Mile-high gourmet: Etihad and other airlines that are stepping up their in-flight meal game

Even though Gordon Ramsay had spent a decade designing in-flight meals for premium-class cabins, he famously claimed that he does not eat airline food because he knows “where this food’s been and where it goes, and how long it took before it got on board”.

Celebrity chef Ramsay may be erring on the side of extreme caution, but he is certainly not alone in his disdain for airline food. Despite monumental resources pumped by airlines into making their food more appetising, some passengers don’t seem to be biting.

Scientists cite environmental reasons for the airlines’ unappreciative culinary audience.

In his article on “Tasting in the air: A review” published in the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, Professor Charles Spence zooms in on three major factors – reduced cabin air pressure, lack of humidity and the loud background noise – that “have been shown to play havoc with the passengers’ ability to taste at altitude”.

To counter these environmental factors, Spence says “umami-rich dishes stand up well in the air and against noise” while “tannic Old World wines seem to fair less well than New World fruit bombs” on flights.

In his report, the professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University also highlights other possible factors, among them the quality of cutlery and glassware, a lack of descriptive dish naming and the lack of social interaction while eating, that “contribute to creating a poor impression of what’s on offer, no matter how good the food being served actually is”.

Given these considerations, airlines are not leaving mile-high dining to chance even in the face of headwinds. If anything, the intense competition is spurring some airlines on to set themselves apart from the competition with improved dining products. Not surprisingly, the battle is at its most intense in the premium-class cabins. “First- and business-class cabins generally account for about 10 to 15 per cent of long-haul seats globally and about half of airlines’ revenue,” says Samuel Engel, senior vice-president of ICF’s Aviation group. An expert on airline economics and strategy, Engel explains that most airlines’ focus on pushing the boundary on dining luxury for first- and business-class cabins is to be expected given their contribution to top line, but he says that the dining experience is not just about the food.

“Plating, presentation and timing make the entire dining experience,” says Engel, singling out the whole context of hors d’oeuvres with appealing cocktails, cotton tablecloths (“not polyester”) with appropriately-sized china and silverware, fresh bread as well as timing on-demand as factors differentiating a top product from a pedestrian one.

Engel is right and nowhere is first- and business-class dining taken more seriously than among the Asian and Gulf carriers, who are pulling out all the stops to appeal to the appetites of passengers with deep pockets.