Raise a Toast to the Sky
Blog Entry: Monday 06 Jul 2009
Chris Haslam investigates which airline serves the best food for the Sunday Times. “Fly with Singapore Airlines, Emirates or Cathay Pacific and the economy dining experience is specifically constructed to suggest dinner in a posh restaurant,” he says.
“Our ethos is that flying is still a special occasion,” says Phillip Parker, of Singapore Airlines. “We could save a shedload of cash by going down the frozen-food route, but we think one of the reasons people choose us is that they know they’re going to get a good meal.”
“Our emphasis is on comfort food,” says British Airway’s Victoria Madden, “the sort of wholesome naughtiness you might eat curled up on the sofa with a good film.”
Testing out all the high-flying contenders, Haslam explains that the £75m Emirates Catering Centre, in Dubai, is “the world’s most advanced airline-food facility, where 2,200 staff labour around the clock, producing as many as 80,000 meals a day under conditions of robotic efficiency.”
Watching the gleaming catering machine at work, I ask the boss, John Earnshaw, if there is one innovation that would make his futuristic job any easier. “A toaster,” he replies, with a certainty born of hours of reflection. “I’d love to be able to serve toast and butter at 38,000ft.”
Perhaps a good reason to stay at home this summer and embrace the credit crunch?!
See which airline came out on top in Chris Haslam’s test of the ‘best airline meals at 40,000ft’ at the Times Online.
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