Five of the best: BYO lunch boxes a top nosh, five-star food flight
Now you can avoid the long-haul hunger with convenient and fresh alternatives to in-flight meals.
Premium airlines have long been wooing the pointy end of the plane with impressive culinary partnerships. For cattle class, however, the only silver service is the foil hiding portions about as generous as the legroom. However, while Nobby’s Nuts may have been replaced with “super food trail mixes”, a new wave of operators is thinking before takeoff and offering BYO adult lunch boxes.
Meals on the Move. Bel Air Hotel, Los Angeles. Chances are guests at this five-star resort travel premium so will get a good meal, anyway, but Meals on the Move has been become popular for its cooked dishes and choice. Guests can place orders via in-room iPads and meals can be made-to-order just before departure, with only an hour’s notice. Many of executive chef Hugo Bolanos’s signature items are on the menu, like Thai chicken salad and the famous Bel Air Club with maple glazed turkey, smoked ham, crispy bacon, gruyere, and fried egg. It’s already good, but is set to get even better as the menu is revamped and extended.
Plane Food. Gordon Ramsay. Located at London Heathrow’s Terminal 5, the celebrity chef’s quickie eatery offers a Cruise Control menu for those with time to kill and a Plane Fast service for express a la carte. The On Board Feast is a plane picnic for those seeking a more discerning in-flight meal. The spillage potential has been taken care of, with everything packed into a small, handheld carry-on, which is easy to navigate around precarious tray tables. For three courses including a starter, main and dessert it’s £14 ($24). Think before you board, as you won’t be getting Hereford rump of beef with green bean salad and mustard in economy.
LVPAir at Las Ventanas Resort Los Cabos, Mexico. In this playground of the rich and famous, LVPAir is the most luxurious lunch box around. The five-star Mexican hotel offers a flyaway gourmet meal packaged in a posh, insulated tote with shoulder strap. “With a menu that is both sophisticated and authentic, with ingredients sourced locally, including from the resort’s very own organic herb and produce garden, LVPAir is incomparable to any airport or airline offering, and allows Las Ventanas to extend the resort experience even after guests have departed,” says managing director Frederic Vidal. As many US airlines no longer offer cooked meals, the hotel says its service caters to those flying commercial carriers as well as the many resort guests travelling by private plane. Meals are picked and packed by the hotel’s executive chef and his team and guests can personalise their meal from the quintessentially Mexican LVPAir’menu.
Breakfast on the Go. Upper House Hotel, Hong Kong. This super luxurious hotel has all bases covered when it comes to feeding guests in a mad rush. Breakfast on the Go is a convenient extended service staffed from 7am-10.30am and catering to early-morning departing guests. There are croissants and pastries as well as more nutritious options There’s takeaway coffee, chocolate milk, bottled cold-pressed juice from Hong Kong’s Mr Green Juice and blueberry yoghurt parfait with flaxseed and pomegranate. It beats muddy coffee, three grapes and a mini pack of cornflakes.
Airline Boxes at Vue de Monde, Melbourne Airport. It’s a long way from fine dining at the Rialto to snack packs on the tarmac at Melbourne International Airport, where Australian chef Shannon Bennett has two Cafe Vue outlets, one before check-in and the other strategically located inside customs. The full-service cafes have a menu and snacks, but the signature Airline Boxes have been designed to take onboard and are easily packed into hand luggage. Changing monthly, there are four items in each pack, with gluten and dairy free options, for about $18. This month’s offering includes baba ghanoush with Turkish bread, egg-and-lettuce sandwich, risoni and a mini profiterole. Beats a frozen bread roll.