Jason Atherton has been racking up the air miles between Britain and Asia recently. The former Gordon Ramsay protege and head chef at Maze in London - now with his own Michelin star restaurant, Pollen Street Social - has made three round trips in the space of seven days.
Having flown east to open his new restaurant in Singapore, he flew back to London for 24 hours to pick up the Chef of the Year at the prestigious Cateys - Catering and Hotelkeeper magazine's awards.
After a celebratory but resolutely abstemious evening, it was back on the plane to oversee the kitchen at Pollen, based appropriately in the newly opened Gardens by the Bay development.
While Atherton is the consultant chef for Hong Kong Airlines' business-class-only flight between Hong Kong and London, which was launched in March, Pollen marks his third venture in Asia. First came Table No 1 in Shanghai, and then tapas bar Esquina, which opened in Singapore in December.
Before being approached by the airline, he'd never set foot in Hong Kong before. 'They came to me. I never go looking for business; I'm not one of those chefs who have a very strategic idea of growth,' says Atherton. 'They said they'd done some market research and my name came up on top.'
After turning down the offer twice, he agreed to devise the Western menu. 'You have to change the way you cook for airline food, and you've got to keep it simple. The more elaborate the menu is, the more it can go wrong,' he says.