For media related requests please contact:

Mark Rose Tel:  +64 3 450 1105  Email: mark@therees.co.nz

What the media has had to say about True South Dining Room at The Rees Hotel:

“Knowing the food is that good we choose the five course tasting menu with matched wines. This is a fine dining experience that you are not likely to get anywhere else in this ski town.”

Hilary Doling
Luxury Travel Bible

“There is no better place to sample the excellent local produce than The Rees Hotel True South Dining Room. Chef Ben Batterbury impresses with dishes such as blue cod with clam ragout and slow cooked lamb neck with celeriac and polenta. Or if you can’t decide, go for the tasting menu which includes a terrine of Central Otago rabbit liver, bacon and prunes and a delicate desert of mascarpone mousse with rhubarb and gingerbread.”

Valli Little
Delicious Magazine

“It’s an adventurous menu and visually stunning, and I for one think that “food as theatre” is a very important compnent of dining out.”

Adrienne Rewi
Frommers New Zealand Guide

“We are working our way through the tasting menu – a series of taste sensations with a southern spin”

Angela Walker
Sunday Star Times

Most recent media releases

Innovative British-chef signed on to shape new fine dining experience at The Rees Hotel Queenstown

Innovative British chef Ben Batterbury has been contracted to create a fine dining experience at Queenstown’s newest lakefront luxury hotel – The Rees Hotel and Luxury Apartments.

30-year-old, Bristol-born Batterbury developed his talent for creating innovative but classically-based dishes under the direction of two Michelin-starred British chefs, Gary Jones, who is now executive head chef at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons restaurant in Oxford, and Simon Crannage at the Charlton House luxury country hotel, Somerset.

Announcing his appointment today, the chief executive of The Rees Luxury Hotel and Apartments, Mark Rose, said he had previously employed Batterbury when he managed one of Scotland’s finest luxury hotels, Cameron House at Loch Lomond.

“From experience, I believe Ben has the qualities we need to provide a unique and memorable fine dining experience at The Rees Hotel,” says Rose. ”During the two years he was Head Chef at Cameron House, he ensured its Lomonds Restaurant rated among the top 10 percent with the AA guide in the United Kingdom, cooked for the King of Jordan, and saw one of his trainees win Scotland’s Young Chef of the Year award,”

Batterbury says he is excited by the prospect of creating a new luxury hotel restaurant in a new country, building his kitchen and service team and finding local suppliers who share a passion for their produce and a commitment to high quality.

“Our food needs to be recognizable, superbly cooked and presented in a way that keeps the basic flavours true, but embellished or combined to deliver an element of surprise, “ he says. “Dining out is a kind of theatre – providing pleasure to all the senses.”

Ben Batterbury will take up his position at The Rees Hotel & Luxury Apartments Queenstown later this month.

“True South” restaurant to feature at Queenstown’s new luxury hotel

Queenstown’s newest luxury hotel is to feature a “True South” fine dining experience, the chief executive of The Rees Luxury Hotel and Apartments, Mark Rose, advised today.

“Our True South dining room will express our pride in the region with a menu of dishes based strongly on local produce from high quality suppliers in the area south of Christchurch,” he says.

“Buying local not only assures us of freshness and quality control, it’s good for our carbon footprint, reducing our food miles at a time when the need for environmentally sustainable practices is growing.

“At the True South, we will be offering daily menu changes, with seasonal variations, to feature foods such as West Coast whitebait, Stewart Island blue cod, salmon, mussels, crayfish, abalone and oysters, Bendigo Station merino lamb, free range pork from Havoc Waimate, rabbit and other game meats from Tarris Game. Gibbston Valley and Oamaru Whitestone cheeses, and Kenmuir olive oil.

“We provide a choice of the best wines from the different sub-regions of Central Otago. We will only have Emmerson’s beer from Dunedin, local H2O mineral water, and delicious local fruit juices.

“Our chefs will also be using local produce to create a range of special dishes and platters to compliment selections of from our professionally managed, private cellar stock of world-renowned chateau wines from Bordeaux.

“At The Rees Hotel Queenstown, we are committed to projecting local Central Otago’s history, heritage and character, in the original art throughout the hotel, in the collection of books on the settlement of the region in our lounge library, and now in the menu of the True South Dining Room” says Mark Rose.

The True South Dining Room at The Rees Hotel will be open to the public as well as hotel guests seven days a week, and will also provide out-catering services. It is scheduled to open on Monday March 16th.

REES APPOINTS FIRST CEO 1 October 2008. The newly appointed chief executive of the newly Rees Hotel and Luxury Apartments Queenstown, Mark Rose, begins the task of bringing Queenstown’s latest luxury accommodation complex into full commercial operations today. Mark Rose moves to The Rees Hotel and Luxury Apartments Queenstown directly from an appointment as General Manager of the prestigious Cameron House on Loch Lomond, one of Scotland’s finest luxury hotels with a team of 450 staff, including 79 chefs for its five restaurants. His hospitality industry experience spans a broad range of positions in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. His previous hotel management experience in New Zealand includes managing Northland’s five star Carrington Resort and its sister property, Karikari Estate Vineyard & Winery and a term as executive assistance manager at the Millennium in Queenstown. “We are delighted that Mark has accepted our offer to take leadership of our team as The Rees Hotel moves into full commercial operation,” says the Chairman of The Rees Hotel, Geoff Burns. “Mark joins us as we open our second block of apartments and rooms and finalise our arrangements to have all our 89 luxury apartments and 60 spacious rooms ready for guests before Christmas.” “Mark has great plans to ensure all our guests receive the full five star, unique Rees Hotel experience,” Geoff Burns says. ENDS