Press Release

Gate Gourmet's Paul Mok Wins IFSA Chef's Competition

Zurich, June 14, 2007 -- Gate Gourmet Chef Paul Mok, based in Sydney, Australia, took first place in the cooking competition organized by the International Flight Services Association (IFSA) at its recent conference in Thailand. This is the third time for a Gate Gourmet chef to take top honors in the contest since its introduction in 2005.

Chef Mok competed against three other finalist chefs from the airline catering industry. According to IFSA specifications, all recipes submitted had to be for an entrée dish, include regional ingredients and be suitable and affordable for either Business Class or Economy Class. All chefs had to present and explain their dishes to the IFSA conference delegates and the panel of judges.

Chef Mok's award-winning entrée was a true-blue Australian dish of Crystal Bay Prawns rubbed with Bush Tomato and served on a Queensland Blue Pumpkin Confit, accompanied with Tasmanian Salmon and Wild Lime Sauce. "Australian seafood is one of the best in the world! Because of its great quality it needs only a minimal amount of seasoning and the native Australian spices enhance its distinctive, fresh flavors," said Chef Mok when asked for his motivation to enter the recipe in the competition, held in conjunction with IFSA's "Global Leadership Conference Asia-Pacific" in Phuket, Thailand, on June 7.

"On behalf of the International Flight Services Association, I am pleased to congratulate Chef Mok and Gate Gourmet on taking the top honor in our second annual Asia-Pacific chef's competition," said IFSA President Sandra Pineau. "The ‘Australian Seafood with native herbs and wild lime sauce' entrée was very impressive and enthusiastically and professionally prepared by Chef Mok," she said.

Mark Wall, President of Gate Gourmet's Asia-Pacific / Middle East region said he was delighted to see such overwhelming evidence of culinary expertise in his region. "Our internal preliminary selection process for the participation in the IFSA competition had already yielded great results, and Chef Paul's win is a great motivation for all our chefs," he said.

Chairman and CEO Dave Siegel personally congratulated Chef Mok on his win, which he said underscores Gate Gourmet's focus and investment on culinary excellence. "We are very proud of your success at IFSA," he said.

Founded in 1992, Gate Gourmet is the world's largest independent airline catering, hospitality and logistics company with dual headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, and Reston, VA, USA. The company has substantially expanded its products and services recently through acquisitions and strategic investments. The portfolio now includes cabin service ware (deSter); comfort/entertainment items (Harmony); packaged food components assembled in central production units (Supplair); design and delivery of brand-linked customer environments (Performa); service staff recruitment and training and crew leasing (Elan); aviation services such as cabin cleaning, aircraft washing and deicing and passenger services (Fernley/IAS); catering security (Gate Safe); business applications (eGate Solutions); and supply chain optimization (partnership with Pourshins).