A former Invercargill freezing worker who became a reality TV star in the United States has opened a Kiwi-concept restaurant in New York.
Mark Simmons, 33, has decked out his Brooklyn restaurant, Kiwiana, to suit its name: a china cabinet contains Marmite, manuka honey and his grandmother's teaspoon collection, and on the walls are Air NZ and Four Square posters.
On the menu are pavlova, oysters, seared New Zealand snapper and a Kiwi burger. Classic tomato-shaped sauce pottles are on the tables.
Simmons, who reached the 2008 finals of the reality TV show Top Chef, which screens on TV3, expects to be working 100-hour weeks until Christmas.
