Have your food and eat it, too

For most of us, airline food conjures up far-from-appetising images of soggy omelettes, insipid veges and reheated meat.

But Air New Zealand is planning to change that. When its new Boeing 777-300 aircraft take to the skies at the end of the year, travellers will be treated to food cooked from scratch.

Ed Sims, group general manager of the airline's international arm, said the introduction of invection and steam ovens was a world first.

"You're cooking from ingredients, rather than reheating food."

Sims says the new ovens will enhance customer preference.

"For example, you can ask 'how would you like your steak?' as opposed to simply delivering everything in a pre-cooked casserole."

Sims says premium cabin crew will be trained and a small group is working with consultant chefs Peter Gordon, Geoff Scott and Rex Morgan on food preparation and service.

Scott, owner of Auckland restaurant Vinnies, says: "It's a really big step up from where we are now. In the next five years, all international fleets will have these ovens."

Sims says the airline is moving towards grazing-style menus ordered through the inflight entertainment system.

Peter Bentley, general secretary of the Flight Attendants and Related Services Association, said the union was consulting with the airline on how crew would be affected. Concerns include the small number of crew proposed for each flight, with the technology potentially increasing workload.

The service will be launched on flights from Auckland to Melbourne and Los Angeles in December.

Plane and simple

We asked leading chefs what they would cook up using the new technology.

TV foodie Peta Mathias believes people want to eat light food on planes. "You would steam vegetables and you would cook simple things like steak, chicken breasts, veal chops and stuff like that, because you don't want to eat anything heavy."

Stephen Ward, of Auckland's O'Connell St Bistro, said the new technology would tempt him to try a few braised pot roasts during the winter, and it could be the start of bigger things for in-flight food. "You could roast meals to order, and sear something before the flight and finish it off in the ovens."

Herald on Sunday food columnist Paul Jobin, said the new ovens could give him the opportunity to try fish, chicken, steak, prawn and even pizzas. "You could do a classic steak dish with field mushrooms and spinach, pizzas on a nice thin base, and chicken, which can normally be quite dry and without moisture on a plane. The first thing that comes to mind though is fish."

Scott Smith, chef at Auckland restaurant Andiamo, said fish would be the ideal dish to cook fresh on board. "Usually it's cooked and then reheated so to actually cook the fish to order, it would be a lot nicer."