I am one of these people. Never heard of her before, and thanks to DL I have no interest in seeking out her food. I assume a meal at one of her restaurant would be 100x nicer than DL's BE slop, nevertheless I have no interest in the Michelle brand.

Try the transcon BE food by Michael Chiarello!
It is really good^
Very good italian, surprisingly better than AZ meal:)
I love it but DL is American not Italian...
I found it too Italian for US airlines even though I love it:D

If DL had decent/mediocre American food, say under the Applebee's or Chili's brand (not sure if they have frozen microwave heatable food already under their brand, but if they do, just adapt that for heating in the aircraft), that'd be good enough. More than good enough. A lot better than the "Bernstein" meals we have to stomack now. Would not be on par with some other SkyTeam airlines still, but a lot better than what we have now.

This is not how airline catering works though - particularly for BE.

Ideally, for J or F cabins, the proteins - so your chicken breast, beef filet etc. are heated separately in one container.

The vegetables, and starch side (mash, wild rice, etc.) are also heated in separate containers, and the sauce/gravy/jus etc. can also be heated in it's own container.

The galley FA then "assembles" the meal with the respective components which, by heating separately, allows for a more precise control and avoids wilting or over-heating of the vegetables etc.

It is quite possible to produce good quality entrees which are tasty and survive the more hardy environment of reheating at altitude. I speak from experience from a career in a previous life ;)

Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether you call it Applebee's, Chilis, or Michelle Bernstein - you're still going to end up with sub par dishes if the basic ingredient quality is poor, the flight kitchens than prepare it are not consistent, and/or if the cabin staff aren't trained (or don't bother) to prepare and serve it correctly onboard.

Now if your question is the actual concept of the Michelle Bernstein dishes versus "American Applebee's" menus, then that's a different discussion.

I'd be happy with just some good caviar, cheeses, crackers, and a few other heavy apps and spend the $ on real good wines. Nothing better than a 7:30AM cab ride in Paris still goggle eyed and stinking of fish eggs...

I think we're on to something here... any airlines that serve caviar and blinis with good chilled vodka?

Michelle Bernstein seems as happy to slap her name on any crap that will issue her a paycheck as is Wolfgang Schmuck, Emeril "Bam" Lagasse etc...

Complicated is fine if you can pull it off on the ground. But in the air? Let's start with a simple cold salami sandwich on baguette made from fine ingredients, and slowly work up from there.

The best meal I eat on a Delta flight is when I have time to stop at Surdyk's Flights in MSP before flying. On Monday the 20th I had a great smoked salmon salad, and salami/cheese plate. There's no reason at all why Delta couldn't be serving this sort of thing - or in this case the exact damn same thing - wheeled over to the airplane on golf carts Just In Time for the flight for the 10-30 people in FC.

LH still does in First.

http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/...tter/LH1st.jpg

That's the menu of SU flights in business (e.g. usually caviar apetizer).

SU. Try it.

It doesn't taste very good though.

Best meal I ever had on a plane (and this includes front cabin on most of the top-tier Asian carriers) was back in the mid/late 90s, when United offered a McDonalds cheeseburger and carrot sticks as a children's menu option. The response of the FA serving that to me in First was also amusing (not to mention the number of times my seatmate looked over at my meal enviously). Plus, there was a toy. :)

That is hot right there!

I could see some MBA who is over the purchasing department at Delta patting himself on the back for saving $ by getting salmon "caviar" instead. It would include a 30 page powerpoint with built in animations.

Ya, I think it is best if Delta just stayed away from being luxury poseurs... it just is not in their DNA....

+1 Just the other day I had a steak tartar on an AF flight, that thing was so undercooked, it was almost raw. Unacceptable. I almost asked the FA to put it back in the microwave. I mean, that thing was practically cold.

On my MIA to LHR flight on DL last year I had a steak that was among the best I've had anywhere, not just on airplanes. It was perfectly cooked medium rare and the accompanying sides were just as tasty.

Sometimes the stars align and DL BE food is good, I'm glad to hear it still happens. One out of every 10 or so flights I give the steak a shot, but it's usually grainy with a cardboard flavor. IMO there are only two always-safe options, neither of which excites me, but they get the job done:

1) Japanese option to NRT
2) 'champagne' supper, aka cold plate