Where has this year gone!!!!!!!!!!!.

Already now finished designing the winter menus for December, January and February. which means we must only be 8 weeks away from Christmas, time has flown by.

Here are some of the highlights for BA First Class for winter menus. as you will see we have tried to be as innovative as we can with use of winter ingredients, lots of root vegetables, some seafood and a few indulgent treats.



Here we have the amuse bouche for February its a Mini Potted Grimsby Shrimps with Melba Toast and the valentine dessert for February a Heart Shaped Panna Cotta with Winter Berry Coulis. As winter is the theme we have a lovely comfort dish of vanilla risotto with candid fruit and a caramelised poached pear.



As you may have gathered from previous posts we have a strong relationship with Loche Fyne and they supply all our fish for first class. so this seasons highlights are loche Duarte in December, Wild Monk Fish in January and then Wild Sea Bass in February. below you will see the spiced cornmeal crusted monk fish with braised puy lentils and a curry leaf and preserved lemon dressing. the sea bass is served with a swede and parsnip gratin, charred tender stem broccoli and a cockle and clam vinaigrette. All I can say is the quality of the fish makes my job much easier.




Another highlight has to be Beetroot for me in winter it is a superb vegetable and very versatile. Here we have combined a salad of Warm Smoked Mozzarella, orange fillets, roasted pistachios and baby beetroots this is served with an orange pistachio dressing. The other Dish is for January its beetroot ravioli with pecorino cheese and a beetroot and scallion dressing. simple but effective. the pasta is made by a great company Called UGO the have been pasta in London for about 50 years in fact its said they used to make pasta for the Italian restaurants and the noodles for most of china town.




last preview dishes are a simple paella with king prawn served with a lovely marinated fennel salad and a chicory tart tatin with a pomegranate salad and orange formage blanc.




will post more soon when i get a spare 5 minutes. hope you enjoy the sneak peak at some of the new first dishes for winter. remember it is airline food. Not all ways a chicken curry or beef stew.

Happy cooking


Steve

What a mad few months its been. we have been working hard on the new autumn menus, plus making sure the summer menus get up and running smoothly. we had a lot to catch up on after the strikes. although BA did a grand job on running a service while the crew were striking we had to change a lot of what we did to accommodate the contingency plan. So life here is almost back to normal and going in the right direction. The focus was on Autumn with the airline wanting to showcase the season and local sourcing better within the menus. This was great for us as we get to really push the team to try and come up with something new and exciting. we also thought we would go a bit Retro with some of the dishes. Bringing in some classic dishes with a modern twist such as beef wellington, coq au vin, even managed to reinvent a blanchmange thanks to our friends at Lasting Impressions (dessert company). below are a few highlights of the sept, oct, november menus that you will see in first class.

yet again our great friends at loch fyne will be supplying us with some great offerings for the summer menus with wild cod, guilt head bream and sea trout. all fresh and caught of the British coast or farmed locally. For me its a brilliant asset to the menus as we get the best quality at the best time of the year. also their new recipe gravidlax and bradon orach smoked salmon will be making an appearence. all i can say is these products are a different league to most smoked salmon products.
















As well as the new menus we have started to look at how can we change things for the future. the biggest issues for most airlines is the crockery and style of service. So we took the bait to say well if we could do anything how would we like to serve the food. so below are just a few little concepts that we feel take the dishes to a different level. nothing mind blowing just a few subtle changes and an easier style can make a big difference





Also managed to have a bit of down time as well, getting a couple of days at TASTE of LONDON in Regents Park. This is a cracking event and a real chance to see what is going on in London and Britain with food. Or should i say a great bit of networking and trying to eat at every stand. not forgetting my great mates at Lovely Bubbly. who produce the best champagnes around and the good news is they are a BRITISH company based up north that make everything here. check them out www.lovelybubbly.co.uk . you won't be disappointed. Suffered a bit the following day but nice to let my hair down and be on the customer side for a change.

Happy cooking People

Steve

Strange times at the moment, this volcano business has turned everything on its head. Heathrow went from being a busy hustle and bustle to an absolute ghost town in one fail swoop. One minute we are all full steam ahead and the next the tumble weeds are rolling through...

Good news for us is that we finished all our summer menu presentations for June, July and August for first class British Airways last week. Still a bit strange that I have to design seasonal dishes one season ahead. But we have great suppliers and companies that really help us to get the best products possible.

We have now completely changed the way airline food for all our customers is sourced, presented and designed. Yes you will see “chicken or beef” or as the crew call it “feather or Leather" as such, but this is not the only choice. It's hard to try and change something that has a funny reputation as it's been the same for years. The reason is simple; it is such a complex process that certain dishes simply cannot be done, but with the application of new techniques and processes, it means we getting closer to achieving even more than ever before.

So what are some of the highlights on the summer menus?... Well where do I start. We have worked closely with Loch Fyne fisheries to come up with locally sourced or farmed fish for the menus and they have come back with Loch Duart Salmon, gilt head bream and monk fish. So we designed 2 assiettes and a bouillabaisse. They have also a new product citrus marinated smoked salmon which is perfect summer product.







We have a good mix of retro, classic dishes and modern twists to try and tantalize the taste buds. The gressingham duck is fabulous with its roasted crown and confit drumstick served with a celeriac and potato rosti, marinated cherries and roasted vegetables. We have Hereford sirloin Beef with Pont Neurf and Béarnaise sauce which is a beautiful piece of beef and British. Warm salad of poached egg with English asparagus and a pea and broad bean dressing is another great end of spring start of summer highlight. Also one of my favorite desserts a chocolate fondant with white chocolate ice cream, salted caramel and a hazel nut tuile. Hardly a light summer dessert but works really well.









Other companies that have helped are patchwork pates in Wales they make fabulous hummus, pates and mousses. Starke Naked Pesto’s are by far the best made pesto’s in the market. They keep their colour and flavour perfectly. They are based in Suffolk. Our meat and poultry is all from local farms such as ginger pig and drover foods in Ireland. So as far as we can, we champion British products where possible. Just so you get an idea I have attached a picture of the meal kit and the plated version so you can see that its not all pre–loaded onto plates or bowls and re – heated and is all made fresh.

We design not only the food but the plating guide too. It’s a bit like the chef cooking it and then the front of house staff following a plating manual to the chefs spec. Give them their credit the Cabin Crew have a tough job and the fact they try and cook and plate the food to a restaurant standard as well as serve and do everything else at 30,000 feet, I believe they are worth their weight in gold. So next time your on a plane have a think about the whole menu and work behind it. You will be amazed what actually goes on. Remember it may not be cutting edge but with what we have to work with, we do try and do a first class job, also as an idea we cater for about 17,500 passengers a day out of Heathrow alone. That’s a lot of food.

Happy Cooking