orbitmic

Not only from my own experience but from that of people around me, it definitely shows in terms of presentation. And while, as San Gottardo says, they do not get the special "Ecole hoteliere" training of LX F attendants, I typically find the waiting skills of cabin crew in premium classes in both AF and LX of very high standard. We are talking of people who routinely have the (elegant) common sense to check for microcracks in your glass before serving you and can do a very classy job of it if they want. This is very much an AF asset (and again LX too). As you say, though, it is just the food quality itself which does not entirely wow. As you say, it is consistently good, and you can even clearly see the effort of choosing more premium ingredients than a few years ago, but somehow, AF does not manage to make you 'forget' that it is airline food and it still feels slightly awkward as in something you feel must have been very good when tried on the ground when menu was selected but doesn't quite cut it in the air. I don't really know how to express it other than saying that for whatever reason, on some other airlines like OS, TK, AZ, QR, QF, or EY, even when you only fly J, they managed to prepare the food in a way which makes you wonder for a minute if it might have actually been freshly prepared. Of course, you know it hasn't, but it is close enough that you can get that moment of (positive) hesitation. In my limited experience of AF P (let alone my much less limited experience of AF J) I have never had that hesitation, even though I think that in P (and occasionally in J) you can definitely see "where they are coming from" and what the meal could have tasted like - which is already a good start but not quite the same.