Virgin Australia - Australia's Biggest Foodie

EasyJet - #Microadventures with Alastair Humphrey

Airlines have been teaming up with celebrity chefs and world class restauranteurs to bring culinary delights to their passengers for years, but Virgin Australia has taken the celebrity chef partnership to new heights with their recent search for Australia’s Biggest Foodie.

Together with popular resident chef and award-winning Australian restauranteur Luke Mangan , Virgin Australia went on a quest to discover the country’s finest artisan food producers, food bloggers and social media whizzes. Now, from a shortlist of top foodie talent, Mangan and Virgin Australia will together select a “CEO” (Culinary Experience Officer) who will land the role of a lifetime. The contest winner will join Mangan on luxurious Eastern & Oriental Express rail journeys, develop content and report on Mangan’s portfolio, take a Hamilton Island P&O cruise, dine in Mangan’s restaurants in Asia and the Maldives, and of course experience Virgin Australia Business class. Winning contestants will also have their artisan food products showcased on Virgin Australia’s Business Class menu for an entire season. With airline and celebrity chef partnerships of this type only gaining in popularity with passengers and foodies sharing their culinary adventures like never before on dedicated social media hubs like FoodNiche and Food Gawker expect to see many more cheeky, social media-fueled contests of this sort moving forward.

Already generating massive buzz online, Virgin Australia’s innovative partnership with Mangan has been written up on ETB Travel News Australia , TimeOut Sydney , Yahoo7 Travel and Lifestyle Food Australia . The contest kickedoff with a short video featuring Mangan himself, and it was viewed nearly 2.2K times on the Virgin Australia Facebook page.