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The list of good, bad and awful jokes about airline food was not the reason for airlines to rethink their on board food. Whilst many cheap and cheapest airlines provide no meals at all those with a constant number of frequent flyers have been reappraise their approach and some have even gone to the lengths of employing internationally recognised chefs to help create the atmosphere of a quality restaurant at 30,000 ft.
Such names as Shaun Hill of the Walnut Tree Inn, Michel Roux of Waterside Inn at Bray and Vineet Bhatia from Rasoi in London’s Sloane Square are helping British Airways in this initiative, coming up with such British classics as shepherd’s pie and afternoon tea with strawberries and cream, which seem to be the current trend. Whereas Gate Gourmet, which supplies cabin food for a large number of airlines, is now turning to the local sourcing of ingredients. Again mirroring a current trend in British dining.
Few of us remember the days when food really was cooked on board! The micro-climate in modern airliners is one which enjoys a pressure of what one would experience at 8,000 ft at which the taste-buds are deadened and wines lose their middle fruit. So it is quite demanding to create a menu which can be pre-prepared and wines which suit and it is often these aspects which the chefs find particularly challenging. In addition to the constraints of the actual work place, that a working gas stove is a no-go and some passengers fly more than the cabin crew the menu has to be a compromise between what the guest expects and what actually still an attractive and tasty meal.
And in fact, when asked what meal would work best at 35,000ft Mr Steevenson, who runs the UK wine distributor which supplies business-only airline Silverjet said that funnily enough, it was a combination that tends not to be associated with business or first-class travel: “If you look at all the constraints, a curry and a beer is pretty much the perfect in-flight food.”.
We wish Liam Steevenson all the best as the demise of Silverjet was reported in the same edition of the Finacial Times Online as the original food article was published!
To read the original article: www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b699f61a-2608-11dd-b510-000077b07658.html. Editing by Jane K. Clouston
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