Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 30, 1990 TAG: 9005300102
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"It's unfortunate we get a bum rap," he said, proudly displaying a tray of lobster thermidor for first-class passengers on a flight to Paris. "We're spending a fortune to buy top quality."
In fact, the nation's airlines are spending record amounts on good service in an effort to shed their image as the providers of the airborne equivalent of hospital cuisine.
They are hiring well-known chefs to help revamp menus, replacing plastic plates and cutlery with silverware and ceramic crockery, and offering healthier fare.
The changes are mostly apparent in small ways, and primarily in food for business and first-class passengers, for whom airlines spend three or four times more on food than they do for coach passengers.
American Airlines has begun baking fresh cookies on board its planes and offering do-it-yourself ice cream sundaes in first class.
United Airlines is serving Japanese food on its flights to Tokyo; Pan Am offers borscht on its New York-to-Moscow route, and the airline has just introduced hot meals on some short domestic flights.
But some food experts, not to mention passengers, are skeptical. To them, airline food - particularly what is served in coach - still deserves its dismal reputation.
"There is a concerted effort being made to improve food, but it may not manifest itself on the tray," said George Haupt, president of the In-Flight Food Services Association, a trade group of airline caterers.
Haupt also maintains that the crowded conditions in coach class make it difficult for any dining experience to be pleasurable.
"In coach, you're elbow-to-elbow with someone, you have a seat back in your face and then you're handed a tray with your whole meal on it," he said.
Wolfgang Puck, owner of Spago restaurant in Los Angeles, phrased it more succinctly: "To me, an airplane is still a great place to diet."
A coming food fight?
The push for better food reflects a changing airline industry. With only eight American airlines controlling 90 percent of the domestic market, airlines compete less on fares and more on service.
The fare wars of the early 1980s, which frustrated airline executives and delighted consumers, have largely been replaced by battles over seat width, frequent-flier programs and now food.
In addition, as U.S. airlines add international routes, they find their food must compete with that of foreign airlines, whose cuisine has long enjoyed a better reputation.
The nation's 10 largest airlines spent $2 billion on food last year, an average of $5.05 per passenger - or 13.3 percent more than in 1988 and 21.7 percent more than in 1987, according to Airline Economics, a consulting concern in Washington.
Some of the increases are the result of higher food prices, but industry analysts attribute the rise mainly to the airlines' effort to improve food quality.
In one of the most ambitious programs, Northwest Airlines plans to spend $100 million over the next five years to improve its food service.
The airline is phasing in full meals on 60 flights a day that had offered only snacks. More choices of entrees will be available in coach class, larger portions served in all classes and dozens of new recipes introduced. For instance, the airline now offers fajitas and a three-pasta entree in coach.
"The pendulum has swung back again, and passengers expect restaurant-quality food," said Robert Gibbons, a spokesman for Northwest.
Roanoke's main carrier, USAir, said that it spends less than the industry average on meal service per passenger because, quite simply, it serves fewer meals.
"Most of our flights are short in nature," said David Shipley, assistant vice president for USAir public relations. Of the 3,000 flights that USAir flies daily, only about 60 are "long hauls," according to Shipley. He said that USAIR spends approximately $2 per passenger on food.
Serving at 35,000 feet
Airline executives are quick to point out the obstacles they face in serving meals at 35,000 feet. With little room for preparation on board, airline food must be prepared hours - sometimes days - in advance, trucked to the plane, where it may sit for hours more, reheated and, finally, served in a cramped setting where the air is drier than in the Sahara.
What's more, airline chefs have to serve hundreds of passengers who may have nothing more in common than wanting to get from New York to Chicago. As a result, the carriers select foods 8 1 FARE Fare that have wide appeal.
"Nobody is on an airplane for a culinary adventure," said Mitch Gross, manager of food services for United Airlines at Kennedy Airport.
USAir's Shipley said that his airline's philosophy about food is to try to serve the correct meal for the correct time of the day with an emphasis on fresh ingredients and healthy foods.
"We have never tried to have a gourmet restaurant in the sky," he said.
Despite the difficulties, there are examples of airlines that have broken out of the TV-dinner mold. Midwest Express, a medium-size carrier based in Milwaukee that is a subsidiary of Kimberly-Clark, has amassed something of a cult following for its fine cuisine.
The airline, which offers only coach service, serves its meals on china, with crystal glassware and stainless-steel utensils.
Typical entrees include Maine lobster and fricassee of oyster. Even on short flights, the airline serves chilled lobster medallions rather than peanuts. "Anything can be overcome if you use some imagination," said John Farrer, director of dining services.
Midwest spends an average of $9.50 per passenger on food, nearly double the industry average. Its fares, however, are competitive with other airlines' coach prices.
But executives at the nation's major airlines say that the smaller Midwest Express can more easily afford to offer fine cuisine.
"They're not providing the food on the scale that mega-carriers do," said Gibbons of Northwest.
Still, when the smaller carrier began serving fresh-baked cookies on its flights from Milwaukee, Northwest countered by offering Dove ice-cream bars on its flights.
Factory food
Many airlines are hiring well-known chefs to help revamp menus. American has organized a conclave of 12 chefs, which meets annually to review the airline's food service.
"We're trying to figure out dishes that can be started on the ground and finished in the air," said Larry Forgione, who owns An American Place in New York and is one of the chefs retained by American.
He said he was most disturbed by the industry's use of cheap ingredients, particularly in coach class. "The smell of it alone is enough to make you crazy," he said.
As a result of the chefs' recommendations, American has begun cooking scrambled eggs for first and business class on international flights, and baking fresh cookies and breads for all of its first-class sections. Pan Am cooks chateaubriand completely on the plane for its first-class service to Europe.
Most airline food is prepared by large catering organizations, like Caterair, Ogden and Sky Chefs. Still, the airline chooses the recipes and specifies how the food is to be prepared.
The Caterair kitchen at Kennedy International turns out as many as 20,000 meals a day. "It's not like your local restaurant," said Joseph Nappi, general manager of the kitchen. "To me, it's a factory."
The food is indeed prepared with assembly-line efficiency. Plastic trays circle on a conveyer belt while workers methodically insert pre-packaged salads, pre-cooked chickens and pre-molded cheeses.
Of course, first-class and business-class meals receive more personal attention.
The sheer volume of food processed at the kitchen, covering an area larger than a football field, sets the tone.
Each week, 12,000 pounds of beef, not counting 1,500 pounds of chateaubriand, 700 1\ -pound Maine lobsters, 1,680 pounds of Norwegian salmon and 250 cans of Russian sevruga caviar are prepared.
After the meals are assembled, they are trucked to the plane, loaded and, once airborne, reheated in a convection oven.
USAir flights out of Roanoke are not catered locally, Shipley said. Instead, food is put on board before the plane reaches Roanoke. For instance, a flight from Roanoke to Chicago is likely to originate in Charlotte, N.C., where the plane would be stocked with food for both flights.
Healthier in-flight fare
Nearly all airlines are offering healthier meals. For instance, Continental Airlines serves fresh fruit with cereal for breakfast. American added mineral water to its beverage carts.
One thing is certain: More people are ordering special meals in advance at no extra cost - everything from low carbohydrate to kosher to Hindu vegetarian.
For instance, at the Caterair kitchen in New York, requests for special meals are up 70 percent in the last five years, to between 1,200 and 1,500 a day, Nappi said. As a result, these meals are also starting to be mass-produced.
USAir flyers can choose from special meals ranging from kosher and low sodium to vegetarian, diabetic or Hindu. The request must be made at least 12 hours in advance, however. One Roanoke USAir employee who asked not to be identified said that employees strive to meet flier's needs when they can. For example, she said, one woman who frequently flies out of Roanoke always orders a fruit plate. Since USAir employees know she dislikes pineapple, they fill out special requests to make sure she never finds any among the fruit on her plate.
Edythe Trevelstead, a fashion designer from New York who flies about once a week, said she always orders one of the special meals in hopes that it will be tastier than the usual fare.
"I've been through them all," she said. "Kosher, vegetarian dietic, low sodium."
But Travelstead said that she finds the special meals only marginally better and that recently she began carrying Tabasco sauce whenever she flies. "I smother the food with the sauce," she said. "At least it tastes a little better."
by CNB