Tray Chic

In a survey conducted by Consumer Reports last year, the food on Alaska Airlines was rated first among U.S. carriers. (The runners-up were Delta, America West and Midway. TWA, Continental and Eastern rated lowest in food quality.)

Alaska is also the airline that shows those commercials with its executives actually eating their company’s own airline food. And, says Carl Baber, who heads Alaska’s food service, it’s a real-life practice. “Three times a week we serve our corporate executives the food from our flights,” he says. “We fly in main-cabin (coach-class) meals to make sure the food is consistent.”

What’s so different about the food on Alaska Airlines? “I think we’re willing to take a few more chances than some people,” Baber says. “Most airline food has to be bland, but ours isn’t.” Passengers might find themselves offered poached salmon, a Mexican casserole with spicy sauce, a steak with homemade salsa. Baber even flirted with serving game.

And consider the special meals Alaska serves for vegetarians: “It’s not the same old steamed vegetables that you used to get,” Baber says. Instead, Alaska might serve Italian beans with carrots and bell peppers; a green pepper ring with ratatouille and brown rice with walnuts; bulgur wheat and vegetables with kasha, beans and walnuts; or cauliflower and red peppers with apples and cranberry relish.

“I’m able to spend more money (than other airlines),” Baber says, “and I have support from management to do things that other airlines might be afraid to do.”

Baber came to Alaska Airlines in 1988 (after 20 years with United) with a mandate from top executives to create the best in-flight food program in the business.

“When they called, I was very intrigued by the possibilities,” Baber says. “They said they were going to do it right.”

Wolfgang Erbe, head chef with Caterair, the firm that Alaska contracts to prepare most of its meals, and Baber refined dishes that Caterair had already been preparing to make them more creative, and they developed new dishes that fit within the logistics of a huge airline kitchen. “We spend nearly double the domestic average,” says Baber, the only airline executive who would state a hard figure on cost per meal. Domestic airlines, he says, spend between $4.50 and $4.75 per passenger meal, “and we’re $8.”

United Airlines executives pointed out, however, that the figure is misleading because Alaska doesn’t serve many of the short “commuter” routes. United and American fly a huge number of commuter routes, meaning that they have a great number of passengers who don’t get meals on their flights, making the per-passenger expenditure on food seem lower than it actually is. Even so, Alaska’s food gets off-the-record nods from executives of competing airlines.

“When we write a spec for a meal, we spell out just what we want,” Baber says. “For example, our standard spec on chicken in main cabin is a five-ounce breast. A lot of other airlines ask for a three-ounce (portion that’s) leg and thigh meat. And we have the highest standard of any domestic steak. There’s no trim left on the filet--we demand an 1189 steak (second highest cut available commercially).”