Paris (AFP) -
Michelin-star food and vintage champagne: airlines are pulling out all
the stops to cater to their top-tier passengers' tastes, as they seek a
larger slice of the highly profitable market.
"Business class has
become the main battleground for all companies because the market in
this very profitable sector is highly competitive and the clients very
demanding," said Bertrand Mouly-Aigrot, aviation expert at Archery
strategy consulting.
The consultancy estimates the airline food
market is worth a tasty 10 billion euros ($12.3 billion) with a wide
discrepancy between the various classes of travel.
A dish in
economy tends to cost between five and nine euros, business class
between 15 and 30 euros and for first class, the sky is -- literally --
the limit.
Singapore Airlines touts itself as "the only company
to offer the world's two most prestigious champagnes: Dom Perignon and
Krug Grande Cuvee".
The airline spends around 18.4 million euros
($22.5 million) every year just on champagne and wine, with catering
amounting to 5.5 percent of its total costs.
And with companies
scrambling to stand out from the crowd with the extravagance of their
menu, they are hiring top chefs to create tasty morsels.
"A meal
helps to make people feel secure, to comfort people, to de-stress
people," said Anne-Sophie Pic, the only female chef in France to hold
three Michelin stars, who creates the first-class menu for Air France.
Posh picnic hampers
But serving haute cuisine to highly international and demanding diners at 30,000 feet brings its own challenges.
The
chefs have to create a menu without certain ingredients -- raw fish is
banned for example and cabbage and beans ill-advised given the close
proximity and confined environment of the cabin.
Cultural
niceties also have to be taken into account and not just the well-known
aversions to pork: rabbit, for example, is considered delicious in
France but seen as bad luck in certain religions -- not what you want
when flying.
Additionally, tastebuds act differently at altitude and the cabin air is very dry, which also affects how the food tastes.
Chefs
find themselves having to add flavour enhancers to compensate. "We add
ginger to our sauces to give them a certain bite," said Michel Nugues,
one of the top chefs at Servair airline catering firm.
The
challenges don't stop there. Getting the timing and balance of flavours
right for a Michelin-star dish is hard enough on the ground, never mind
when having to reheat the food at altitude.
At the main Paris
airport, Charles de Gaulle, thousands of sous-chefs whip up the food,
dress the plate, then chill and store the meals that are served around
the clock on planes around the world.
When just a few seconds of
overheating can destroy a meal, chefs are so obsessed with the delicate
issue of reheating their creations properly that they often train the
flight attendants themselves.
And with so many different nationalities on board, when it comes to the menu, variety is the spice of life.
"The
funny thing is our international guests usually want to try Indian
food. The Indian ones want to try the international food. Of course we
always offer them different choices," said Lieve Vannoppen, European
catering manager for the Indian airline Jet Airways.
Boris Eloy,
director of marketing and innovation at Servair, said that while the
technology behind the catering is cutting-edge, the concept of offering
air passengers something special dates back to the early days of flight.
"In
1933, the barmen of the Ritz and George V Hotels would spend their days
off making picnic hampers for Air France passengers," said Eloy.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com
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