BA gets mentioned in this WSJ article about airline food.


While tasting citrus-marinated prawns, Hermann Freidanck winces as though he is tasting airline food, which he is.

"This salad lacks acidity. The citrus are still on the tree I think," he says in a scene right out of a "Top Chef"-type cooking show. "No offense, chef, but do you use fresh orange juice?"

Mr. Freidanck is in charge of Singapore Airlines' highly acclaimed food service, and he is grilling the executive chef of an airline caterer here, questioning everything from the amount of salt in beef soup to the dialect spoken by the caterer's Chinese food chef. When told that the juice that marinates the prawns is indeed fresh-squeezed, Mr. Freidanck orders changes in the recipe to boost citrus taste.

Competition for first-class passengers is more heated than ever in the global recession, and sometimes it boils down to whether the soup is hot enough. International airlines are beefing up food spending as a differentiating draw for premium customers -- even U.S. airline spending on food has increased recently. In the third quarter last year, the six big U.S. airlines that fly internationally increased their spending on food by 8.5% -- the biggest increase in any category besides fuel, according to Department of Transportation data. The same airlines cut labor expenses and maintenance expenses in the same period and slashed advertising more than 22%.

Many airlines, domestic and international, hire famous chefs to help create in-flight menus and lend cachet to airline food. United works with Charlie Trotter; AMR Corp.'s American offers meals designed by Dean Fearing and Stephen Pyles; Delta Air Lines Inc. touts Miami chef Michelle Bernstein. Singapore's chef conclave includes Gordon Ramsay. British Airways PLC and others serve fine meals to premium customers at airport lounges pre-flight, letting passengers get right to sleep or work on the airplane.

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