How airlines try to curry favour with high-fliers
By Rhymer Rigby
Published: May 20 2008 03:00 | Last updated: May 20 2008 03:00
Frequent flyers will have noticed some changes in airline food over the past couple of years. In economy, the meal has often shrivelled or disappeared altogether. But for those who turn left when getting on planes, in-flight meals in business and first class have got better as airlines enlist the help of celebrity chefs and try to recreate a restaurant experience in the sky.
Carol Conway, food innovation manager at British Airways, says the airline is working with leading British chefs including Shaun Hill of the Walnut Tree Inn, Michel Roux of Waterside Inn at Bray and Vineet Bhatia from Rasoi in London's Sloane Square. She says the current trend is British classics - such as shepherd's pie and afternoon tea with strawberries and cream.
Catherine Nugent, head of communications at Gate Gourmet, which supplies meals to dozens of airlines, says it is focusing on local sourcing: "Our procurement team searches for small niche producers - exactly as you see in restaurants." She points out that there are several constraints on preparing food in the air, adding that "a lot of chefs who work with us do it for the challenge".
Peter Jones, a professor at the UK's Surrey University who specialises in the study of airline food, says an increasingly popular trend is to prepare meals on-board in first class. Some airlines such as Gulf Air have "chefs" dressed in full whites. "Due to the constraints of equipping planes and the practicalities of cooking on board, most of this approach is the finishing of a dish through the assembly of pre-prepared components," he says.
Prof Jones concedes that while this is not the same as a restaurant experience, it does allow for fresher presentation and a degree of tailoring to individual tastes. "One airline has experimented with allowing first-class passengers to request whatever they would like so long as they give 24 hours notice," he says.
However, even in first and business class the airlines are stuck with a number of constraints that no restaurant on the ground has to contend with. Most meals must be prepared beforehand and then reheated, and the altitude - cabins are typically pressurised to 8,000ft - deadens the tastebuds. This is why strong flavours and foods in sauces tend to work well, and is one reason why the spicier cuisine of Asian airlines, such as Malaysia and Singapore, usually scores highly. Similarly, in spite of improvements in food technology, a decent in-flight soufflé remains elusive.
There are also other less obvious constraints, says Ms Conway: "One of the most important things is that we get some people again and again. Our very frequent customers are on the planes more often than the crew.Ensuring they have choice and variety is a real challenge."
For those who want to opt out of the system- but are disinclined to pack their own sandwiches - Los Angeles-based Sky Meals offers an alternative. For $20 to $30 (£10-£15) per meal, it will deliver travellers their own airline food. "As long as you call before 3pm on the day before your flight, we'll make and deliver your meal in a cool-bag to your office or limo or airport," says founder Richard Katz, adding that about 50 per cent of his customers are business travellers. He says women outnumber men two to one: "Men tend to be functional eaters, whereas women care more about what they eat and are better at planning ahead."
There is also the question of what to drink with your dinner. Liam Steevenson runs UK wine distributor Red & White and supplies business-only airline Silverjet with the wine to match the menu designed by Le Caprice. Like food, he says, wine tastes different at altitude: "Acidity and tannins get accentuated and you lose the middle fruit. So wines like Sancerre and Chablis thin out considerably, whereas many New World wines will taste much better."
But wine choice is also a question of combining what works and what passengers expect, says Mr Steevenson. "Champagne is a classic example of an acidic wine. But everyone wants it - it's a feel-good product." He saysSilverjet conducts in-air tastings for passengers and that one of the real pluses of working for a small airline is that you can offer more esoteric boutique wines that are produced in far smaller quantities.
So, what meal would work best given at 35,000ft? Funnily enough, says Mr Steevenson, it is 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."
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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