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ention of airline food often receives a reaction of raised eyebrows or a muttered “ugh”. The prevailing stereotype is of bland and boring dishes that are on the same unappetizing level of hospital food.

Airlines seem to have heard that collective “ugh” and are attempting to put some zest into their in-flight menus. The effort includes inviting celebrity chefs to do the catering honors, from Gordon Ramsay for Singapore Airlines (pan-seared salmon escalopes and tender rib-eye steaks in wine sauce), Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s fusion cusine on Qatar Airways and French chef Joel Robuchon whipping up Basque shrimp and turmeric-scented pasta with lemongrass for Air France.

On Wednesday, local celebrity chef Farah Quinn announced on Facebook that she was creating a signature dish for Air Asia for debut next month.

Dubai-based Emirates is not going the celebrity route for the time being. Its approach to keeping passengers sated on board is to employ “destination chefs” — chefs in the airline’s destination cities — to collaborate with chefs at its hub kitchens in creating four distinctive dishes of their area.

Its in-flight menus consist of Middle Eastern and western dishes, as well as one of the dishes from the destination city. Frequent flyers will be happy to know that the menus are rotated monthly, and changed completely after two years.

For the Dubai-Jakarta route, the destination dish is empal balado (braised beef), served with sweet fried tempeh, rice cooked with coconut milk and fried onions; the Middle Eastern cuisine is chicken breast mousakhan, or the choice of a western entrée of dory fillet in tomato sauce.

Having a familiar taste of home seems to be a recipe for success.

“Most of our passengers are international and local people. Last week when we departed from Singapore, Singaporeans filled all the economy class seats. We need to know our customers and give local flavors to them,” the airline’s regional catering manager Bernard Brévot said during a recent media visit to its kitchen at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang.

He acknowledged that globalization means that passengers are more open to culinary experiences, including westerners trying once “exotic” Asian dishes.

“Maybe 15 years ago they didn’t dare try them because it was too spicy for them. But now they’re used to it,” he said.

Emirates also offers special meals including meals based on religious dietary proscriptions, children’s and baby meals, and ones serving vegetarians, people on diets or with particular medical conditions.

“All of our menus are halal (allowed under Islamic law). Passengers can order special menus through their travel agents or online, at the latest 24 hours prior to the flight,” Brévot said.

The Emirates Airline Catering Facility in Dubai makes 38 million meals annually, with 100,000 meals per day or 128,000 meals during peak seasons serving 375 daily flights. Its 450 chefs create 1,542 different menus.

The expenditure on food items is considerable. “In a year, we use three million eggs, 150 tons of shrimp, 1,250 tons of chicken, 900 tons of tomatoes, 400 tons of basmati rice and 15 million croissants.”

The airline’s dishes for its Indonesia-departing flights are produced by Aerofood Catering Services at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

The company caters 43,000 meals per day for 20 airlines, including 15 international firms, at its 18,000-square-meter, two-storey building. It maintains the high standards of its clientele, including Singapore Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Qatar and Etihad, and maintains a strict halal policy.

“An airline once requested that we make meals containing pork and we had to turn down their request,” said Aerofood ACS hygiene and quality manager Dammy Yulviano.

— Jp/Frederica Ermita Indriani