Airline Food: The good, the bad and the ugly

KennethT · July 14

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 · July 17

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 · July 17

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 · July 17

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 · July 17

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 · July 17

11 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

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

I've been to restaurants like that!

rotuts · July 17

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 · July 18

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 · July 18

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 · July 18

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 · July 18

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 · July 18

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 · July 18

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 · July 28

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 · November 6

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** · November 6

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 · November 6

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.

Slim W · November 10

Lobster Salad with salmon roe and tobiko. Dom Perignon Rosé 2008 on Emirates.

Seeing if the wifi is stable enough to post a picture.

Edited November 10 by Slim W
Spelling (log)

KennethT · November 10

20 minutes ago, Slim W said:

Lobster Salad with salmon roe and tobiko. Dom Perignon Rosé 2008 on Emirates.

Seeing if the wifi is stable enough to post a picture.

I'll take the Dom, but that lobster salad looks like more mayo than lobster. Was it like that IRL?

Slim W · November 10

It was actually quite meaty, but not the most flavorful. The salmon roe was the highlight....

The Dom is nice!!

36 minutes ago, KennethT said:

I'll take the Dom, but that lobster salad looks like more mayo than lobster. Was it like that IRL?

gfweb · November 10

PHL to PHX American Airlines. Gross breakfast.

KennethT · November 10

48 minutes ago, gfweb said:

PHL to PHX American Airlines. Gross breakfast.

What was it supposed to be?

Slim W · November 11

This was a nice surprise today.

gfweb · November 11

4 hours ago, KennethT said:

What was it supposed to be?

a mushroom fritata/omelet

roasted tomatoes and sweet potato

bread was never served

bloody mary was nourishing, though

**ElsieD** · November 11

10 hours ago, Slim W said:

This was a nice surprise today.

I'm guessing you weren't in the cheap seats?

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