Hawaiian Airlines’ Executive Chef Lee Anne Wong with a sizeable tuna steak
The Hawaiian Airlines’ team hosted a fun promotion in Sydney on Thursday 6 December inviting guests, including key travel industry partners, to meet Hawaiian Airlines’ Executive Chef, Lee Anne Wong, and learn to make Poke.
The purpose of the event was to highlight Hawaiian Airlines’ food and wine focus, celebrating the new menus coming to Economy and Business Class on Sydney–Honolulu, Brisbane–Honolulu and Auckland–Honolulu services in the first quarter of 2019.
HA’s Sydney travel partners became kitchen hands for the morning, learning a little more about Hawaiian Airlines, as well as tips from Wong in a hands-on cooking class, which they then enjoyed for lunch.
Chef Lee Anne Wong is also the owner/head chef of island-style brunch house, Koko Head Café, in Honolulu. While the day very much focused on Hawaiian fusion cuisine, Wong commenced her career in the world of fine cuisine in New York City. After graduating from The French Culinary Institute in New York, she dove into that city’s world of fusion cuisine working at a number of remarkable restaurants, including Marcus Samuelsson’s Aquavit and Jean Georges Vongrichten’s Chinese venture, Restaurant 66.
Participants at work under the direction of Chef Lee Anne Wong
The freshly prepared Poke banquet
She founded Koko Head in 2013 and was invited to join the ‘Hawaiian Airlines Featured Chef Series’ in 2015. In 2018 she was appointed Executive Chef to create regional and global fusion cuisine menus for Hawaiian Airlines.
Hawaiian’s ‘Featured Chef Series’ is a collaboration designed to showcase the next wave of culinary talent emerging in Hawaii’s vibrant food culture. Celebrated guest chefs prepare the menus for selected routes for several months at a time.
The airline’s featured chef series now includes: Hawaii’s Mark Noguchi, Co-founder/Chef of Pili Group based in Honolulu; Eric Oto, Chef de cuisine at Hoku’s at The Kahala Hotel; Wade Ueoka, Co-owner/Chef of MW Restaurant; and Chang-Wook Chung, Owner/Chef of Kumsan Noodle Factory in Seoul, Korea.
Lead image: Sarah Arane, Travelzoo; Lauren Whicker, Brand USA; Andrew Hallinan, TravelManagers; Belinda Murphy, Helloworld; Bec Cushing, Flight Centre; Gillian Hayward, Ross Saito and Bart Druitt, Hawaiian Airlines; DonnaGrant, Travel Associates; Thea Mendes, Destination Marketing; Front Row: Jess Luxton, GTI Tourism; Joyce Weir, Hawaiian Airlines; Chef Lee Anne Wong, Hawaiian Airlines; Angela French, CCM Travel; Charis Ricafuente, Hawaiian Tourism Oceania; Viviana Hales, TravelManagers and Kris Phadungleialipong, Hawaiian Tourism Oceania.
