Having recently travelled around 12,000 miles by air I thought I would give a 5pm view of airline food. As written by Stevie in the catchily named ‘Cheesyjet‘ post, it seems that celebrity chefs are now getting in on the act when it comes to food that flies. I flew with Continental and it seems on closer inspection that they have a ‘Congress of Chef’s and Sommeliers‘ who meet to evaluate the dining options on board.
A trans-atlantic flight is never the most comfortable trip but on our recent flight to New York, we were lucky enough to get the honeymoon treatment and were upgraded to business class where we were immediately greeted with a menu for a five course meal! I was intrigued at how a five course feast would be prepared in the confines of a 747, but the flight attendant who donned a striped apron did an admirable job although I couldn’t help thinking the apron was more for show than actual necessity. It seems that, according to this article, meals are carefully constructed to be partially cooked and then ‘finished with a flourish’ at 38,000 feet.
To begin our feast, we had grilled chicken kebabs and scallop soup which was then followed up with a rather sweet pineapple and candied walnut salad. The main event for me was the New York Style Steak which was well cooked but slightly too tough whilst my wife had the shrimp risotto which got the thumbs up. A cheese course was then paraded around the cabin but with a glance at my watch noticing that Glasgow time was still only 11am and bearing in mind the amount I’d already packed away, we passed. We did however manage to leave room for the homemade vanilla ice cream. All in all it was a very pleasant dining experience, certainly not Michelin star standard food but considering where it was being prepared and presented, a lot better than food in some restaurants I’d eaten in and the presentation on the plate was excellent.
Also, whilst in America, we took a couple of internal flights with the same carrier but this time in economy class. The microwaved cheeseburger in a cellophane bag and lasagne in a plastic tub didn’t quite compare!