Air Culinaire

I have spoken with several flight attendants who don’t like to use Air Culinaire because they are corporate.  When you place your order it goes to their corporate office.  The corporate office then puts the order into a program before it is sent to the appropriate kitchen.  Also, when you call you will not speak with the local kitchen directly, you will be speaking with someone from the corporate office who will forward your message to the local chef.  I understand why this process makes people uncomfortable.  However, I am of a different opinion. 

I like using Air Culinaire.  The people who work at the corporate office know me by name when I call.  Also, there have been many times I have needed to speak with a chef, and I have never been denied that.  The chef always calls me within 5 minutes of my speaking with the corporate office.  (At that point I save the number in my phone and vwala, I have the number to local kitchen.  I don’t abuse it, but it is nice to have for an emergency.)  On several occasions I have called Air Culinaire in the middle of the night, or just hours before my delivery with something I need and they have always answered and always provided. 

All of that said, I have used them in 3 different cities.  I have been very impressed with 2 out of 3.

The cities they serve are: Aspen, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, London, Long Beach, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seattle, Van Nuys, W. Palm Beach, Washington, D.C.

Here are my notes on Air Culinaire:

DENVER (only used once)

• I ordered an assortment of canapés, but the only canapé that was good was the smoked salmon.
• The roasted veggies were cut small and looked shriveled. They also had a lot of char marks.
• I served passengers the veggies, risotto and salmon with mango salsa. They all cleaned their plates.
• I also ordered pre-plated salads that were dinner sized (my fault for not ordering side salad size).
• The avocado looked so bad that I had to throw it out.
• The red onion was brown in places.
• I ordered orchids and they sent a box of edible flowers.
• I ordered an assortment of dinner rolls and they sent one type of dinner roll
• I was not impressed with any of it. Only redeeming quality was that passengers cleaned their plates.

LONDON

• London@airculinaire.com
• The shepherd’s pie was amazing. (Order it in ceramic dish already put together. Make sure to spray foil with PAM before covering and heating in oven so that foil doesn’t stick to potatoes.  Also, put ceramic dish in oven tin so gravy doesn’t boil over into oven, takes 50 minutes to heat through at 350 degrees.)  - The shepherd’s pie from Air Culinaire was better than the shepherd’s pie from Deluxe.
• All 3 passengers cleaned their plates.
• Sea bass came with skin on.
• Flowers were beautiful (white).
• Papers and wet ice come from FBO.
• They have USA Today and FT
• Chocolate cake looked beautiful.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (used on several occasions.  I did not write notes for every time, but other than first bullet, I’ve had no problems out of DC.)

• Sent canapés that looked really good, but dry ice for bottom of fridge was packed on top, so the top container was ruined. Next time specify dry ice delivered in separate box
• Ordered sushi and sashimi, edemame, and seaweed salad all turned out really well. Everything looked great. The assortment of bite sized dessert looked wonderful. They sent two cupcakes for Andrea’s birthday. Everything was great.
• Changed order at 21:00 and they had it delivered by 10:30AM the next day. I ordered caprese salads and stuffed flounder, sea scallops, and shrimp skewers with mushrooms, pineapple, onion and bell pepper. I asked that they send sauces. They sent a teriyaki glaze and a sesame garlic glaze, remoulade sauce, tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, and citrus cream sauce. The food was amazing! The stuffed flounder was absolutely incredible. The caprese salad was beautiful!

You can view their website and menu here.

Safe flying and safe food handling,

VIP Jet Girl