Feature: Vegetarian meals
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The vegetarian option onboard is becoming increasingly popular, but is it getting any better to eat? Julie Baxter followed the debate
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here was a time – in the west at least – when being a vegetarian was an alternative, niche kind of thing to do and was done mostly by people of principle keen to turn a political point into an entire lifestyle. Today, awareness of the health and farming issues surrounding our eating choices has transformed perceptions, raised the profile of vegetarian choices and made selecting a veggie option something even the most ardent meat- eaters may regularly decide to do. Especially with the recent horse meat scandal.
Combine this with the fact that globally our eating habits have become very much more international with vegetarian cuisines and specialities now offered in restaurants the world over, and it is clear that demand for vegetarian onboard dining is only likely to increase.
Coded confusion
For a global industry like aviation, catering for vegetarians can be a challenge. Just look at the range of relevant airline codes and you’ll get the idea. There’s the classic VGML (Vegetarian Meal), generally also vegan, as it is totally free of any animal products or by-products; or the VLML (Vegetarian Lacto-Ovo Meal) which may contain eggs and diary products. There is the VOML (Vegetarian Oriental Meal) ie one prepared in Chinese or Oriental-style and the AVML (Asian
Vegetarian Meal) usually spicy or aromatic and prepared in the Asian style. Then there is the VJML (Vegetarian Jain Meal) suitable for the Jain community of pure vegetarians; the RVML raw vegetable meal and FPML fruit platter. Catering for them all has become standard practice for airline chefs and comes as second nature in Eastern destinations where there is a long tradition of vegetarian dining. But as the trend evolves, increasingly the focus is turning to the question of taste.
Not exactly scientific research, but a straw poll among vegetarians in our office concludes a definite thumbs down for vegetarian meals in the air. They might all meet the dietary requirements in terms of ingredients but few were impressed with their taste. Frédéric Lamarche, founder and md ASC Airlines/Airports Services
all about the economies of scale. Caterers aim to manage menu complexity by catering to the lowest common denominator. Add logistics and sub-categories of vegetarian (and indeed all special meals) and it becomes a nightmare. “From the airline’s perspective, the process is typically managed by allowing the caterer to offer its version of a special meal to be served. Standards, rotations and diversity differ in each port but it’s a chicken and egg situation where the caterer is not incentivised to do better and the airline cannot control the meal beyond providing the caterer with guidelines.”
“The vegetarian market is growing, so caterers and airlines should continue to challenge the supplier base for these options”
Consulting joined our debate on LinkedIn saying: “There are two reasons why vegetarian meals onboard can be uninspiring. The first is that vegetarian food requires more cooking and more ingredients, if you want it to taste good, but if an airline is trying to save money it will be using cheap recipes. Secondly, in an attempt to make the meal satisfy the widest number of customers, caterers avoid too much spice. As a result the meal misses the target most of the time.” Alexander Kovacs, head of business development GuestLogix (Asia Pacific, Hong Kong) agrees costs are the issue. He says: “It’s
He believes a further issue is the lack of understanding of and/or different interpretation of the special meal vegetarian codes.”What one person understands as a VGML is another’s VLML which is another’s AVML which is another’s
Jain meal... and so the list goes on,” he adds. Getting Creative
Ian Mckenzie, senior manager F&B for Malaysian Airlines, defends the chefs of the airline industry and says: “There are many creative chefs in our industry and the skill set is certainly there but individual menus for certain diets often require a lot of time. The preparation of a meal from appetizer to dessert is no easy task if you want to be creative. There may be as many as 25 individual recipes. I am a strong believer in educating cooks on the vegetarian palate but
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