Expect a new range of locally-sourced meals to land on the rebooted menu next month.
Singapore Airlines is bringing back its popular Book the Cook service for its non-stop flights from New York and NY-adjacent Newark.
From July, passengers setting out on the near-19 hour treks – which share the gold medal for the world’s longest flight – will once again be able to take advantage of the advance meal order service, which previously saw a dozen bespoke dishes sourced by local suppliers added to SQ’s regular inflight fare.
“We’re rebuilding the Book the Cook network,” Singapore Airlines’ Director of F&B Antony McNeil tells Executive Traveller.
“Singapore has always been there, even during Covid,” and primary cities in the UK and Europe – such as London and Frankfurt – are also back on the menu.
“Our primary focus is to get all the key destinations online,” McNeill says, with New York and Newark next on the list.
“Book the Cook is already available on the A380 service from JFK through Frankfurt into Singapore. And the ultra-long flights, from JFK and Newark, will come online from July.”
“San Francisco is a little bit more challenging, I believe that’s to do with manning resources and so on.”
Singapore Airlines continues to partner with AeroFarms, a Newark-based produce supplier which has pioneered innovative vertical indoor farming ‘aeroponic’ facilities.
“If you can imagine a vertical warehouse with lots of racks and a multitudes of LED lights, that’s a bit like what what it looks like,” McNeil has previously told Executive Traveller.
“They use a water misting system to hydrate the roots of the vegetables, rather than hydroponics where they’d actually sit in water” – a process which uses 95% less water than typical farming.
“There’s LED lighting in varying colours to maximise the nutrient content of the salad greens and the veggies right and enhance their growth patterns,” adds McNeil, who is full of praise for the extraordinary flavour and organic nature of the produce.
“What this does is to serve two purposes. We want to be able to use the freshest produce possible, and we want to be able to reduce our carbon footprint from the farm to the plane, to maximise a ‘farm to plane’ concept.”
McNeill is especially interested in AeroFarms’ bolder, spicier greens which can help overcome passengers’ decreased senses of smell and taste in dried-out airplane cabins.
But as McNeill remarked to Executive Traveller in the pre-pandemic era, “there’s always going to be a burger out of the U.S,” in a nod to what most people would consider to be the USA’s national dish. “There’s always going to be a prime ribeye or a scotch fillet steak.”
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