盡管航空餐食在美食界沒有什么名氣，但它屬于相對近現代的一個特權，而且并非所有的飛機乘客一直都能吃到。航空餐食首次出現于1919年，由執行倫敦到巴黎航線任務的Handley-Page航班提供。2017年的《旅游+休閑》雜志稱，當時的可選菜品“通常包括冷炸雞，水果沙拉和制作精美的三明治，盛放在柳條籃中，柳條籃下方則是當時最輕的陶瓷器皿。”

在科技的進一步推動下，飛機功能不斷發展，乘客在上個世紀30年代見證了機上廚房的誕生，它將以果腹目的的食品變為了更加貼心的體驗。烹飪歷史學家、《空中的食品：令人吃驚的航空餐飲歷史》一書的作者理查德·福斯向《旅游+ 休閑》雜志透露，“有時候，飛機甚至會為了使用午餐而降落，在航班掛架或在餐桌上為客戶提供餐食，而飛機則在加油后繼續完成剩余的行程。”

在上個世紀40年代，幾何形狀的托盤（我們如今所熟悉的托盤的雛形）中出現了冷凍食品的身影。當機上餐飲成為一項固定服務時，航空公司采用了各種辦法來節省時間，包括將玻璃器皿改為塑料器皿，減少了機上乘務員洗碗的時間。由于被冷凍的食品會可在放置數小時后向乘客提供，乘客因此而獲得了更加豐富的菜單選項。這一事實伴隨著航班成本的下降，而航空公司甚至將重點也轉移至如何準備食物以及如何在飛機上提供餐飲服務。

Although not renowned for their excellence in culinary circles, in-flight meals are a relatively recent privilege to which fliers haven’t always been treated. The first ever airline meal was served in 1919 on a Handley-Page flight from London to Paris. According to Travel + Leisure in 2017, selections at the time “typically included cold fried chicken, fruit salads and elegantly composed sandwiches, served in wicker baskets on the lightest chinaware servers could find.”

As technology propelled planes’ capabilities further, fliers witnessed the arrival of on-board kitchens in the 1930s, which turned the food offerings from mere sustenance to more thought-through experiences. According to Richard Foss, a culinary historian and author of Food in the Air and Space: The Surprising History of Food and Drink in the Skies, told Travel + Leisure that “sometimes planes would even stop off for lunch, serving customers in the airline hanger or at picnic tables while the plane refueled before continuing with the remainder of the trip.”

It was in the 1940s when frozen meals began making their way into the geometric trays we consider familiar today began to take shape. A variety of methods to save time when serving began to take hold, including the discarding of glassware for plastic, cutting off the need for the crew to wash dishes. The ability to freeze food and serve it hours later eventually led to more menu choices—a fact that, paired with lower flight costs, shifted even more focus on the ways the food was being prepared and served on board.

它又將我們帶回到今天：明星大廚與航空公司聯袂推出更加新穎、豪華的餐食，全世界對健康關注的提升，旅行頻率的增加，以及互聯網的到來，能夠讓乘客們對其乘機體驗進行公開評價（這個趨勢最終影響了機票銷售）。有鑒于上述所有因素，人們對機上餐飲的預期比以往任何時候都要高。

菜單策劃

產品開發總監瑪利亞·斯特亞諾娃估計，全球大概有12家知名的公司能夠提供專業的航空餐飲服務。她說：“雖然他們工作的設施跟倉庫一樣，但在制作航空公司專用食品方面卻是異常的井井有條。”餐飲服務會聘請專家級的航空大廚來設計菜單，并在公司內部制作餐飲，然后按照約束航空業的眾多法律法規，在其所在的地區銷售其食品。

作為全球最大的機上餐飲服務提供商之一，LSG Sky Chefs的合作方包括捷藍航空、美國航空和達美航空等。公司網站稱，“其主要業務功能是為國內、國際航班準備、提供餐飲和零食” 。

在設計菜單時，大廚非常在意海拔和氣壓對乘客味蕾的影響。機艙內氣壓會達到海平面6,000-8,000英尺海拔高度的水平，因此，在機艙內烹飪新鮮餐食幾乎是不可能的，而且也會改變即將提供的預先封裝食品的味道。受高度影響，部分味蕾和嗅覺也會變得麻木，而這也間接要求食品制作商增加一些旅客們在地面上并不需要的味道。

Which brings us back to today: Newer, lavish meals thought up by celebrity chefs in partnership with airlines, a greater focus on health globally, a higher frequency of travel, and the advent of the Internet, enabling passengers to to publicly review their on-board experiences (a trend that ends up affecting ticket sales). Take all that together and expectations placed upon airline meals are higher than ever before.

Menu Planning

There are probably a dozen well-known companies with dedicated catering services for airlines, estimates Mariya Stoyanova, director of product development at JetBlue Airways. “They work out of warehouse-like facilities, but are very well organized to produce food specifically for airlines,” she says. The catering services hire expert airline chefs to work out menus, produce the meals in-house, and deliver them across their region obeying the many laws and guidelines that dominate the flying industry.

One of the world’s largest providers of in-flight catering and services is LSG Sky Chefs. Working with JetBlue, American Airlines, and Delta, among others, LSG Sky Chefs’ “primary business function is to prepare and deliver meals, beverages and snacks to aircraft for domestic and international flights,” according to the company’s website.

In drafting a menu, chefs are hyper aware of the effect that altitude and air pressure have on fliers’ taste buds. The air pressure in cabins climbs to 6,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level, which makes the preparation of fresh meals on-board nearly impossible and also mutates the flavor of the pre-packaged food that is being served. Taste buds and the sense of smell go partially “numb” given the altitude, indirectly requiring food purveyors to add kicks of flavor that fare consumed on the ground doesn’t call for.

在餐飲中添加額外的鹽和調味醬似乎是一種常見的做法。斯特亞諾娃對此表示認同：“你的味蕾在空中會發生變化”。隨后她又評價了捷藍航空的首選應對方法：“我們試圖利用新鮮的植物、辛香料、熱度和鮮味來提味，只是為了確保餐飲的本應具有的口感和嗅覺。”

1994-2001年期間LSG Sky Chefs倫敦希斯羅機場IT與規劃經理奧爾夫·帕梅爾斯對斯特亞諾娃有關周邊環境的觀點表示認同，他解釋說：“未來會受到海拔的影響。因此設計菜單的各位行政主廚一直嘗試在不超過餐飲預算成本的情況下改善口感。”

在精簡餐飲成本方面，帕梅爾斯解釋說，航空公司通常會設定每份餐飲的成本，而餐飲公司則會按照這個成本來制作餐飲。他還表示：“食物放的太多，公司就會虧本，食物不夠，又會被罰，因此這些公司通常是食品制作工廠、快餐提供商和食品經銷商的結合體。”

一流的大廚

與大廚合作已經成為了這些飛行行家經常采用的一種方式，因為此舉可以在不超過預算和法律界限的情況下提升其服務質量。捷藍航空圍繞自行推出的“全新的高端旅行體驗”Mint，與紐約市Saxon + Parole團隊開展合作，主打“藝術餐飲”服務。法航曾與大廚喬爾·羅布康合作。新加坡航空在數年前啟用了戈登·拉姆西，聘請其擔任顧問。2011年，英航邀請希斯頓·布魯門徹來提供其專長。

雖然乘客記住的是實際提供的食物，但這類食物的準備過程（受到行業標準嚴格約束的一種操作）才是決定食物“健康與否”的關鍵要素。

帕梅爾斯解釋說：“餐飲組件可在航班起飛前24小時通過冷凍方式運輸并進行密封。因此，如果計算供應商最初的制作和儲存時間，有些食品在擺上桌板之前可能已經放置了2-3天之久。為了讓餐車能夠符合食品安全標準，它們必須在冷藏區域先放置2-3個小時，以達到所需的溫度。”

Peppering each meal with extra salt and sauces seems to be common practice. “Your taste buds are not the same in the air,” confirms Stoyanova, before addressing JetBlue’s preferred practices: “We try to bring the flavor forward with fresh herbs, spices, heat, umami—just to make sure it tastes and smells the way it’s supposed to be.”

Alf Pomells, the IT and planning manager for LSG Sky Chefs at London Heathrow between 1994 and 2001, echoes Stoyanova’s point about the surrounding environment: “Taste buds are affected by altitude,” he explains. “So the executive chefs who design the menus are constantly trying to balance improved taste versus the budgeted cost of the meal.”

In budgeting meal costs, Pomells explains, airlines usually set a cost per meal, and the caterer tries to manufacture a meal in line with that cost. “Put too much food,” he continues, “and they lose money, don’t put enough and there will be penalties to be paid—so they are a combination of factory, fast food provider, and food distributor.

First Class Chefs

Partnering with chefs has become a popular way across these flying couriers to step up the quality of their offerings while remaining within budget and lawful parameters. JetBlue works with the team at New York City’s Saxon + Parole on the airline’s Mint experience, a self-defined “refreshing take on a premium travel experience” featuring “artisanal dining” offerings. Air France once partnered with Joel Robuchon. Singapore Airlines enlisted the help of Gordon Ramsay as a consultant years ago, and Heston Blumenthal was tapped by British Airways back in 2011 for his expertise.

Although the actual food being served is what passengers remember, it is the preparation of said food—a practice highly guarded by industry standards—that determines the “healthiness” of it all.

“Meal components can be brought in frozen and assembled up to 24 hours before a flight,” explains Pomells. “So, once you add the original pre- and storage time for the vendors, some of the food could be 2-3 days [old] before consumption. In order for the carts to comply with food safety standards, they have to sit in a refrigerated area for two to three hours to get down to the required temperature.”

當然，各家航空公司的流程略有不同。斯特亞諾娃敦促捷藍航空不要使用任何冷凍食品。她說：“我們的理念是，所有的食物都應該用新鮮材料制作。”

帕梅爾斯則進一步指出，他所見到的“最新鮮的”食物僅面向商務和頭等艙乘客提供，“僅僅是因為用餐的人要少得多。”他說，航空公司配有專業的團隊為這些乘客手工制作所有餐飲，因此這就是“坐在餐館里點菜與開車在道邊快餐店取餐的區別”。

冷凍食品的是與非

總的來說，冷凍食品在航空界的經歷比較坎坷。美聯航前空乘（1968-2009年）戴安娜·戈沃說：“1968年，飛機上的食物非常好，主要原因在于航空公司有自己的廚房。如今，它們使用的是外部提供商，因此并不受航空公司的控制。在過去，紐約航班會從當地熟食店采購熏鮭魚，這些鮭魚是如此之美味，以至于一些女士會將其放在自己的手提包中！”

雖然帕梅爾斯和戈沃曾對當前航空公司在提供餐食時的一些做法表示了明確的譴責，但他們也認為，從整體來講，機上餐飲應遵從某些可靠的衛生標準。帕梅爾斯說：“我每一年都會飛十幾次，盡管大多數食物也就勉強達到了平均水平，但總比餓肚子強。因此，即便是為了攝取食物中的能量，這些餐食也是必要的，而且其品質也在改善。”當被問及自己在飛機上所提供的食物是否健康時，戈沃回答道：“是的。我也會吃機上餐食，都是那些頭等艙和經濟艙剩下的食物。”

那么餐廳是如何在遵守各市衛生檢查員要求的同時，還能利用獨到的菜單來滿足乘客的各類需求？那是因為全球航空公司餐飲服務會制作不同品質的食物。帕梅爾斯稱，就空中旅行而言，乘客通常會發現，各家航空公司的餐飲存在參差不齊的現象。

帕梅爾斯說：“當你坐飛機時，你享用的餐食可能來自于兩到三家不同的公司，并非所有的航空公司在各個國家都有廚房，每個機場就更少了。你從希斯羅到迪拜航段的餐食可能十分可口，但從迪拜到吉隆坡的下一餐則是由不同廚房準備的，而且[來自于]不同廚師提供的不同菜單。”

帕梅爾斯認為，最好總是根據飲食限制來索要特別的餐食。為什么？特別餐食是在起飛前預訂的，因此也就更新鮮，而且更接近航空公司大廚的原創菜單。（財富中文網）

譯者：馮豐

審校：夏林

Of course, processes slightly differ across the aisles. Stoyanova urges that JetBlue doesn’t use anything frozen. “Our philosophy is everything needs to be made with fresh ingredients,” she says.”

Pomells advances that the “freshest” meals he’s seen are catered to first and business class passengers, “simply because the numbers are a lot lower.” Those fliers, he says, are entrusted to dedicated teams that hand-prepare all the meals, so it’s the difference between getting “an à la carte meal from a restaurant and getting a meal from a drive-through takeaway.”

Futzing With Frozen Food

Frozen meals, in general, have an uneasy history in the airline industry. “In 1968, the food was very good, mainly due to the fact that the airlines had their own kitchens” says Diana Goo, a former flight attendant at United Airlines from 1968 to 2009. “Now, they are using outside vendors, which takes the control out of the airlines’ hands. In the past, the New York flights had lox from the local delis—it was so good that some of the women stashed it in their handbags!”

Although clearly denouncing some of the practices currently used to provide fliers with foods, Pomells and Goo agree that, overall, in-flight meals abide by some sort of trustworthy health standard. “I fly up to a dozen times a year and, while most food is barely average, it’s better than going hungry,” says Pomells. “So even if it’s just for the energy it provides, the meals are necessary and the quality is improving.” When asked whether she considered the food she served on planes healthy, Goo responds “Yes. I ate the in-flight meals [also], whatever was left over from first class and coach.”

And just how restaurants follow municipal health inspector guidelines but answer those requirements in all different ways with unique menus, airline catering services across the globe produce foods of differing qualities. In the case of air travel, the variation between carriers is usually what people are observing, according to Pomells.

“When you take a flight, you can be catered by two or three different companies, as not all have kitchens in every country, much less every airport,” Pomells says. “The meal you get from Heathrow to Dubai might be great, but your next meal from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur is prepared by a different kitchen, [following] a different menu with different chefs.”

Pomells suggests the best thing to do is always request a special meal based on dietary restrictions. Why? Special meals are ordered closer to take off, making them fresher and closer to the airline chef’s original vision for the menu.