This is why airplane food is bad

Humans, being the ridiculously coddled species existing on land as we are, are terrible when we take to the skies.
Eating on board a plane just proves we are slaves to our senses. (Express Illustartions)
Eating on board a plane just proves we are slaves to our senses. (Express Illustartions)

It was a very weird experience. Flying China Eastern Airlines on a 2019 trip to the US, we expected the usual execrable meal experience offered by any airline in the skies, worth its (lack of) salt. 

Imagine our shock and awe then, dear reader, when we ended up having the best meal we’ve ever had at 35,000 feet in the air. It was really good, and unlike civil liberties in China, very free with the flavours.

Air travel has been a boon for modern travel, trade, and global connectivity; correspondingly, the food on commercial airlines has been terrible.  And you can’t even fully) blame them.

Humans, being the ridiculously coddled species existing on land as we are, are terrible when we take to the skies. Icarus may have flown too close to the sun, and ultimately died, but we fly high enough for our taste buds to essentially die; they definitely take a leave of absence.

As noted by Time, in an August 2017 article by Mahita Ganjanan, “the combination of dry air, low pressure and loud engine noises in flight cabins heavily impact the passengers’ ability to smell and taste.”

Indeed stats seem to indicate that people lose a third of their ability to smell and taste things while flying. It’s not for nothing that most famous chefs eschew chewing on in-flight meals. 

While the late and lamented Anthony Bourdain carried his own hard, sharp cheese during long flights (which he would then drown with copious amounts of the airline’s red wine in order to get through to a flight) and suggested we do the same, Gordon Ramsay remains entertainingly unhelpful, just cursing out airline food in general. 

This is ironic, considering Ramsay has designed plenty of first-class menus for airlines over the world, as have many of his equally celebrated peers.

The short version of all this? Continental food really doesn’t work mid-air. That’s why Air India’s refrain has always been. “At least our food is good,” because you can actually sort of taste it. Indeed, Indian, Asian, and other spice-heavy cuisines tell to do well in airline meals because they are pungent with spices and flavours.

Back to the China Eastern meal: it comprised of soba noodles with spicy pork dumplings, and roasted pineapple segments for dessert; all easily making for the best meal we’ve had, when high (altitude-wise). There was also a lot of red wine, which doubtless helped. So yes, a lot of spices help, but there are plenty of other degraders.

It doesn’t help that airline food isn’t so much crafted by chefs, as it is mass-produced in assembly-line food production units close to airports. Dishes are usually half-cooked, and then flash-frozen, before being finished in the convection ovens of airplane galleys. 

Given that flight attendants have a host of other duties, as well as having to be dutiful hosts to sensorially-deadened passengers, it’s only natural that dishes, which have been prepared dozens of hours in advance only to be finished in a metal tube suspended thousands of meters in the air, don’t cut the mustard.
That being said, mustard would definitely help.

Chef Sabyasachi Gorai, who introduced Mediterranean, and so many other cuisines (under the auspices of AD Singh’s Olive group), to Delhi and beyond has learned his own lesson. “I eat at the airport,” confirms the National Award-winning chef.

“I eat at the lounge before I board and I grab a bite once I deplane. I haven’t actually eaten on a plane for many years,” affirms Saby. We agreed the less said about airline food the better.

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