New chef on culinary panel
 

Indian chef joins Singapore Airlines' culinary panel

Award-winning Indian chef Sanjeev Kapoor has joined Singapore Airlines' international culinary panel, SIA said on Monday.

What do these panel of chefs actually do?

Create a menu, supply a reciepe or two, take responsibility for the quality of food on each flight (I think not), do they visit the kitchens, do they send food from their own kitchens ?

Do they actually mean or do they just act as consultants for given menus on particular flight destinatons

Or are they just selling their reputations to SQ?

Just curious?

I would think they help create recipes (not that easy because of course it's very different from serving a meal in a restaurant), test them, probably visit the catering centers, things like that. They don't send food from their own kitchens, of course. I highly doubt that they are only paid to use their name.

Well I guess you don't remember....taste buds act differently at 35,000 feet :) One thing that comes to mind when you menton catering center....bunnysuits or shall I say kimono?

:D On the contrary, actually I quite clearly remember that part of the lesson (and yes, the "kimonos" and shower caps too), but I didn't want to get too technical. :p Suffice it to say it's not easy to create and prepare food that's going to be served on an SQ flight!

... but, at least in Y, the food exclusively created by name chefs doesn't taste that wonderful or different from normal airline food. In that respect, I'd say it's largely a use of their name.

Even the food in J or F, from the pictures I've seen, doesn't compare at all (in my opinion) to what you'd get in a proper high class restaurant on the ground. It's just not possible with the limitations imposed by aircraft meals!

SQ likes to boost that they have some kind of testing machine at SIN changi airport catering which simulate 35000 feet but for a certain period in the past, i have seen complaints on how awful the food in Y is sometimes especially eggs.

Wasn't there supposed to be another Indian chef?

SQ also uses steamers to heat up the food in flight, compared to microwaves on other airlines. While it's true that taste buds react differently at 35,000 feet and that airline food in general leaves much to be desired, we should give credit to SQ for at least trying to do something to get as close to the "real thing" as possible. How many other airlines even bother to do this?

By the way, Sanjeev is indeed SQ's only Indian chef now. I don't recall seeing any other Indian chefs in the menus on recent flights.

Loony

Satish Arora e.g.

http://www.asiacuisine.com.sg/singch....php3?Issue=21

Agree with you, Loony. And I've had some surprisingly good food in SQ J and F--near-restaurant quality, IMO. Admittedly Y is another matter, but you need to compare that to other airlines, not restaurants.

They may not even be paid 'for the international publicity' they receive. :D

There must be some positive publicity they receive from being part of the "culinary panel," but if so then they also must ensure that the food being served under their name is good enough not to damage their reputations on the ground. :) I guess it's somewhat of a risk in any case.

Yeah, don't eat anything that's created by Gordon Ramsay! :o

Do the chefs in the panel create only those specially-highlighted recipes we find in the inflight menu? How about the BTC items? BTC is supposed to allow us the flexibility to choose what we want to eat beforehand, but are they supposed to be "normal" fare? It feels a little strange to know that regular fare is supposed to taste better than BTC offerings. :o

Loony