Private catering
 

Just watching The World's Most Expensive Food on C4. It's mostly about private jet dining with a company called On air Dining. But I was thinking they could have lots of potential customers who fly in F on commerical airlines. I cant stand the food sometimes so it would be nice to have it prepared by a private chef if I could pay extra.

I wouldn't expect a commercial airline to cook or serve (whether they would allow the use of their silverware it questionable but usually there aren't any extra plates, etc. on board) outside food unless it was somehow ordered through the airline. [I'm thinking of the AF system where coach and premium economy passengers can order and prepay for special gourmet meals in advance, IIRC duck breast or Italian. I'm not sure whether they come from AF's normal catering supplier.] If the food is ready to eat and doesn't require refrigeration, you could certainly open the package and eat it in a self sufficient way, with or without beverages supplied by the airline (but on almost all airlines, you cannot consume your own alcohol on board).

I can see a market in Y cabins whereby an entire sealed package is delivered to the gate by the caterer or where the passenger picks it up at a storefront past security and before boarding, and carries it on just as you would any other snack.

I cannot conceive of any carrier getting into dueling catering. Between food safety liability, different cooking approaches, limited crew & galley space, there is no particular way to get this done and likely little market.

This thread was originally posted in the BA forum but because it is not BA-specific, it has been moved to TravelBuzz.

LTN Phobia
Moderator: BA forum

It was interesting to hear the chap from On Air Dining say that the average F meal was between £4 and £10.

some luxury hotels have advertised ability to arrange gourmet carryon meals

There were some programmes on BBC2 a few of weeks ago with Alex Polizzi helping restaurants find new head chef. (it was a sort of Hotel Inspector meets Master Chef)

Many were saying that their budget for the ingredients was

Starter - £2-£3
Main - £5-7
Dessert - £2-£3


And airlines would be able to do a lot better (via their caterers) in getting those costs lower due to bulk supply discounts.