Fine-dining chefs used to snare airline deals as brand extenders, now it's cinemas looking to snaffle their skills. With the cinema experience increasingly focused on serving food and wine during screenings, Sean Connolly, a former recipient of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Chef of the Year award, has been quietly plotting a deal with the independent United Cinemas chain.
Connolly, who has restaurant interests in Auckland, Adelaide and Sydney, has been secretly testing his menu in Melbourne's outer suburbs, with United's Warriewood cinema in Sydney next on his hit list.
"Our executive chef is at the Craigieburn cinema trialling the food, potentially we're looking at rolling it out in Sydney next. The cinemas all have different demographics. Warriewood has a restaurant, which might be suited to steak and seafood, or we might use the menu from Melbourne," Connolly tells Good Food.
The Craigieburn line-up includes a fried chicken recipe Connolly researched in Harlem and pizza from its Calabrian pizzaiola. Connolly, who earned his stripes at Sydney fine diner Astral and currently oversees the kitchen at The Morrison on George Street, maintains dining in the dark at cinemas requires a different approach.
"You don't want three course meals. [Or] too much cutlery, you don't want to be clunking around," he says.
The chain has started to install special luxury seats to accommodate the dining – like Gold Class but better.
