Forget everything you thought you knew about plane food
Gone are the days of the over-priced air lounge toastie, gourmet dining is ready to take your tastebuds to the skies...
Words: Anna Galbraith
In association with:
Well, maybe not everything you know. Next time you step on board a commercial flight, you’ll likely have the same air-sealed mashed potato and eye-wateringly potent gin and tonic set down on your tray table.
Rather, we want you to rethink your preconception that this low-grade grub is the high point of all plane food. For, when you’ve chartered a private jet through Victor, and called upon the executive inflight concierge services of On Air Dining, your plane food expectations should be sky high.
Cured Loch Duart Salmon with Oyster Mayonnaise
Spiced Poached Pear with Golden Raisin Puree
Confit Pork Croquettes and Langoustine
Offering a curated menu of these ‘sky-high’ dishes — all inspired by the fare of London’s most exclusive dining establishments — these meals have been carefully-designed to complement a special, hand-picked selection of Dom Pérignon Champagne and wines from the Möet Hennessy stable.
Daniel Hulme, CEO of On Air Dining
It’s a sparkling collaboration of brands at 35,000 feet. And, in an effort to craft ‘unforgettable experiences’ (we challenge you to conjure up a more enviable stag-do than chartering a Victor jet and treating everyone on board to a gourmet meal), the luxury names have collaborated to offer flyers a whole new level of personalised, ‘high touch’ luxury travel.
At the helm (or should that be in the cockpit?) of this exciting collaboration is a man who has more than earned his stripes in the world of gourmet cuisine. The CEO of On Air Dining, Daniel Hulme spent his formative years as a chef in some of London’s most critically acclaimed Michelin starred restaurants, before taking his talents to sea aboard UHNWIs’ yachts.
Cured Loch Duart Salmon with Oyster Mayonnaise, part of Victor’s On Air Dining offering.
Hulme makes it clear that the driving force behind designing this menu was science — more specifically, the science of producing food that tastes just as good at altitude as it does on the ground.
Low air pressure and even background noises can impact the way we taste, by repressing our ability to recognise sweet and salty foods. So, for Hulme’s food to pack enough flavour, meals need to incorporate ingredients which bring those stronger, easily lost flavours back to the forefront.
He says, “I realised that there was no reason that the world’s discerning palates could not have the quality of food they are used to in the restaurants on their super yachts on board their jets,” Hulme says.
“But, after developing a menu,” the chef continues, “we knew we couldn’t emulate the best international cuisine. So, we partnered with some of London’s top restaurants to ensure that your favourite food is delivered just as it would be served in-house.”
With gluten-free, halal and vegetarian dishes all on offer, there is something to prick the tastebuds of each and every globe-trotting gastronomer. And, if you want a real treat, request the lobster and butter-poached chicken, which you’ll enjoy paired with Cloudy Bay Te Koko 2015. Our dessert recommendation? The spiced poached pear with golden raisin puree and candied walnuts. Delectable.
And this outrageously decadent dessert, along with the rest of the menu, will taste all the sweeter at 40,000 feet — especially when paired with an incomparable Dom Perignon P2 2000. That mashed potato seems like a distant memory…
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