As I suspected and mentioned in post
#5 above, I'm convinced that this new dining service is CX's attempt to put lipstick on the "pig" that CX F&B has abysmally fallen to.
No offense to Roger Barstow, but what I find incredulous, laughable, and oxymoronic is his title of "Head of Culinary Excellence at Cathay Pacific". Culinary excellence as a description of F&B at CX is an admirable aspiration but there is no culinary excellence at CX. Did Ivan Chu come up with that title? Hehehe. Alas, getting culinary excellence at CX is something CX Management and the folks at Swire seem unwilling to invest in, let alone spend on (just look at the HK lounges F&B contract going from Peninsula to Plaza Premium to Sodexo, then look at the cutbacks in the planned new inflight F&B service). I understand that Mr. Barstow was previously at Qantas and designed their menus with some consultants from Rockpool in Sydney. I think Qantas has good F&B; alas, Qantas has Alan Joyce at the helm and he certainly understands product leadership and service excellence. I'm not so sure Boss Hogg, Greg Hughes or Vivian Lo and the management at Swire have what's necessary (i.e., capital, vision to adapt, etc.) to really turn things at CX around from a customer experience perspective.