MEALS IN THE SKY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 156, 3 July 1937, Page 13

MEALS IN THE SKY.

LURE TO AIR TRAVEL.

ACHIEVEMENTS IN U.S.A.

n CAPTAIN'S DINNER" ON A

" CLIPPER."

(IV. v LICE ROGERS HAGER.)

WASHINGTON, May 29

Food is going up in the air, literally. Nothing coukl be a surer indication that aviation lias at last assumed adult years than the appearance on the airlines of printed menus, from which you may make a choice of delicacies, and the announcement that two of the transcontinental services have employed highly skilled food supervisors, one, a man, known as a "Maitre d'Aire" and the other a woman dietitian. Six or seven short years ago, when it took forty-eight hours to get from coast to coast —two nights on the train and tw<> days in the plane—the air traveller felt almost self-coneiouely luxurious, to be served a box lunch aloft, complete with a thick ham sandwich, an apple and a pickle. That was standard fare. Then came the days of faster 'planes, the early crop of Douglas' and Boeings, and great to-do was made over the "exclusive" service of fried chicken. It became the flying fried chicken era. No 'plane was ready for clearance without its proper allotment of crunehy brown lejrs and portions of white meat. If the ghosts of all the flying chickens were to be laid end to end along the air lanes, the pilots would be having a continuous succession of nightmares from New York to Hollywood. Even to-day the fried chicken is with us, but it is, so to speak, on its last legs. An Irishman's Dream. Take off from Oakland or San Francisco, say, on a brisk Saint Patrick's Day. If you happened to be in the Oakland airport, quite probably you passed the shining windows of United Airlines' first experimental commissary and saw your supper in preparation. Your mouth watered and you yearnedto be aloft with those delectable goodies before you. A few minutes later you are in the air and the stewardess smilingly tucks your napkin around your little white pillow on your lap and sets a tray atop it that would make an Irishman green with envy. Again, literally. The decorations are green, the favour a tiny green shamrock. But don't stop there. On your plate is a green gelatine mould, in which reposes a nest of succulent crab claws. Your salad is grapefruit and avocado with a tiny green cherry atop it. Hot bouillion and coffee change the colour note, but you return to it after a session which includes buttered rolls, mint jelly, olives and celery, when you are presented for a final course with a fluted cup of pistachio ice cream and a delicate shamrock petit four. You may feel slightly colour bilious when you are through, but, "astronomically, you have had a "heavenly" time.

Altitude a Handicap. » Hop across the country now to an ( >jtoerican Airlines' flagship and see t %rkat Madame Pearl Violette Metzel- ] thin, "Food Consultant," has prepared «. for you out of her experience in world j capitals from here to yonder. In her ) test kitchen in New York she has shed ] no few tears over repeated failures \ with choice recipes, thanks to the demon , of changed air pressure which haunts i the higher altitudes, lowers tempera- , tures, causes vacuum bottles to erupt j hot liquids when opened, spoils carefully prepared viands. But gradually, - patiently, she and the others through the industry who are studying the problem are putting it in its place. The insertion of a slender glass-tube in the vacuum bottle cork the pressure to equalise; new type jugs, with a lining of balsa wood, are being tried; one company is perfecting an arrangement for carrying hot dishes. Transcontinental and Western Airlines have installed special steam tables in their luxurious new Douglas skysleepers and day 'planes, developed in their Kansas City shops. Eastern Airlines has opened a "snack bar" on their 'plane-an-hour run out of New \:ork South. , , , . , If you like statistics look at a few 01 these: American Airlines serves 20.000 meals a month—Madame Metzelthin will cater to a quarter of a million assorted appetites this year. United, serving similar numbers, reports its cost of taking dinner "upstairs," for its aerial guests at between 95 cents and a I 1 dollar 25 cents a meal. Which is all, of course, complimentary. TWA, when it cut rates last winter, began charging for meals aloft, but has reinstated free service with its higher summer rates. Pan-American Discoveries. But the prize for romance in eating above the clouds goes to Pan-American Airways, which has inaugurated a "captain's dinner" on board its Clippers, which is just 225 miles from soup to nuts. . .j. j - Serving manv hot countries as it does, Pan-American has made some interesting discoveries that wouldn't apply to the domestic situation. Their passengers in these climes prefer light food*, and nre much pleased to find their thoughtful host specialising in the food of the country adjacent. The host, however, is wise as well as thoughtful knows that Americans travelling are touchv about their diet. About coffee, espeeiallv. So Pan-American has its coffee made "American fashion' everywhere it goes, and then, cannilv, offers a choice of the dark beverage prepared "native fashion" as well. The Clippers are big enough to carry plenty of food, although, as on ie domestic lines, every pound added disi»Uh'ow a pound of mail. Hiey na\e trii lie vs. which are only to appear on the land •planes with the 32 and 40-passen-per ships next year, and for them a new type of stove is being developed wluel! U c*on<trnctofl to iiso the li°t oil fiom u entities. It comes out. at 155 d 0 ? 1 " Fahrenheit, and instead of coo nig it it v !|1 b« i>ccd to rook with. Another little trick is heating plates Food cools so rapidly at high altitude* that this is a great heln in serving The new Boeing flvin" boat i<s to na\< n comparatively sizable kitchen w ieri real cooking can be accomplished dnrin) flight—a loner move forward from tn< sandwich and pickle stage. And here's a little tip if your ears d< things to your mid-section when you r aloft. Pan-American has disco\ere< that tomato juice, which is the mos popular of all winded drinkables, eut airsickness to almost nothing. On v per cent of their travellers have ma d'aire over land and 1 per cent o\e water, but the liquid of the little re "love apple"' reduces these figures to vanishing point. —N.A.N.A.