Thank you, Nimrod -

Not only for shining such a warm light on my particular approach to presenting these menus but also for sharing of your own experiences from some of the British charter services of the 1970s. On the whole, I've heard they were quite good - as all-economy charter flights go.

Honestly, I can't really fault people born after 1970 for not knowing any better and in many cases being so accepting of today's comparatively lackluster and inferior services, be they inflight catering or the service one receives - or used to receive - at their hometown retailers. Such is the world they grew up in. Service standards and people's expectations were truly higher 40-50 years ago. Today, shareholder satisfaction and profit have Trumped quality service. Yes, airfares are cheaper, but at what cost? Very few seem to appreciate the intangible losses to our quality of inflight services - and in some cases - services in general.

Ah well, thus we have threads like this one, highlighting a largely forgotten and irrelevant age to the most of the under 50 crowd, but enjoyable to revisit nonetheless for those of us who lived it - or were at least aware of it.

And for those who through no fault of their own were born a few years too late, I hope they can at least enjoy a window into how good First Class inflight catering used to be.

For some of us, there is - or at least was - more to a good flight than a sliding door suite, a narrow and cramped Business Class lieflat bed and an IFE with 1000 movies. I particularly miss the social aspect to those shared trolley meal presentations, be it the anticipation of watching others being served or sharing one's excitement with the stewardess serving you or enjoying that same meal with your seatmate.

These days, they just bring people a plate of whatever they've ordered from the galley.

And yes, I've logged fifteen flights aboard Emirates - all of them in First Class. Their food is quite nicely prepared and presented. But the performance art of the trolley is gone, as is the social aspect of everyone - if only one's seatmate - enjoying a good meal together.

Now, it's just the passenger. Snugly locked away behind the sliding doors of their premium class suite.

Something's missing here. Like sitting down to a family dinner. Without the family.

Yes, these are only old menus presented in this thread, but if some here can envision the style and pageantry in which the food therein was presented, hopefully they can feel some of the magic of flight that we once were privileged to have experienced those many years ago.

Bon apetite!