Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what the next one will taste like, "as is airplane food. Taking a plane is like removing the blind box, opening the tin foil in the dining box on the small table board. Is it four Mantou and a piece of cabbage, or is it to let people immediately open the "secret" hot sauce of a treasure search. Unexpected surprises or frightens often make flying an exciting adventure.
"Tasty" is a long-standing stereotype among the public about airplane meals. In fact, the often criticized airplane meals were once synonymous with luxury and nobility. In the 1970s and 1980s, the price of a domestic air ticket was about the entire monthly salary income of an ordinary urban family. The dining experience that matched the high ticket price was not limited to the chef pushing a dining cart to cut lamb steak and ham, a free bottle of Maotai liquor that could be packed and taken away, and so on. When airplanes become mass transportation vehicles, in order to maintain profitability in the fierce market competition, airplane meals, which are important expenses, often become an option for airlines to make deductions.
What else can airlines play with today's increasingly picky passengers? Zhuyu is ahead of the others. The veteran five-star Singapore Airlines established an international culinary advisory group in 1998, consisting of internationally renowned chefs. The official website's "Famous Chef Appointment" menu has dozens of options; Private airlines such as Xiamen Airlines and Sichuan Airlines have supported most of the dignity of domestic airplane meals; Smart as Cheap Airlines has simply cancelled free meals and presented a dazzling paid menu, allowing people to be frugal; Even full service airlines such as China Southern Airlines have begun to introduce paid meal products to meet the diverse needs of friends of all sizes for onboard meals.
In the theme activity of "Civil Aviation Services Assisting Industry Recovery Year" launched by the Civil Aviation Administration this year, the top six air travel service measures that attract more attention from passengers with 120000 tickets included an address for airplane meals, including urging airlines to comprehensively improve the quality of economy class meals, enriching the food supply categories, and providing specific measures such as booking and selecting meals. Will airplane meals become more delicious under the combination of passenger urging, official supervision, and airline "inside roll"? We have compiled a recent "Sky Taste" guide, hoping that when the flight attendant pushes the dining car past, you will still have an expectation of unknown novelty.
Not long ago, a Xiamen Airlines themed painting plane with the theme of "Little Yellow People's Park" in the Beijing Global Resort took off, bringing a new check-in landmark to fans of "Little Yellow People" around the world. The same limited package of painting machines, "Jiao Jia Friend," was also launched on Xiamen Airlines' flights from Xiamen, Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Hangzhou, and Tianjin on October 25th.
The image of the Little Yellow Man series has been popular worldwide since it entered the audience's view in 2010, with a large number of loyal fans. Fans familiar with the IP of this series of movies all know that Little Yellow Man's favorite food is bananas. "Banana Friends" penetrate banana elements throughout their appearance and taste, adding ginger powder to banana golden milk, strictly controlling the selection of ingredients, and promoting nutritional health; The characteristic banana cake uses soft and delicate vanilla light cream, and the top layer is decorated with crisp banana butter biscuits. The soft and dense cake embryo and sweet and delicious cream filling let the natural banana fragrance spread between the lips and teeth. Xiamen Airlines Kitchen also specially prepared bread with a banana shaped curve appearance and banana flavor filling in the meal, injecting a yellow happy whirlwind into the journey.
Interesting food packaging not only quickly catches the attention of travelers, but also adds a touch of freshness and delicacy to the food. The Xiamen Airlines themed painting machine integrates the IP elements of the Beijing Universal Resort into the design of the dining boxes and plates. Three types of plates and boxes with themes of Little Yellow Man, Jurassic World, and Kung Fu Panda respectively transform aerial dining into a fun and exciting experience. Under the concept of exploring new healthy eating habits, the lunch boxes and tray pads of this themed plane will all be made of bamboo pulp paper, incorporating the airline's thinking of "sustainable development of cuisine" in addition to joy.
At the 2023 World Aviation Awards ceremony held at the Paris Air Show, Hainan Airlines won multiple food category awards, including the "Best Business Class Meal in Asia" ranking first, the "World's Best Business Class Catering" ranking third, and the "World's Best Economy Class Meal" ranking seventh, which is a clear proof of the strength of onboard food.
In order to present high-quality "air cuisine", HNA has collaborated with numerous well-known chefs and catering brands both domestically and internationally to meticulously design different styles and highly creative onboard meals for travelers from around the world. For example, recently, HNA has teamed up with Michelin One Star Restaurant Huaiyang Mansion to jointly create a cloud based food feast. Since its establishment 20 years ago, "Huaiyang Mansion" has been committed to the inheritance and innovation of the intangible culture of Huaiyang Cuisine. Taking the Jiangnan culture as the carrier, the dishes are famous for their exquisite, light and delicious taste. When you chew carefully, you will retain the fragrance in your mouth, "dreaming of the misty rain in Jiangnan". On the Beijing Haikou route, HNA collaborated with Huaiyang Prefecture to launch Yangchun Noodles and Channel Fish and Lion Head, allowing passengers to enjoy the Huaiyang cuisine at a height of 10000 meters, showcasing the profound Chinese culinary culture with a strong Chinese style.
The sweet coconut milk and coconut water, the tender and smooth Hainanese chicken rice with delicious rice, are all the star products of this airline from Hainan Island. Recently, Hainan Airlines has once again innovated in island style cuisine, launching the "Island Barbecue" package on round-trip flights from Beijing to Guangzhou, Beijing to Haikou, and flights from Beijing to Shenzhen and Beijing to Sanya, bringing the most delicious chemical reaction "Maillard" to the cabin and further integrating Hainan's unique culinary culture into the air cuisine.
Sichuan Airlines, the "top tier" airline in the domestic food and beverage industry, has launched nearly a hundred types of on board meals. Entering the winter flight season, it is time to optimize and adjust the existing route network, and the meals on Sichuan Airlines' planes are also updated simultaneously. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the proposal of jointly building the "the Belt and Road". Sichuan Airlines plans to restart the "the Belt and Road" food tour from November, so that passengers can experience different flavors created by different regional cultures, customs and customs on the flight. At the same time, combined with seasonal characteristics, lamb soup, pearl taro round milk tea, and other products are expected to be launched one after another, paired with seasonal vegetables to add new ideas to early winter travel.
As an airline with its headquarters in Chengdu, Sichuan Airlines insists on integrating local Sichuan characteristics and panda culture elements into onboard meals. The theme activity of "The Most Beautiful in Sichuan" started in April. At present, local specialties such as peanut crisp in Weiyuan, frozen dried mango in Panzhihua, bamboo shoots in Yibin, ecological small potatoes in Daliang Mountain, and Sichuan cuisine such as tin foil grilled fish, pickled Chinese cabbage fish, pot pot chicken, and cold mixed three silk have been launched on the flight, helping to promote Sichuan cultural tourism resources and local characteristic products. Entering autumn, Sichuan Airlines also combines the characteristics of the season and uses local Sichuan ingredients to supply single products such as Weiyuan Flower Free Jelly Dried Slices and "Liansheng Light Nourishing Tea", which meet the seasonal demand of eliminating autumn dryness.
On a long-distance flight to a foreign country, a bowl of rice that makes the "Chinese stomach" feel even more intimate is a delicious annotation to comfort the world. Some foreign airlines, who are well versed in the preferences of Chinese tourists, continue to present Chinese flavors, and those who are interested begin to delve into a bowl of rice. Recently, Delta Airlines launched a new autumn menu. In the business class, rice is presented in the form of small Rice and vegetable roll wrapped in paper to keep it in its best condition. It tastes delicious and has bright colors. Everything is like being enjoyed on the ground.
In addition to presenting a new style of rice, business class dishes have also taken on a new look, encompassing global flavors in every inch. Passengers can choose one favorite food from five main dishes, including grilled chicken breast, spinach Italian whey cheese lasagna, Shrimp balls balls, stewed duck breast with bean sauce, and low temperature slow boiled silver cod. The popular dessert trolley in the business class of Delta Perfect will provide chocolate sweet fruit pie, fruit cheese plate, vanilla ice cream sundae, which can be sprinkled with whipped cream, biscuit crumbs, fruit preserves, chocolate chips and other exquisite ingredients.
The chef is indispensable behind the delicious food. Creative Chinese chef Liang Zigeng excels in cleverly integrating modern Chinese cuisine elements with local traditional cuisine. Since 2018, he has been serving as a dedicated catering consultant for Delta Airlines, meticulously designing onboard cuisine for Delta Airlines. At present, passengers entering and exiting Shanghai's Delta flights, including Premier Business Class suites, Premier Economy Class, Youyue Economy Class, and Economy Class, can enjoy the onboard cuisine created by Chef Liang Zigeng for Delta.
For plan oriented athletes who are keen on avoiding accidents, the gradual popularization of early ordering services by airlines is actually a joy. Recently, Emirates Airlines announced that its onboard meal early ordering service has officially launched on 92 global routes, with newly expanded routes including 30 destinations including Riyadh, Jeddah, Delhi, Mumbai, and Kuala Lumpur. At present, this airline has provided passengers with over 10000 pre ordered on board meals on over 3000 flights, receiving over 600 pre ordered meals per day.
This new service provides business class passengers with the option of pre selecting their main course within 14 to 24 hours before flight departure, ensuring that passengers can choose their favorite dishes every time, achieving beauty while helping to reduce food waste. Based on current data, the most popular pre order main dishes include fragrant fried beef tenderloin with thyme sauce, roasted potato horns, and steamed asparagus, as well as grilled beef tenderloin with cream mushroom sauce, Kenyan green beans, and baked potatoes. Finally, Suffolk grilled chicken with black garlic and British style square potatoes; At present, the most popular breakfast dishes include cheddar cheese, fried egg rolls with shallots, creamy spinach, sauteed potobello mushrooms and roasted and pickled tomatoes.
Within two weeks before the flight takes off, you can browse the onboard menu on the official website or app of Emirates Airlines to order meals in advance. The menu includes a range of dishes with local ingredients and local flavors. Emirates Airlines provides passengers with a series of delicacies carefully cooked by chefs in business class, including chocolate hazelnut pancakes paired with preserved apricots and Ricotta cheese dip during breakfast time; Lunch includes Moroccan Pacific cod with Italian coriander sauce and Lebanese famous dish moghrabieh (made by stewing chicken, chickpeas, and pearl onions with various spices), saffron spicy tomato sauce, broccoli, and roasted pumpkin with cardamom; Dinner includes dry fried salmon and trout paired with saffron cream, blanched green beans, stewed beetroot, and scallion flavored corn tortillas.
Early ordering services serve both immediate and long-term purposes, supplementing existing passenger preference data tracking with artificial intelligence data and crew onboard reports, helping with menu planning, optimizing meal loading, and minimizing waste.
From the moment we boarded the plane, we drank and tiptoed onto foreign lands, which is certainly a graceful way to open up cross-border flights. Many airlines have formed their own expert groups and carefully selected qualified "boarding" wines after multiple evaluations, including some generous choices that can bring back ticket prices. Not long ago, British Airways appointed "Master of Wine" Tim Jackson MW, who will help British Airways select and taste new wines, plan menu descriptions of wine flavors, develop a more diverse beverage strategy, and purchase diverse wines from around the world for customers to enjoy.
The 'Master of Wine' is considered one of the highest standards of professional knowledge in the wine industry. Since 1953, a total of 498 wine masters have obtained this qualification, and Tim Jackson MW, hired by British Airways, is one of the 415 globally certified wine masters (MWs). The Wine Master will also be fully responsible for the selection of all wines and beverages in the VIP lounge and on board. In addition to wine and sparkling wine, he will also provide authentic British local beer, classic gin, non alcoholic specialty drinks, and more. He will select the highest quality products for passengers based on the needs of different flavors and the flavors and structures of various wines and beverages in high-altitude areas.
Tim has brought new everlasting longing for each other and Pinot Noir wines to BA's premium cabins. First class passengers can now enjoy Dog Point everlasting longing for each other, while business class Club World passengers can enjoy Grove Mill everlasting longing for each other.
What do you think of when it comes to low-cost aviation? Do you charge for luggage, food, or even water? In fact, the operation mode of low-cost aviation has promoted the transformation of air travel from luxury to mass economy. Its cost-effective and flexible business model has opened up a new Xintiandi for airlines to explore a wide range of in-flight meals.
Asia Airlines, which has been named Skytrax's world's best low-cost airline for the 14th consecutive time, has its own onboard food brand Santan. Santan, also known as coconut milk, is one of the favorite ingredients among Southeast Asian people, and the diverse ASEAN delicacies are a vivid highlight of the meals on board the Asia Airlines flight. For example, the famous Malaysian iconic food Nasi Lemak coconut milk rice is a popular star product. The rice soaked in coconut milk and cooked has a refreshing coconut aroma, paired with ingredients such as Samba chili sauce, Rendang chicken, dried anchovies, and ground peanuts, allowing travelers to have a glimpse of Southeast Asian cuisine culture before flying to their destination. Another Uncle Qin chicken rice is one of the most popular airline meals among Chinese passengers of Asia Airlines. The soft seasoned rice is paired with grilled chicken and Uncle Qin's secret sauce (made with chili, ginger, and garlic), making it a conscientious choice that meets the taste of the public.
As Asia Airlines' largest and most promising market, China has always been closely monitored by the taste preferences of Chinese passengers, and the recently launched seasonal menu has included a new spicy and fragrant pot of noodles. In addition to the dazzling array of Asian style meals, onboard beverages also keep up with the trend, including raw coconut lattes that also focus on coconut elements, and out of stock Wang Boba milk tea that is usually sold out on flights.
'Good quality and affordable price' is a frequent evaluation by netizens of Asia Airlines' meals. A hot meal is equivalent to about 35 yuan, and a special drink is priced around 20 yuan. When purchasing a flight ticket, you can synchronously choose airplane meals on the official website. In addition to ensuring the supply of desired food, you can also receive additional discounts and choose limited packages, which is the most suitable for budget conscious travelers.
Since the opening of its first direct flight to Shanghai in 2003, Qatar Airways has celebrated its 20th anniversary in China this year. To celebrate its twenty years of entry into the Chinese market, Qantas has launched an exclusive on board menu inspired by Chinese culinary culture on its flights back and forth to Doha in Shanghai.
Business class passengers can enjoy a series of aerial delicacies that fully reflect the flavor characteristics of the two places, such as Fried Rice with seasonal vegetables, kale and carrots, and chicken Congee with mushrooms and scallions.
Economy class passengers can also taste a variety of Chinese delicacies, including Su style noodles, beef Congee and sweet and sour chicken, so that passengers can enjoy a feast on the tip of their tongue in 30000 feet of cloud. Starting from October 29, 2023, this special menu will also be available on all Qatar Airways flights to and from China for the next three months.