Celebrity Chefs Make Airline Food Palatable

by Catherine Bodry on

Blogger Grant just posted about American Airlines’ introduction of Hawaiian cuisine on the airline’s mainland-Hawaii flights.

Serving gourmet food on flights is becoming a real trend as airlines try to make flying more enjoyable while also hoping to part passengers from their dollars. I think it’s a bit sneaky to take away in-flight meals only to reintroduce them as items to be purchased, but I can’t help but get excited about the idea of eating genuinely yummy food while flying.

Airline food has been typically always on the unflattering side of food comparisons (along with prison food), but its reputation is changing. Airlines are employing well-known chefs and sommeliers to create menus and wine lists; celebrity chef Todd English will be designing meals for Delta. As soon as November you’ll be able to order a Mediterranean salad with grilled shrimp or a roast beef Cobb sandwich on Delta flights over 750 miles. Meals will run between $2 and $10 dollars.

Air France and Continental Airlines have also used big-name chefs to entice you to fly with them.

[via USA Today]

Make a Moleskine Travel Journal, Win a Prize

by Dave Luna on

Calling all artists! Your talents could snag you a free trip to Paris* courtesy of Moleskine and Air France. The pair want to you create a work of art based on your travels for their “Invitation Au Voyage” exhibition.

All you have to do is transform any Moleskine notebook — Classic, Cahier, Reporter, or City — into a travel journal. Take a trip somewhere and document it using any artistic style you want: words, paint, collage, etc. The only thing that matters is that your work is interesting, unique, and creative.

Judges will select the 50 best journals for display in their traveling “Invitation Au Voyage” exhibition. If your work is chosen, it will make its way around Asia during August and September 2007.

The first prize is an economy class ticket to Paris, France. Second place will receive Moleskine’s entire set of city notebooks covering Europe and America. Moleskine will also give a set of three notebooks to each of the remaining 47 artists chosen for the exhibition.

The contest ends on June 30th. *Anyone can enter, but Moleskine recommends entrants reside in Asia since the 1st prize will only fly from Asia to France. Give it a shot even if you don’t live in Asia. Your work could still end up in the art exhibit!

[via Moleskinerie]

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Another Bird-Aircraft Conflict

by Iva Skoch on

Looks like Air France is having a problem competing for the skies with birds. During takeoff from the small town of Pau, a bird allegedly flew into an engine of a Fokker 28-100 plane today, causing it to veer off the runway into a truck. The truck driver was killed on the spot. None of the 54 passengers on board of the plane were hurt.

Apparently, between 1990 and 1998, there were an estimated 22,000 bird-aircraft collisions in the United States, which cost an annual $400 million in aircraft repairs.

Good one to “Ask The Pilot” again.

It is really disturbing to know that something as small as a bird can completely cripple an airplane. Then again, I guess it works the other way around, too.