Can Airline Food Be Tasty?

Interesting article from New York Times

Very interesting article. Perhaps VS could also follow the example of improving the meal experience for premium passengers rather than idiotic trolleys that probably cost more than the value they add to (or in my opinion take away from) the meal service

so if the cost of all upper class flights were increased by 20 pounds per ticket, and that 20 pounds was exclusively used to improve both the quality and taste of the food, would everyone pay the excess and be happy?

[Darren Wheeler]

Heston B did some experiments for BA on just that and in the end found that flavour 'Unami' had to be much stronger at altitude to taste as it should. I seem to remember +2.25 being the strength. He also experimented with nasal douches (eurgh!!) to help the taste buds and nose.

The problem with airline food is that there will only ever be a limited selection available and has been seen in many threads on here over the years, passengers likes/dislikes are so varied that it is a culinary nightmare for them. SQ has attempted to improve things with their "Book the Cook" offering but even that has a limited menu

http://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/flyin ... oklanding/

Yes I saw the HB programme. At first he seemed not to comprehend the limitations (as have all the celeb chefs who try and do this sort of thing) of the 'cooking' facilities onboard and all they could basically do was re-heat things prepared on the ground.

And yes the nasal douches - :$ :$ :$ as if there wasn't enough crap to clean up on a plane !

@ enjoyingit

No airline could ever satisfy all it's passengers as people have all sorts of likes and dislikes. Slinky has an aversion to cherry tomatos, with me it is asparagus, preiffer also dosen't eat tomatos (or cheese). And as food is preplated its not as though we can ask 'can I have it without the X?'

The issues at the moment are not generally about the quality of the food but that VS are messing about with the way it is served and the removal of the 'eat when you want' element of the old menu in UC (in Y and PE you basically eat when they tell you to)

Paying an extra £20 would not help unless it was for sometling like a 'book the cook'. But don't KLM (I think) offer an enhanced meal for Y pax if paid for and booked in adavance?