'Chef's Special' on the in-flight menu

'Chef's Special' on the in-flight menu Rasheeda Bhagat

Sanjeev Kapoor puts together Shahi Thali for Singapore Airlines.

TASTE OF INDIA: Chef Sanjeev Kapoor wields the ladle with the staff of Singapore Airlines. Even as Singapore Airlines (SIA) has signed on Indian culinary maestro Sanjeev Kapoor as the ninth member of its International Culinary Panel of world-renowned chefs, and has introduced the Shahi Thali put together by Kapoor from August 1 for its first-class passengers, the chef himself has a typically simple answer for what Indian passengers seek at altitudes of over 35,000 ft. "Specially on the return sector, and for those Indians who have been overseas for two weeks or so and are returning to India and need some comfort foods, on return flights I'm recommending curd rice with pickles. Now people might turn around and ask: 'What is so special about this?' And I say, it's nothing special; but you have to realise that people who are returning home require some comfort food and would think this is delicious food." He adds that it's not always necessary to do "exotic things, you just have to do the right things. Give people what they want; that's the important thing." Coming to the Shahi Thali, which is available to only first-class SIA passengers, it is a mix of both North Indian and South Indian cuisine, comprising a starter, two types of chutneys, up to four entrees, rice, rotis and a signature dessert. Lassi and masala tea complete the dining experience. "The basic idea is to give these passengers a feel of good Indian food," he adds. The homework that Kapoor has done with frequent flyers shows that for breakfast most air passengers prefer South Indian food. "Of course, the normal idli-dosa is there, but we are presenting it with a different touch. For instance, instead of idli we'll give Mangalorean Khottay cooked in jackfruit leaf." But for the main meal the preference was more towards North Indian style of food, and "so we have dum style chicken — Murgh Dhanya Korma, but without making it heavy and cutting down on the oil." And, "as people don't mind mixing North and South Indian food, I might give them Murgh Dhaniya Korma with lemon rice!" On whether only the first-class passengers will have their palates pampered by his expertise, Kapoor says: "Not at all, economy-class passengers ke liye abhi dimag laga rahey hei and it's on the cards... " But he concedes that the toughie is the Indian dessert. "For desserts, hamarey waha badi problem hoti hei, as Indian desserts tend to be too sweet. So I'm going to experiment with desserts." The one he describes in detail is mouth watering enough. Split ras malai into two halves, put black cherry cream in the centre, top it with chocolate shavings and serve with mango puree. "That way we'll be cutting down a little bit on the sweetness." Betty Wong, Vice-President, Inflight Services, SIA, says the airline is excited about having Kapoor on board. On passenger preferences, she says, these tend to go in line with the sector. "People's preferences fluctuate, depending not only on the sector but also the day of travel, as some people turn vegetarian on some days of the week. And on some days you want to indulge and on some other days you want to watch your waist!" Asked if food habits are changing and more people are opting for vegetarian food, she says, "We do notice that some groups prefer healthier choices, so in May this year we launched a healthier option in our first and business class, in which you can get either a meatless choice or a low-carbohydrate or low-cholesterol diet." Coming to alcohol intake, Wong agrees that in accordance with advice from health experts that while flying one should keep alcohol intake down, "Heavy alcohol intake has come down. And wine continues to be popular, more so during meals, so our wines mostly accompany the meals. We find that over the years there has been a shift from hard liquor to more wine, that is why we carry a wide variety of wines on our flights." She says that Indian food is becoming popular on other sectors too and "we do plan to introduce the Shahi thali on other sectors; to begin with it'll be confined to the Indian sectors." Wong adds that SIA does passenger surveys all the time to gauge the satisfaction levels of its passengers on the food served onboard. Do passengers grumble when they don't get their particular choice of the main course? "We have 75,000 meals flying in a day, so the opportunity of something going wrong for some passenger will always be there. To err is human; but we have a constant consultation with our crew to gauge that on one sector fish is more popular and so on."

For example, on the Singapore-San Francisco flights, fish is more popular than beef. "So we will tweak the numbers to carry more fish than beef on this flight; we do such things constantly, but can't get it perfectly right always. Beef would be more popular in European sector and pork in the Chinese sector." In the Indian sector SIA does not serve pork and beef. "We're very enthused by what our passengers say and will continuously innovate and refresh our products," is her promise.

thanks for this article priyanka.Wow! I live in singapores,so I would love to take a flight which serves sanjeev's food 😃

U Welcome

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Hencefort please do not use caps. !
Pia

KK IF Dev Team

thanks for the article priyanka. i think singapore airlines is stressing on food is good news. i remember my MIL travelled through singapore airlines once and she said food is really good there...'coz everytime when i go to india..man they have such nasty food 🤢

yes soumya,SQ serves decent food always.quality is good.