Say goodbye to ‘the hospital service’. Phil Nasskau takes a look at two of the finest ways to dine at 40,000 feet…
Business and Corporate aviation, and First Class are always seen as a pinnacle of excellence. Certainly, in the corporate world fast and large jets often carry a price tag of least several tens of millions. A first class ticket is certainly not for the budget traveller.
Yet private jets are becoming more and more accessible and with easier access there is a greater need to differentiate between charter and fractional services to personal ownership. First Class services on airlines are also rising to the challenge.
Two companies have set themselves apart from the rest by offering a unique aspect on creating fine dining available in the skies. NetJets Europe and Gulf Air both have the same focus. To serve the finest foods found in the finest restaurants on their respective aircraft.
Partnerships
NetJets has this year launched a series of new catering partnerships and schemes following a two-year development from its conception to implementation. Paris is just one of the cities where the service is available.
When you board a NetJets Europe aircraft there is an option to equip it with some of the finest foods and drinks available, thereby transforming a jet with simple catering into a flying version of a five-star European hotel.
Stephen White, director of cabin services NetJets Europe says it is the luxury choice being offered, “we are trying to dazzle and wow a specialist audience by surprising and delighting them. We want to put the romance back into flying, and from a customer care perspective we are offering exact replicas of the dishes served in our partner restaurants.
“After all the rich and famous know where to eat,” he says.
Each individual city has a selection of restaurants that are partners, here in Paris they are Arpége, Kinugawa, Laudrée and Le Meurice. Whilst Canonica provides the anchor catering.
Gulf Air takes this principle one step further, rather than partnering with ‘top-class restaurants’ it prefers to recruit the chefs directly. In Gulf Air’s first class passengers are treated to the luxury of a personal SkyChef.
“Airline food is airline food. We don’t accept that, we wanted to find a better way to do it. Make it taste the same, “ says Michael Kent head of in-flight services and cabin crew, “We need a professional.
“We experimented with our regular cabin crew and chef training, however this didn’t really work. We decided we needed a chef who was also a crew member. All our chefs must have the right credentials, either a Michelin star or five-star restaurant experience with at least three years as head chef or sous-chef,” says Kent.
Of course the real problem with serving real food at altitude is that on long flights the palate dulls slightly. And both have tackled the same problem albeit in separate ways. NetJets delivers the dishes fully prepared with all the spices accentuated – not to add extra flavourings or stronger flavourings but to enhance the intensity by adding extra coriander or basil for example, says Jane O’Riordan from Baker & Spice – one of London’s anchor caterers.
Gulf Air actively tests all of its dishes in a test kitchen and enhances the flavours in much the same way, but the dish is fully prepared on the aircraft using the onboard galley equipment. A Gulf Air SkyChef will test-flight all dishes in the air before they go live. For them the challenge is to create the finest dishes using only dry cooking techniques – no longer can you sauté something in brandy.
“We make sure to keep our SkyChefs stimulated, and they aren’t just responsible for cooking but always work in rotation whether they are actively serving in-flight or on the ground developing the new menu,” says Kent.
“Our goal is to have people saying if NetJets are going there, we’ll go there. Our partners are not here for extra profits, but are here to support their customers in new ways. Great brands support each other and right now we are unmatched, our customers can eat as well at 40,000ft as they can sitting down at a Mayfair restaurant,” says White.
For Gulf Air, it wants to offer the five-star service onboard – the menu on board is flexible. And if what you want isn’t there, your SkyChef will prepare it for you.
“We are trying to offer a boutique experience. The Middle East is already leading the way back to a full service, and our SkyChef is proven to work. For the fourth consecutive year we have won the SkyTrax award for best first and business class onboard catering.
“I believe this is because our travellers are our guests, they dine when they want from an open menu. We do not operate ‘the hospital service’ as some other airlines do. Our chefs are passionate and presently we have 108 SkyChefs to innovate our service,” says Kent
Source: Flight Daily News
