MICHELIN-STAR food and vintage champagne: airlines are pulling out all the stops to cater to their first-class passengers’ tastes, as they seek a larger slice of the highly profitable market.

    “Business class has become the main battleground for all companies because the market in this very profitable sector is highly competitive and the clients very demanding,” said Bertrand Mouly-Aigrot, aviation expert at Archery consultancy.

    The firm estimates the airline food market is worth 10 billion euros (US$12.26 billion), with a wide discrepancy between the various classes of travel. A dish in economy tends to cost between 5 and 9 euros, business class between 15 and 30 euros and for first class, the sky is — literally — the limit.

    Singapore Airlines touts itself as “the only company to offer the world’s two most prestigious champagnes: Dom Perignon and Krug Grande Cuvee.”

    The airline spends around 18.4 million euros every year just on champagne and wine, with catering amounting to 5.5 percent of its total costs.

    And with companies scrambling to stand out from the crowd with the extravagance of their menu, they are hiring top chefs to create tasty morsels.

    “A meal helps to make people feel secure, to comfort people, to de-stress people,” said Anne-Sophie Pic, the only female chef in France to hold three Michelin stars, who creates the first-class menu for Air France.

    But serving haute cuisine to highly international and demanding diners at 9,000 meters brings its own challenges.

    The chefs have to create a menu without certain ingredients — raw fish is banned, for example, and cabbage and beans ill-advised given the close proximity and confined environment of the cabin.

    Cultural niceties also have to be taken into account, and not just the well-known aversions to pork: rabbit is considered delicious in France but seen as bad luck in certain religions — not what you want when flying.

    Additionally, taste buds act differently at altitude and the cabin air is very dry, which also affects how the food tastes.

    Chefs find themselves having to add flavor enhancers to compensate. “We add ginger to our sauces to give them a certain bite,” said Michel Nugues, one of the top chefs at Servair airline-catering firm.

    The challenges don’t stop there. Getting the timing and balance of flavors right for a Michelin-star dish is hard enough on the ground, never mind when having to reheat the food at altitude.

    Chefs often train the stewards and air hostesses themselves. (SD-Agencies)