Up until quite recently, corporate aircraft passengers may have been more than happy with a mediocre meal of lemon chicken or salmon poached in champagne sauce but during the last few years, tastes

have very much changed according to Matt Rickard of Absolute Taste Inflight.

“We’ve been trying to get away from the traditional type of aircraft meal,” he told EBAN. “Tastes have very much developed and we’d now be far more likely to put on the menu; chicken breast stuffed with wild mushroom and boursin or seared salmon with lobster mash, and ribbons of leek.”

“Sushi is also very popular and of course people are going through lots of dietary fads, so we often find ourselves catering for clients on diets such as the Atkins Diet.”

This is not to say that food stuffs popular five years ago have disappeared from the menu. The company says it still provides plenty of caviar and Champagne for those who see this as the perfect accompaniment to a business aircraft flight.

Absolute Taste Ltd began operations in 1997, providing hospitality for the Team McLaren Mercedes Formula One team. Since then, it has widened its scope to cater for private parties, high profile events and of course corporate jets.

One of Absolute Taste’s main clients is TAG Aviation, who it works with for shows such as EBACE, Paris and Farnborough International, as well as providing for its corporate jet requirements.

The company provides catering and associated services for operators at all the London airports and occasionally find themselves delivering to locations such as Southampton and Oxford.

Packaging and preparation, says Rickard, is a very important part of the food provision business.

“For the last two years, we’ve been researching what does and doesn’t work,” he said. “Once the food has been prepared by our chefs in our state-of-the-art facilities; it is blast-chilled and transported in refrigerated vehicles, we use plastic rather than foil containers, these go in both the oven and microwave, giving the crew flexibility in the galley; we have also spent a lot of time designing and fine tuning bespoke packaging which has proved to be highly successful”.

“In terms of preparation, to provide the best quality food, the hot food is delivered only part cooked. This ensures that when the food is put through the oven on the aircraft it is finishing the cooking process rather than drying or ruining the food”

Rickard says the company’s location near London’s food markets is ideal as it allows their talented chefs to source the best, freshest food commodities direct rather than having to rely on supermarkets or other food outlets.

Absolute Taste Inflight says its links with TAG Aviation could well pave a way for the expansion of its business in the future but for the time being can only turn down requests for inflight catering provision in places such as the South of France and Geneva.

However, this may not be the case for too much longer. “After all, this is one of the fastest growing areas of our business, and we’ve got a fantastic team” concluded Rickard.