Airline Food: The good, the bad and the ugly

[KennethT]

6 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

That doesn't look at all bad for having been served on a plane.

 

 

It was completely serviceable. Was it NY pizza? Absolutely not, but perfectly tasty especially on no sleep for a long time!

[liamsaunt]

JetBlue Boston-St. Thomas Mint class.  Our flight was at 6AM so the extra space and the food was welcome.

 

Croissant and iced latte to start.  I planned to give my croissant to my nephew but he slept though the entire flight so I ate it.  Not bad for a plane croissant.  It was warm.

 

 

Husband had smoked salmon with everything bagel crostini, watermelon with espelette pepper, coconut yogurt with granola, and maple bacon

 

 

I had similar but swapped the salmon for a goat cheese frittata.  The frittata was actually tasty, quite well seasoned and tender.

 

[AlaMoi]

done lots and lots of flying.  domestic and international.

I have one single inviolate rule:  never ever get on an airplane hungry, and always have some killer snacks in your carry-on.

 

airline food can at best / most kindly be described as "spotty to horrible" - altho some foreign carriers on Pacific routes have a much better reputation.

the company paid business class for international; often got free upgrades to business class - and yes, the vittles in business class tended to be 'more better' - but I never boarded hungry and always had a stash of snacks . . .

 

there was one fellow on cheftalk who claimed to be the biggest muckity-muck (/retired/) in a NY airline food service org.

there are only two biggie int'l there - flown out/in of both - both equally as bad . . . so I never put much faith in his postings . . . because my personal experiences were seriously different that what he claimed.

 

got curious . .  just did a gander of multiple domestic/Euro vacations/trips . . . oddly!  no food photos.

 

for an early AM flight out of (old) Munich . . . stopped by a local bakery and got snacks for me, and 'to go'

 

[rotuts]

there was a BBC ( or similar style ) food related show 

 

that showed various international kitchens   high high end hotels and the like.

 

one was onAirline Hubs , and this was probably Emirates ( or similar ) long haul first class

 

flights from Dubai ( or the like )    food made in advance to order , meticulous , and the ability to rapidly 

 

add food at the pst minute.  kitchen and ingredients looked fantastic 

 

why not ?  each unit probably cost the flyer  many hundreds of dollars.

 

still fun to see a large unit professional kitchen working smoothly.

[Tropicalsenior]

In the early seventies, I worked for a catering company that contracted all the food that went out on all the airlines from Reno Nevada. In those days we served real food. We had a pantry division, a real Bakery and I worked as a line cook. It truly was an efficiently run system. Each Airline had its own menu and at that time I can remember that United Airlines had the best food. We also contracted with a lot of private Airlines and some of the food was truly spectacular.

One of my most memorable incidents was when two 747s loaded with Vietnamese War orphans had to be diverted from San Francisco and they were stranded on the runway in Reno for 2 days. The first day that we called them and asked them what we could get them the nurses replied that they needed 24 cases of diapers and a case of Valium.

[liuzhou]

11 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

they needed 24 cases of diapers and a case of Valium.

 

I've been to restaurants like that!

 

[rotuts]

I grew uo on the west coast , yet went to college on the east .

 

late '60's to early '70's   back then there was student stand-by/

 

SFO was home to United , so its was AM fight United to BOS.

 

got to the airp[ort early , to get in line for the student seats

 

alway got a seat .  some flights were almost full.

 

United  in coach was chicken or steak , and the steak was filet mignon , w veg x2

 

a lot of green beans  for the green   however the FM was cooked and reheated so it was medium 

 

and very tasty , and the GB were not over cooked.

 

back then military in uniform also flew at a very reduced rate .  

 

from time to time , on an empty ish flight , extra dinners were passed around by the

 

stewardess ,  first to the military members , then to the college students , ie me !

 

nice to have 2 fillets , back them     never had the chicken.

 

and as an age related issue , no young yet amusing Zinfandel w the FM  .

Edited July 17 by rotuts (log)

[Slim W]

The Emirates Flight Catering is quite the operation. Numerous videos about it with a quick search.

 

The food in first is the same quality as business class, just more choices and nicer presentation.  The real difference is the wine and spirit selection,  some truly nice wines. Attached are the wines on a recent flight from Stockholm to Dubai. They frequently have 10+ yr old whites, which seems risky. I've had more than one corked bottle. Fortunately the next bottle opened was always good, the colour difference in each instance was striking. 

[KennethT]

2 hours ago, Slim W said:

The Emirates Flight Catering is quite the operation. Numerous videos about it with a quick search.

 

The food in first is the same quality as business class, just more choices and nicer presentation.  The real difference is the wine and spirit selection,  some truly nice wines. Attached are the wines on a recent flight from Stockholm to Dubai. They frequently have 10+ yr old whites, which seems risky. I've had more than one corked bottle. Fortunately the next bottle opened was always good, the colour difference in each instance was striking. 

wow, those are some big names.  I remember a tasting of Louis Latour Corton Charlemagne (with the head of the house at the time) where a bunch of bottles suffered from premox...  It was a sad time in white Burg history, but the good ones were amazing.

[Slim W]

37 minutes ago, KennethT said:

wow, those are some big names.  I remember a tasting of Louis Latour Corton Charlemagne (with the head of the house at the time) where a bunch of bottles suffered from premox...  It was a sad time in white Burg history, but the good ones were amazing.

 

Yes, it is a lovely wine!  You could see the colour difference through the the green glass of the bottle side by side.  The Vega Sicilia Unico was also wonderful. I tend to pick my food based on the wine.  I look for well spiced and rarely take the big cuts of red meats.  The beef short ribs are generally juicy enough versus steak or veal. The cheese plate is often nice, just needs to have time to warm up.  Also nice to watch the tennis live.

 

[weinoo]

27 minutes ago, Slim W said:

The cheese plate is often nice, just needs to have time to warm up. 

 

This is interesting, as a trick I sometimes use in a restaurant is to order a cheese plate along with appetizers (where it's often shown), and let it wait until after mains are eaten.

[Slim W]

23 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

This is interesting, as a trick I sometimes use in a restaurant is to order a cheese plate along with appetizers (where it's often shown), and let it wait until after mains are eaten.

 

Great idea! 

[liuzhou]

40 minutes ago, Slim W said:

 

Great idea! 

 

I thought everyone did that. Unless it's a restaurant which knows how to serve cheese. 

[liamsaunt]

Lunch on JetBlue Mint STT-BOS.  Way too much food.  Chilled pea soup in the back, roll and butter.  Vanilla gelato with blackberry sauce for dessert in the middle.  Chicken with ratatouille and cavatelli with tomato sauce in the front.  I ate the ratatouille off the chicken plate (but not the chicken), the pea soup, the roll, and the gelato.  

 

[liamsaunt]

I've been cleaning out my Dad's house after his passing.  Today I found this old Aer Lingus menu from a flight he probably took in the early to mid 80s.  He used to travel to Ireland for business back when he worked for Digital Equipment Corporation (there's a company name from the past!).    I'm not sure why he saved it, as the food sounds kind of boring, but old menus interest me.  

 

 

 

[ElsieD]

I enjoy reading old menus as well.  Thanks for posting.  I remember those times.  Flying, even on short hauls, we were always served a hot breakfast/lunch/dinner depending on the time of day.  It was always served on real plates with silverware and linen Napkins.  That was in the cheap seats.  Those days are long gone.

[gfweb]

15 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

I enjoy reading old menus as well.  Thanks for posting.  I remember those times.  Flying, even on short hauls, we were always served a hot breakfast/lunch/dinner depending on the time of day.  It was always served on real plates with silverware and linen Napkins.  That was in the cheap seats.  Those days are long gone.

Lufthansa still pulls it off.