Cathay Pacific to serve restaurant meals in the sky

Although airlines regularly draft in celebrity chefs to create in-flight menus, recreating cuisine served at ground level is a trickier business not least because of the logistics of preparing food in an aircraft galley and the different way it tastes at 35,000 feet.

But bravely, Cathay Pacific has decided to give it a shot, promising to put a selection of dishes from the restaurant menus of luxury chain Swire Hotels on some of its planes departing Hong Kong between November 1 and January 31 2012.

The food, available in First and Business Class only, will include dishes from Sureño and Bei at Beijing’s luxury Opposite House hotel, Food by EAST at the East Hotel Hong Kong and the Michelin-starred Café Gray Deluxe, by Gray Kunz.

Dishes being served would include “braised short rib of beef, soft polenta, meaux mustard by Café Gray Deluxe; Iberico chorizo with prawn and tzatziki sauce by Feast; lobster salad with vine-ripened tomatoes and lemon chive dressing by Sureño; and black miso pork belly with black sugar, baby taro and brassica by Bei.”

US carrier Delta said in August that celebrity chef Michael Chiarello would be consulting, while American Airlines tapped Marcus Samuelsson and Richard Sandoval to create new in-flight menus earlier this month.