Let’s face it: Airplanes aren’t exactly known for providing four-star meals to their customers. To be fair, our main purpose for hopping on a flight is to get from point A to point B, not to dine like a celeb. But still, it wouldn’t hurt if our inflight meals weren’t so dry, rubbery, and tasteless (as airplane food often is). So when we read about these insider tips on finding the best airplane food, we couldn’t be more excited. And with your upcoming holiday flights getting closer, we think you will be, too.
Fritz Gross, director of culinary excellence at LSG Sky Chefs Asia Pacific, dished to CNN that your best bet to getting the best airplane food is to order either a stew or a fried rice dish. He also recommended a dish that featured with vegetables or fatty fish.
“We can simmer it and reheat it over and over, and it will still be a stew,” he said.
He added that fried rice, vegetables, and fatty fish were good options because they retained moisture well. On the flip side, foods like pasta, chicken breast, and any food that is deep-fried does not fare well in terms of moisture and overall taste in the less-than-ideal conditions in a plane. But at the end of the day, his biggest concern isn’t how any of the food tastes.
“Our top concern is actually food safety,” Gross added. “Because we do such a large volume, we cannot afford to have things in there that are not right. You can imagine how easily an airline can get sued. We just can’t have any risk.”
That said, it explains why trendy cooking styles are usually out of the question for airline. A nice, juicy medium-rare steak might hit the spot in a fancy restaurant on the ground, but up in the air, they have to be much more cautious about health and safety risk. Thus, meats always have to be cooked to the right temperature. As for noodles that may be yummy at your favorite Italian place, they can easily dry out in an aircraft, especially if they sit in the oven too long.
So the next time you’re on a flight, your plane meal may still not be the best one ever, but like always, you can rarely go wrong with a cozy soup. And like always, it’s a good time to eat your veggies. Good to know!
This post was originally published on First for Women.
