Belt-tightening? Quite the opposite on some airlines

THE first airline meals may have been served in 1919 on a flight from London to Paris, when customers of now-defunct Handley Page Transport paid 3 shillings each for boxed lunches.

Or so says the website of Britain’s Royal Air Force Museum (www.rafmuseum.org) in Cosford, near London.

It seems we’ve come full circle since then. Eighty-six years later, after getting free hot dinners for decades, passengers are again paying for cold boxed meals.

Unless, of course, you’re on an international flight and especially in a business or first-class cabin. There you’ll find culinary delights undreamed of in Handley Page’s day. And the fare is getting tastier.

That’s because a food fight is raging at 35,000 feet. Competing for premium customers who pay $5,000 and up for transatlantic and Asian round trips, airlines are employing celebrity chefs and offering multicourse meals, long wine lists, caviar, creme brulee and goat cheese to ease the ennui of long-haul flights.

In one corner, ladies and gentlemen, we have Germany’s Lufthansa, with winter dishes conceived by Joachim Splichal, paterfamilias of the Los Angeles-based Patina Group. In the other, there’s American Airlines, with Stephan Pyles, Dallas star of Southwestern cuisine, to give its premium menus their biggest overhaul in seven years.

Even top-rated Singapore Airlines is refusing to rest on its laurels, enlisting chef Yoshihiro Murata of Kyoto, Japan, to design a new nine-course Japanese feast for Raffles (business-class) customers.

“For international travelers as a whole, the experience is getting better,” said Singapore spokesman James Boyd.

On Lufthansa’s transatlantic flights this month and next, first-class fliers can graze on caviar; a “tuna tower” with ponzu vinaigrette; shrimp salad with caramelized endive; pickled baby beets with ruby grapefruit; and a salad of chicken, apples, dates and manchego cheese.

Those are just the appetizers on the Splichal-designed menu.

For entrees, you’ll find rack of lamb, seared salmon with shellfish vinaigrette, roasted breast of turkey and a fricassee of cheese tortellini and vegetables. Among dessert choices: five types of cheese, and mocha terrine with caramelized hazelnuts.

On Singapore, just choosing the bread can be a chore. Up to a dozen types are offered to premium passengers, Boyd said -- garlic, French rolls and more, accompanied by flavored olive oil.

Then there are the libations. American’s wine list sprawls over two pages. Lufthansa’s patrons can sip Glenfiddich single malts and Johnnie Walker Blue Label scotch. Singapore pours Dom Perignon Champagne.

Further proof that top-drawer service is staying the course in turbulent financial times: The average rating for first-class food barely budged between 2001 and 2005 in Zagat surveys of more than 5,000 fliers, said Tim Zagat, chief executive of the consumer survey company. Meanwhile, the average rating for coach food, on a 30-point scale, fell more than 2 points for international and 3 points for domestic service.

The airlines’ largesse on foreign flights is an effort to woo “bread-and-butter” customers who pay the bills, said Matthew Bennett, editor and publisher of First Class Flyer, an Internet buying guide to first- and business-class travel.

Facing soaring fuel costs, plus tough domestic competition from low-cost carriers such as Southwest and JetBlue, airlines are looking to international routes -- “the most lucrative,” Bennett said -- for profits.

Although airlines balk at providing statistics, Bennett said industry sources suggest that three-fourths of first-class international seats, versus about half on domestic flights, may be occupied by paying passengers rather than those flying on upgrades. If you’re flying on an upgrade, consider this: Many premium-class fliers paid five or more times what you did for the same international flight.

When I priced LAX-Singapore round trips on Singapore Airlines for selected dates in January, fares were about $9,780 in first class, $4,700 in business and $900 in coach. (These fares may no longer be available.)

At those prices, Bennett said, exceptional dining “peppers the overall experience and helps justify the high cost.”

It also provides entertainment on journeys that can last more than 18 hours. To that end, premium meal service can stretch well over two hours.

On Singapore, Boyd said, it typically opens with an on-ground welcome drink, followed by another after takeoff, then a serving of satay, a six-course meal with wine and, finally, handmade chocolates. Each stage gives the crew a chance to make customers feel pampered, he added.

But, industry experts said, it’s a challenge to duplicate the freshness and quality of food served on the ground.

“You can’t compare it,” Patina’s Splichal said in an interview. “[The food] stays in heating ovens. Sometimes the plane is delayed.”

Such vagaries can rule out ingredients such as raw tuna. You can also scratch any item that’s not readily available in Denver, Kansas City, Mo., or other gateways, because the food is prepared locally -- in Lufthansa’s case, by LSG Sky Chefs, its allied catering company.

What premium fliers feed on, Splichal said, are often streamlined versions of recipes served by his on-ground restaurants and catering services.

The current Lufthansa menu underwent four cycles of adjustment in consultation with Bern Schmidt, Lufthansa’s executive chef. Afterward, Splichal flew to Dallas to show 14 LSG chefs how to prepare his dishes.

For American, Pyles, who founded the celebrated Star Canyon restaurant in Dallas a decade ago, spent two days in Dallas working side by side with catering chefs from 11 gateway cities, said Timothy McMahan, the airline’s manager of menu planning and development.

American’s new menu, introduced on transatlantic first and business classes in August and September, includes Pyles’ signature cowboy steak.

“Knowing what the competitive environment is,” McMahan said, “we decided to totally redesign our food service in premium cabins.”

The pressure came from well-financed foreign carriers “who have changed all aspects of their in-flight experience,” he added.

But American isn’t limiting its updates to international routes. It’s working with chef Nancy Brussat Barocci, of Convito Italiano in Wilmette, Ill., to revamp premium food service on transcontinental flights.

McMahan wouldn’t talk about the changes, but he said he hoped to introduce them early next year.

Is the foreign food fight spilling over into domestic service?

Stay tuned.

Jane Engle welcomes comments but can’t respond individually to letters and calls. Write to Travel Insider, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012, or e-mail jane.engle@latimes.com.