When topflight food was standard on planes

When topflight food was standard on planes
NORTHWESTERN | Old airline menus offered lobster

November 12, 2007
BY BEN GOLDBERGER Staff Reporter bgoldberger@suntimes.com
United Airlines' December 5, 1967 Baltimore-to-San Francisco flight was a good one for a hungry passenger. The in-flight meal began with the French shellfish dish Coquilles St. Jacques, followed by a choice of lobster thermidor, grilled beef tournedos or double French lamb chops with mint jelly. There was soup and salad, of course. Dessert offerings included lime tartlette, chocolate torte and almond rum bar.

Sure, that was in first class, but the economy class food of the period was nearly as extensive. Brunch for coach passengers on a 1969 United flight from San Francisco to Omaha featured a mushroom omelette, broiled ham and brandied hazelnut mousse. That same year, a Pan Am New York-to-Barbados flight treated economy flyers to stuffed Rock Cornish Hen with madeira sauce and a separate cheese course before dessert. A split of champagne? A buck, even.

The menus for those high-altitude repasts and nearly 400 others are now viewable online through a new Northwestern University Library web site: http://digital.library.northwestern.edu/tranmenus. Most of the menus, which cover 54 airlines, cruise ships and railroads from 1929 to the present, come from the personal collection of the late Northwestern alum George Foster, a globe-trotting anthropologist who saved the menus from his extensive travels.

The collection is both a nostalgic window on an era of air travel when elegant, multi-course meals were an essential part of a flight -- in any class -- and a cruel reminder of just how spartan air travel has become.

Nearly 40 years after George Foster sampled hazelnut mousse en route to Omaha, almost every American airline has stopped serving complimentary meals in their main cabins on domestic flights. Passengers on United flights longer than three hours can buy pre-made salads and wraps for $5, or a snackbox for $3. Passengers on shorter flights have to settle for peanuts -- even shrink-wrapped food is only available for purchase on longer trips. American Airlines offers similar options, as do most U.S. carriers.

Blame 9/11 and the demand for lower fares, says David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, a passenger advocacy group.

"The airlines were in such a devastated financial condition after 9/11 that there was a move to just getting back up in the air with very few amenities, and slowly they realized the public was going to accept that, and no meals became the new normal," Stempler said. "We've had a race to the bottom as to fares, [and] in the process people went for the lower fares over food, over pillows, over all kinds of amenities. They keep voting with their wallets."

But all is not lost for the airline gourmand. As carriers have gutted main cabin service, they are increasingly competing to offer the plushest amenities in business and first class. Almost every major airline now has a celebrity chef consulting on its premium class menus.

"Our chefs are really focusing on what the restaurant trends are and keeping airlines up to speed with those trends, rather than having airlines be the last to get there," said Christina Ulosevich, a spokeswoman for the international airline catering firm Gate Gourmet. The company recently paired with TV-friendly Miami chef Michelle Bernstein to design upscale, contemporary menus for Delta's international BusinessElite service. Among the offerings are of-the-moment restaurant fare like braised short ribs, grilled beef filet and shrimp scampi over lemon risotto and pomegranate glazed lamb chops.

"It's a tale of two or three classes on the airplanes," said Stempler. "In the front of the plane, in business and first, there's a race to the top. [The airlines] are all fighting each other for the best food, the best wine, the best service."

Such is the case at Chicago-based United. While George Foster had complimentary grilled spring chicken with shallots on a United flight to Des Moines in 1974, the airline's current main cabin passengers shell out for pretzels. First class flyers on select international flights, however, are served a multi-course menu designed by decorated Chicago chef Charlie Trotter.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS
These three menus were all offered on the same flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand, in March of 1980:
LIGHT MEAL

Pineapple spears

Club sandwiches

Blueberry tart

Cheese and biscuits

Coffee -- tea

BREAKFAST

Compote of fruit

Mushroom omelette

Grilled ham

Grilled tomato

Danish pastry - roll

Conserves -- butter

Coffee -- tea

DINNER

Hors d'oeuvre

Fillet steak sauce Bordelaise

Carrots vichy -- butter minted peas

Noisette potatoes

Grateau royal Hawaiian

Cheese and biscuits

Bread roll -- butter

Coffee -- tea