Gourmands are flying high

You’d normally find braised lamb shank tortellini or duck confit at wine dinners, but Bangkok Airways is taking those dishes to new heights by treating Blue Ribbon business-class passengers to a sophisticated new in-flight menu designed by the top chef of The Chedi, a boutique resort in Chiang Mai.

Chedi chef Christopher Patzold unveiled his classic menu in a recent function organised by the boutique airline at the hotel amid a gathering of gourmands. The in-flight menu includes those two dishes plus roasted snow fish, green pine nut butter; French beans with parisienne parsley potato; Indian braised lamb curry, basmati rice & Okra Masala; seared salmon with fennel & basil salad, chili with Pilaf rice; roasted lamb loin with butter spinach, prawn butter; and roasted pink eye potato.

Patzold’s six dishes are being served until the end of this year on the Bangkok-Samui, Bangkok-Phnom Penh, Bangkok-Maldives, Bangkok-Dhaka, Bangkok-Bengaluru, Samui-Singapore and Samui-Hong Kong routes.

The new menu is part of Bangkok Airways’ “Exclusive Chef in the sky by Bangkok Airways 2012” campaign.

Bangkok Airways vice president for corporate communications ML Nandhika Varavarn said the first in-flight menu campaign was inaugurated last year to accentuate the airline’s ‘boutique’ service angle. This year’s campaign has seen two great chefs designing the in-flight menu. 

The first chef was from  the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui and his dishes were served from last July to September. Patzold is the second chef whose dishes are set out to amaze passengers until December. Famous food critic Santi Svetavimala made an initial selection of six dishes from each of the two chefs before their creations are served aboard.

“The feedback was great last year so we continue with this current campaign,” said ML Nandhika.

Chef Patzold is glad to be part of the campaign: “I’m terribly excited and can’t wait to participate in this campaign. This is my good opportunity to display my own menus to be tasted by others in the public.

 “I just tried to prepare tasty food and tried to allow for the re-heating process, so the dishes taste and still look great. That process tacks a lot from the dish so trying to keep all the flavours intact is a challenge,” he said. 

The launch event in Chiang Mai brought together a crowd of celebs from Bangkok for a cooking competition joined local Chiang Mai celebs and reporters from Bangkok. These included Intira Tanawisoot, Polapat Asavaprapha, Tinnakorn Asavalak, Pimpawan Limpichart, Jirawan Limpichart, Paowana Chotikasatiean, Chadapha Sanitwong Na Ayudhaya and Punpen Thongdanthai.

The event started with Chef Patzold demonstrating two of the six in-flight dishes: Duck Confit and Chicken Pie and Cured Salmon.

The competition saw five teams vying for fun prizes that include spa sessions at the Chedi. The hotel’s F&B personnel judged the competition. And the first prize went to the media team from Bangkok. The event wrapped up with the white party by the pool. 

     

Bon appetit

Chef Christopher Patzold’s six sky dishes are to be served on Blue Ribbon class on the following routes: Bangkok-Samui, Bangkok-Phnom Penh, Bangkok-Maldives, Bangkok-Dhaka, Bangkok-Bengaluru, Samui-Singapore and Samui-Hong Kong routes.