which ones of those can actually be drunk at 38,000 feet and not be altered.”
With those curated choices, Air NZ launched a new “Fine Wines of New Zealand” initiative this year, offering 60 different options to select passengers. “On any long-haul business-class flight, travelers will find two or three wines from the list available per flight, based on supply, with the wines changing once a month,” said Douglas.
“And we make sure that the food is as good as the wine,” added Michael Meredith, with a grin.