Travel + Leisure - India & South Asia
Healthy Flying
Singapore Airlines’ World Gourmet Forum 2019 highlighted the company’s in-flight food and beverage initiatives for this year. Priyanka Chakrabarti spent a day with SIA’s top chefs to taste the choicest of ingredients blended carefully into exotic dishes t
SINGAPORE AIRLINES’ biennial culinary meet, the World Gourmet Forum 2019, was recently hosted at the Grand Hyatt Singapore. I attended the food fiesta to greet and eat with some of the most celebrated chefs from around the world, who are known to create magic in the kitchen.
On the roster of the airline’s International Culinary Panel (ICP) were Georges Blanc of France, Matt Moran of Australia, Suzanne Goin and Alfred Portale of the United States,
Zhu Jun of China, Carlo Cracco of
Italy, Yoshihiro Murata of Japan, and Sanjeev Kapoor from India. All these maestros whipped up exclusive dishes with regional ingredients from their respective countries.
Chef Murata cooked smoked salmon with miso yolk, firefly squid, asparagus, squid, and bamboo shoot. Chef Jun served up spring crab meat dumplings with seasonal veggies. Chef Cracco cooked lentils with smoked chestnuts, hazelnuts, and passion fruit. Chef Blanc presented roasted chicken breast on morel polenta, courgette, and asparagus. Chef Portale served sea bass with roasted fennel and blood orange emulsion. Chef Moran dished lamb with peas, anchovy, and tarragon gremolata. Lastly, India’s own, Chef Kapoor brought forth smoked shaam savera (spinach ricotta roulade with makhni gravy).
If the mere mention of the dishes makes your mouth water, there’s good news. The menu showcased at the event will be available to guests travelling in suites, First Class, and Business Class of SIA from September 2019. What do these chefs bear in mind while curating a menu for globetrotters? “We try to understand guests’ behaviour, we ask them questions, collect information, understand their likes and dislikes, and then we use that knowledge to create
food that is a delight for all palates,” stated Chef Kapoor.
SIA’s strategy this year centres on providing a luxe dining experience, with four pillars: wellness, sustainability, personalisation, and fine wine initiatives. Flyers can expect farm-totable experiences, seasonal dishes, organic ingredients, and artisanal wines. “Customers are increasingly mindful about their diet and the type of ingredients that go into their meals. A lighter cuisine style is becoming more important in helping health-conscious customers feel more refreshed after their flights,” concluded SIA’s Executive Vice President Commercial, Mak Swee Wah.