snaxmuppet

I find the BA J & F menus to be rather stuffy in both options and presentation. Just because we are travelling in J/F doesn't mean we all eat in top restaurants and understand the culinary words they use. I never eat in fancy restaurants and I find the BA menus rather intimidating and difficult to understand exactly what is being served with all the fancy wording.

corporate-wage-slave

and it's difficult to balance that against those customers who look forward to something more adventurous than comfort food on their exciting trip to New York. Now I doubt this is easily reconciled, and I'm guessing you find the menu in post 1 falls into the category of "fancy". However the menus are put online in advance, for the main meal leaving London at least, and so that gives people a chance to research the wording. I guess in the ideal world the menu would have a descriptive line underneath explaining the items in a bit more detail so that passengers can be comfortable to order something with an unusual name.

Severn40

There's been a bit of research about how the restaurant trade uses florid language in menus to increase sales/margins and change customer perception that they are getting something more special. I don't suppose 'meat and two veg with a fancy sauce' would cut it? I do find it amusing how some establishments use the source of the food in this way (e.g. Shropshire chicken sounds more special than would Bedfordshire chicken)

Pascoe

So I took a look at the menu selection option in MMB today. The gnocchi is allegedly, if the website is to be believed, to be served with 'curry mustard sauce' rather than cafe de Paris. So they have already had time to read this post on FT (barely 1h old) and make the appropriate changes to the website menu wording so we're not all too intimidated to board.

I am seriously impressed now

JALlover

I always thought cafe de Paris is a butter-based sauce!

Didn't expect it to change to curry mustard

missdimeaner

I pre booked this about 3ish weeks ago and it was a curry mustard sauce then.
I never saw it being described as anything else. I have been known to google menu items that I didn't know !

rockflyertalk

I'm sure 'googling' stuff takes away the excitement, unknown and enjoyment of trying something new. But I understand it helps if you have any food allergies/special requirements.

It's great to hear about something new coming to BA. A positive thread at least!

missdimeaner

Yep - I have my very own MrAllergic so I checked out some unfamiliar terms (which is a lot being a bit of a food and wine pleb).
I am looking forward to checking the new service out .

Flexible preferences

Cafe Rouge does a Cafe de Paris butter and it is remarkably good. I tried it for the first time last week - apparently it has 22 different ingredients. I'm presuming the flavour on the BA menu would be similar.

choosethedrew

I do love a good curry butter - two of my favourite flavours - but on a recent KUL - LHR it was nowhere to be seen despite its presence on the menu.

FrancisA

No misuse of English, I'm afraid; just the usual arrogance of my fellow countryman. Most American English is superior to British English in terms of spelling (avoiding the 18th century attempt to make English more French) and grammar (preservation of subjunctive, optative and strong past participles like "gotten").

The entree is the course before the removes and the roast. It is not a starter (there are hors d'œuvres, soup and fish courses before the entree).

The American use correctly reflects its place in the middle of the meal, even if you reduce the number of courses down from 10.

Of course the French use the term differently, but we are talking English here.

Perhaps we should be a little more understanding that us Brits are very far from perfect?

Tobias-UK

Wash your mouth out, you heathen!

corporate-wage-slave

I must protest, you overlooked the sorbet before the roast.

bafan

That's why they should perhaps go back to having a 'comfort food/British classic' dish on the menu - fish pie, cottage pie or steak and kidney pudding - along with a few more exciting, Michelin style dishes. Which would be another good reason for having a choice of 4 rather than 3 mains on the menu.

Blueboys999

I tend to agree as several people of my aquaintance would not fancy any of those mains. I do like the comfort of a traditional British dish especially when I have been out of the country for a while.

One if the few memorable airline meals I've had was a very good BA Lamb Shank Shepherds Pie which seems to be no more.