FLYBANGKOKAIR
Bangkok Airways has joined hands with one of Thailand’s most celebrated chefs, Chef McDang, offering a whole new concept and look for their in-flight menus. Starting from 1 January 2018, the new menus will be available on all Bangkok Airways flights (Domestic and International).
Mr. Puttipong Prasathong O-soth, President of Bangkok Airways said, "Bangkok Airways has long been recognized for our dedication in improving our services offered to passengers. Our new menus will show our passengers how much we care by offering something special even on short flights. We believe that Chef McDang’s specialties, exclusively created for Bangkok Airways, will add an even more memorable flying experience for our passengers."
"Since Bangkok Airways positions itself as Asia’s Boutique Airline, I have moved to capture its Thai and Asian essence and make it the conceptual heart of the new menus. The new in-flight menu concept for Bangkok Airways is called "Simply Thai" with a touch of Asian cuisine but the emphasis will definitely be popular Thai dishes" said Chef McDang.
M.L. Sirichalerm Svasti, whom most people know as Chef McDang, is the leading expert on Thai food and is the first Thai chef who has taught at numerous branches of the Le Cordon Bleu Schools of the United States until receiving the title of Honorary Chef Instructor for their Las Vegas Campus.
For over a decade, Chef McDang has been Thailand’s most famous food expert and a respected ambassador for Thai cuisine. He is the author of several best-selling Thai language cook books, host of the popular weekly TV program, "McDang Show", pens weekly food columns for leading Thai and English-language newspapers, and consults for a number of companies, including Bangkok Airways, Wai Wai Instant Noodles, Siam Winery, and many others. Chef McDang has also written and published a book entirely in the English language named, "The Principles of Thai Cookery" which outlines the history, culture and style of Thai cuisine while also providing 57 recipes for it’s readers to try.
Read below for a special message from Chef McDang about the challenges of preparing a menu for on-flight servicing and the methods used to ensure an offering of the best quality foods for passengers on-board our flights.
Most people think that designing a menu to be served on-board aircrafts is no different than cooking for a restaurant. Nothing can be further from the truth. In fact, designing menus/food for airlines is a totally different process than cooking for restaurants.
First, there is the fact that, depending on the airline, the volume of food to be prepared can be from as little as 300, to as much as 20 – 30,000 meal trays a day. Then comes the flight times of certain routes, which limit the time you have to serve food trays, and then put them all away before descending to land. Sometimes the flight time is so short that the cabin crew may have even less than 20 minutes to serve the meals and put them away.
Hygiene is also very important for International Airline food services. The caterers have to be at least GMP certified, but today most professional airline caterers are HACCP certified. This ensures that all meals served are clean and safe. All of the food served on-board is prepared at least 8-12 hours before putting them on trays. The food has to maintain a temperature of 4 °C at all times. Once in the service cart to be loaded on board, the temperature is allowed to rise to 8°C. This is applicable to all foods, whether served hot or cold.
Cold food is kept refrigerated on-board in the carts on trays, while hot food is loaded cold, separate from the carts with the cold dishes like salads, desserts or cakes. The hot food is warmed in the oven on board, then placed on the trays and served along side the cold food.
Menu concept: The menu concept which I have designed for year 2018 will be called “Simply Thai” with a touch of Asian Cuisine since we call our Airline “Asia Boutique Airline” but the emphasis will be Thai. After all, we are a Thai company! And please remember that all menu items change every month.
I hope that our passengers especially the majority of our passengers who are visiting Thailand will have a clearer understanding of our menu concept and will enjoy our meals on board this year.
Bon Appetit
Chef McDang
