DeLuxe Executive Catering

DeLuxe is a company that most flight attendants LOVE, and I have never heard anything bad about them except for one one mess-up my company experienced.  We had multiple airplanes in one of the cities leaving within 30 minutes of each other.  DeLuxe saw that there were multiple orders and assumed it was a mistake on our part, so they only delivered one order and left the other planes without catering.  IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE AIRPLANE MAKE SURE THEY KNOW THAT.  (I have also had this happen in Alaska, so it is a good rule of thumb to make sure caterers are aware of multiple aircraft no matter where you go.)  I have been told that DeLuxe does all of the catering for the Royal Family, which should be referral enough, but I was not overly impressed with my experience.  I had a better experience with Air Culinaire out of London.

I will say that they have a fabulous menu that I use for ideas when I am planning menus. 

This is a list of the cities they serve (UK): Biggin Hill, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, Brize Norton RAF, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Exeter, Farnborough, Gatwick, Heathrow, Lasham, London City, Luton, Lyneham RAF, Manchester, Manston, Northolt RAF, Oxford, Southampton, Southend, Stansted

Here are my notes on DeLuxe:

• They don’t do direct billing, so I had to give them a credit card.
• I ordered a chicken and rice soup at the last minute for a sick passenger. Driver stopped and picked up a creamy chicken soup (need to be more specific about broth based soup in other countries).
• Since we were meeting the aircraft and doing a crew change I asked that the driver arrive at 10:45 and be able to stay until noon.  This wasn’t a problem.
• They asked over the phone what I meant by orchids (blooms or stems). I said I wanted 6 of just the blooms. They sent 6 stems. I need to figure out how to be more specific about that or just order one stem with 6 blooms on it.
• Fresh fruit basket looked good.
• The shepherd’s pie from Air Culinaire was to die for. I was not impressed with Deluxe’s shepherd’s pie. It was greasy and didn’t have much flavor.
• The roasted new potatoes were nothing special.
• The Portobello mushroom was good, but tasted like it had been marinated in red wine, which is not my favorite.
• The cauliflower au gratin was a letdown.
• The sushi and sashimi tray looked really good. They sent wasabi in a tube.

I hate to tell you not to give them a try because everyone else that I talk to raves about them, and because the Royal Family uses them.  So, you can find their website and menu here.

Safe flying and safe food handling,

VIP Jet Girl