At 30,000 feet, the first to go are your taste-buds. Add to that the white noise — a steady, unvarying sound — inside the cabin distorting a passenger’s perception of food, and you can explain the notoriety of in-flight meals.
Though nearly 100 years have passed since food began to be served on flights, experts around the world are still tweaking their recommendations on what will work at altitudes that make even five-star meals taste ordinary. The fact that most dishes are pre-cooked and reheated does not make it any easier.
In India, the arrival of Vistara — a joint venture between the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines — has seen the war for winning customer loyalties intensify with the meal tray turning into one of the crucial battlefronts. Before its launch on January 9, the youngest airline in India conducted extensive research on what would work and what may not. A survey found, among other things, that the food not only had to be healthy and different, but also presented well. “Fliers wanted something different,” says Daman Pathak, Manager, In-flight Services and Standards, Vistara. During a visit to the flight kitchen, Arun Batra, Executive Chef of TajSats Air Catering, which handles in-flight catering for Vistara, showed BusinessLine how even a touch of paprika can add colour to the food served. The team at Vistara attended the biggest in-flight catering show in Hamburg, Germany, for ideas. Giam Ming Toh, the airline’s Chief Commercial Officer, also gave inputs based on his interactions with fliers when he headed Singapore Airlines in India before joining Vistara.
28/01/15 Ashwini Phadnis/Adith Charlie/Business Line
Though nearly 100 years have passed since food began to be served on flights, experts around the world are still tweaking their recommendations on what will work at altitudes that make even five-star meals taste ordinary. The fact that most dishes are pre-cooked and reheated does not make it any easier.
In India, the arrival of Vistara — a joint venture between the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines — has seen the war for winning customer loyalties intensify with the meal tray turning into one of the crucial battlefronts. Before its launch on January 9, the youngest airline in India conducted extensive research on what would work and what may not. A survey found, among other things, that the food not only had to be healthy and different, but also presented well. “Fliers wanted something different,” says Daman Pathak, Manager, In-flight Services and Standards, Vistara. During a visit to the flight kitchen, Arun Batra, Executive Chef of TajSats Air Catering, which handles in-flight catering for Vistara, showed BusinessLine how even a touch of paprika can add colour to the food served. The team at Vistara attended the biggest in-flight catering show in Hamburg, Germany, for ideas. Giam Ming Toh, the airline’s Chief Commercial Officer, also gave inputs based on his interactions with fliers when he headed Singapore Airlines in India before joining Vistara.
28/01/15 Ashwini Phadnis/Adith Charlie/Business Line
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