Qantas Celebrates 20 Years With The Rockpool Group

by Zac George
a glass with fruit and ice cream on a plate

How impressive is this for an airline relationship – Qantas and the Rockpool group are celebrating 20 years working beside each other. This is apparently one of the longest partnerships in the industry at this time, pretty impressive!

Qantas work very closely with Neil Perry to create food for flights and food in the lounges. If you have ever been into one of the First or Chairman’s lounges, I’m sure you’d recognise these two dishes, these are two of the most famous dishes:

The very very well known and popular Salt and Pepper Squid

a plate of fried food

Salt and Pepper Squid

And the equally impressive Pavlova.

Neil Perry also said there are a number of other items on the menu’s that are just too popular to take away from the menu, these include – the chicken schnitzel sandwich, chicken club sandwich, zucchini soup, and lastly garam masala fish with noodles.

Fun fact – The steak sandwich found in the First lounges has been on the menu for 20 years!

a glass with fruit and ice cream on a plate

Iconic First Lounge Pavlova

2017 is set to be a big year for both the Rockpool group and Qantas. They are working together to improve the dining experience for the 787 which will become part of the fleet this year.

As it’s also Autumn now in Australia, Qantas have a new menu for their lounges and onboard, I’ll hopefully get hold of the new menu’s and will post them on here.

The airline is also re-introducing some classic meals that were very popular for the Rockpool group and the airline, they will be:

• Stir fried crab omelette with oyster sauce
• Korean style yellowfin tuna tartare with sesame dressing
• Lobster with XO sauce, lo mein noodles, bok choy and sesame seeds
• Grilled salmon with chilli, garlic, cherry tomatoes and squid ink noodles
• Chermoula lamb rack with vegetable tagine, couscous, harissa and coriander yoghurt
• Rockpool Bar & Grill style beef fillet with “mac and cheese” and green beans
• Spice Temple inspired caramel, chocolate and sesame ice cream sandwiches

Congratulations to both Qantas and Neil Perry for this impressive achievement!

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7 comments

Dragonfly March 3, 2017 - 6:57 pm

I was dining at QF first class lounge in LAX in October last year. The salt and pepper squid was terribly salty and too oily! I recalled it was much nicer at QF first class lounge in SYD years ago – light batter and not salty.

Susan March 4, 2017 - 4:42 am

I tried the Salt & Pepper squid for the first time in the QF first class lounge in LAX in September. It was as good as everyone raved about.

I’m looking forward to re-visiting that lounge, and also the Sydney lounge for the first time in July this year. I’m just sad that my visit to the Sydney lounge will be earlier in the morning, so I won’t get to try their famous pavlova.

Crew Walks Off an American Airlines Flight and Former President of Trump Shuttle Speaks - View from the Wing March 6, 2017 - 1:06 am

[…] Qantas is celebrating 20 years of collaboration with Neil Perry’s Rockpool Group, they have fantastic first class lounge food I just wish they did a better job with it in the air. […]

serfty March 6, 2017 - 5:46 am

These First lounges in Melbourne and Sydney have only been open since 2007.

The was no steak sandwich let alone an al a cart service in the decades before that.

Autumn 2017 “all day”* Menu can be found here:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/showthread.php?p=292

*Note that “all day” really means after midday, there is a lesser “breakfast” menu before then.

Zac George March 6, 2017 - 5:55 am

Interesting, thank you for your comment. I was going off what I was provided in the press release. Thanks for reading.

serfty March 6, 2017 - 8:20 am

The old Melbourne and Sydney First lounge(s) were pretty mediocre before the current ones opened in 2007

It is twenty years with Neil Perry. To differentiate between in flight First dining and First Lounge dining with a possible implication of the latter being of 20 years as well I thought it important to clarify.

I have been really fortunate to have had regular access to these 10 year old lounges since they opened. 🙂

Paolo March 6, 2017 - 10:38 pm

The squid is okay, quite tasty. The food in the domestic business lounges is scandalously bad. From very average soup to the less than inspiring pasta or stir fry, all overly sweet. It’s bizarre to see a vast number of people lining up to make a toasted sandwich with cheap and nasty ingredients when for $10 they could get something 10 times better downstairs in the food outlets. Maybe it’s the lure of the free alcohol. There is not one thing in those lounges that I would want to eat. At least in International F a few of the dishes are well-made and tasty , even though I prefer the emirates J lounge model.

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