The Secret World of Airline Food
Travel Blog • David Farley • 05.26.09 | 2:45 PM ET
Photo by A friend of mine recently recalled a story about booking a trans-Atlantic flight for someone else. She was gleeful about it. That’s because she pre-ordered the “kid’s meal” for her adult friend.
I laughed out loud when I heard about it, imagining an airline attendant setting down a colorful “Happy Meal”-like box in front of a grown man, saying, “Here is your children’s meal, sir.” Inside the box, he was likely to find a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a pack of M&Ms and, perhaps, some French fries. Which might actually be better than the glop we’re usually relegated to eating on airplanes.
Airline food can’t seem to catch a break. It’s the punching bag of the flying experience. But I may have recently found a solution. I’m in Belgium at the moment, gawking at the procession of the Holy Blood in Bruges (don’t ask), but thanks to a friend of a friend I was able to stop by the Brussels outpost of Gate Gourmet, the world’s largest airline catering service. (Yes, hanging out at such places is what I sometimes do in my spare time.) I met up with Erik Deleersnijder, who gave me a tour of the facilities. I watched hair-netted workers slice, dice, chop, and package airline food.
It wasn’t the most enlightening experience. But then Deleersnijder tipped me off on something interesting about airline food. “The palate grows practically numb when it’s 35,000 feet in the sky,” he said. “That’s why everyone says all airline food tastes the same. For that reason we heavily salt and spice the food we make.”
Ah hah! Therein lies the solution to bland airline food: order an ethnic meal, which more times than not calls for certain spices that will re-activate your taste buds. United’s Muslim meal, for example, comes with stewed tomatoes and chickpeas. On another route, expect poached fish with curry and dal. Likewise, United’s Hindu meal has promise: basmati rice and veggies topped with a spicy masala sauce.
And you can take things one step further by flying a foreign airline. I flew Jet Airways, an Indian carrier, to Brussels and, even though I was nowhere near India (and wasn’t going there), I ate delicious Indian fare the entire way. So long, bland, rubbery chicken. Hello, chicken tikka masala.
Or, you can always let my friend book your flight and wait for the surprise that will be delivered to your tray table.
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David Farley
Grizzly Bear Mom 05.27.09 | 12:05 PM ET
Travel Channel: Is this article written with the respect you wish your bloggers to show for any religion’s holy days? If so, please diversify to ensure that your writers “respect” all religions’ holy days equally. In comparison with this article, I remember Rolf Pott’s article on the Muslim holy day he attempted to celebrate in ?Egypt? was written in a particularly respectful manner. So the writer doesn’t have to gawk, or stare stupidly at this festival, I’ve enclosed is a Wikipedia link to the Procession of the Holy Blood: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procession_of_the_Holy_Blood.
David Farley 05.27.09 | 12:42 PM ET
Dear Grizzly Bear,
I’m sorry if you took my use of the word “gawk” to equal disrespect. Over the last few years I’ve become quite engaged in the relics of Christendom and I"ve done so with respect (though, I have to admit, some bewilderment at times). I’m sorry you were offended by the use of “gawk.”. A word of advice: you probably should stay far away from my book about Jesus’ foreskin. If you want to say more, I invite you to email me: david.farley AT gmail DOT com
Very sincerely,
david farley
Kelsey 05.27.09 | 1:27 PM ET
I ordered my copy of “An Irreverent Curiosity” months ago and am anxiously awaiting my copy. I think David has a way with irreverent reverence.
I’m not sure I’m buying the numb palate thing. Is there any science behind that? A pressurized cabin is equal to an altitude of about 6K-8K feet. That means that folks in places like Park City, UT, or Flagstaff, AZ, are walking around with numb palates not tasting much of anything.
US Hotel Maps 05.27.09 | 3:02 PM ET
Actually it depends on which airlines you fly with. Some are really terrible but some are good. For me overall airline food is good not great.
Best airplane food i’ve ever had was when i was coming back from london and BA’s food company was on strike so they gave us vouchers for £10 worth of food at the airport.
Daviel Lazure Vieira 06.01.09 | 9:20 AM ET
I must admit, airline food now plays a significant role in my choice of airline company when it comes to flight booking. Alright, it’s not even about airline food anymore, it’s about airline wine list. I’ve never had better meals (and wine or champagne pairing) than with Air France. And I don’t care paying a little more to have decent food inflight… and get barely wasted before I arrive at Charles de Gaulle’s nightmare airport.
Erin @ Jetsette 06.01.09 | 8:32 PM ET
Very interesting article. I always assume that I’m going to eat the dinner roll and cookie from my meal and maybe poke at everything else in befuddlement and dismay. Always leave space in the carry-on for snacks, folks! I’m going to agree with the above poster that, in general, Air France food has been a cut above. I’ve also had some good meals on KLM.
Darrin DuFord 06.09.09 | 6:55 PM ET
I share Kelsey’ suspicions. A bland piece of chicken breast tastes just as bland at sea level as in an airplane. And how about those snacks you brought from home? They taste pretty damn good in the cabin, don’t they?
tahrey 06.18.09 | 6:56 AM ET
Maybe I’m just not fussy enough, but I generally don’t have a problem with airline meals other than the small portions (presumably to reduce the toilet queue), plastic cutlery and lack of tray-table space / elbow room. The texture is slightly off but not bad, and the flavour is fine.
Dunno if you were expecting Michelin Star quality, but it’s at least up to roadside travel cafe standard, which is passable enough. Reasonable quality meat, slightly over boiled veg, good mashed potato and strongly flavoured gravy is my memory of the in-flight meal on the last trip (itself a rarity as I tend to travel budget these days - but someone else paid for those tickets in advance, and decided to go “high” class (coach, on a non-budget line)). Plus a bread roll, spread, cheese, and a small but perfectly formed cake to go with the coffee. On the return trip (which I think was a cooked breakfast; the meat being ok, but the egg was an… interesting omelette-like substance) there were a pair of little fancy-pants chocolates in a bow-wrapped box.
It’s hardly prison camp gruel, now, is it?
Plus the reduced taste thing is partly true; the cabin pressure may not go down all the way but it does drop some, hence needing often to suck a boiled sweet / hard candy to clear your ears during the first & last 10 minutes. Remember that much of how we taste comes from smell, and the inside of a plane typically ends up smelling of nothing much but slightly stale air. The reduced pressure and the rapid flow & recycling thru the cabin robs you of much chance to properly _smell_ what you’re eating. Hence the spices (to deliver _something_ to the nose) and the salt, etc (to trick your senses by over stimulating the tongue). Also there’s the old urban legend that a can of coke taken into the plane’s cabin will explode everywhere when you open it at altitude, but one bought on-board (with intentionally reduced CO2 content) will be flat if you open it at ground level. Probably why the on-board beer tastes a bit sweet; it’ll have been stopped a little earlier in the brewing process to have less bubbles (and alcohol!), leaving more sugar behind in the malt (and having less bitter flavour from the CO2 itself, but it may be hopped up to compensate). I think there’s some milage in that, given how swollen an otherwise ordinary sealed packet of boiled sweets was when I retrieved it from my hand luggage at cruising altitude…