First-class airline passengers can say goodbye to mystery meat.
Prepared airplane meals are on display at the Delta Air Lines Gate Gourmet facility in Erlanger, Kentucky.
While complimentary meals have all but disappeared for most coach flights, there's a whole new culinary landscape for first class. In the latest effort to lure customers and create buzz, airlines are serving up gourmet menus cooked up by celebrity chefs.
Travelers flying to South America or Japan on United Airlines can feast on award-winning chef Charlie Trotter's appetizer of sauteed prawns and crispy short rib wontons with organic Thai barbecue sauce and chilled sweet-and-sour cucumber relish. Going to Europe on American Airlines? Try the rosemary-scented shrimp drizzled with garlic sauce and served with lemon rice and artichokes.
"Everything has been upgraded," says Stephan Pyles, who is known for his creative Southwestern cuisine and has signed on as one of American's three culinary celebrities. "Just as the customer in a restaurant has become more sophisticated, refined and demanding in terms of their food, that demand has filtered to the airlines."
For Delta, hot Miami chef Michelle Bernstein came up with entrees such as roasted chicken breast with goat cheese and pepper pesto crust served with polenta and ratatouille. Pair that with a wine picked out by the airline's sommelier or shake it up with a "Mile High" mojito from Rande Gerber's signature cocktail menu.
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