15 AUG 2019: Is the food really improving on Air Canada? The answer is a qualified yes. The carrier just announced this month the addition of a fourth member to the airline’s panel of celebrated Canadian culinary and wine talent, Chef Antonio Park. There is more work to be done, but the momentum is forward and that’s good.

Air Canada did top North American carriers for food service in the 2019 PAX International* Readership Awards this April. It’s a low bar to pass for sure, but at least we were the best of that lot.

Air Canada’s culinary panel started in 2015 with Vancouver Chef David Hawksworth hired to create signature dishes featured on Air Canada flights worldwide in Signature Class and the Air Canada Signature Suite. Indian born Canadian Chef Vikram Vij was added to develop special Indian dishes for all cabins of service on Air Canada’s Canada-India flights from Toronto and Vancouver. Two years ago Véronique Rivest, Canada’s award winning sommelier and owner of SOIF Bar à Vin in Gatineau, joined the panel as Air Canada’s official sommelier.

Chef Park, a Montreal restaurateur born in Argentina from Korean parents, draws on his Asian and South American roots for inspiration. He worked in Japan, New York, Toronto and Montreal before opening his first restaurant, Park, in Montreal in 2012. Park who has been recognized by the World’s 50 Best and ranked in the top 10/20 on Canada’s 100 Best list in consecutive years, was also a judge on Food Network Canada’s Chopped.

Chef Park has designed Asian influenced meals for Air Canada’s flight caterers to create for all three classes of fare on the Montreal-Tokyo-Narita route, a project that was one and a half years in the making according to the chef. On the day of the announcement at his restaurant Park in Montreal, he said “Woo what a day. I’m really honoured and proud of this journey we are about to have. People say they don’t expect much on a plane for food, but I am going to start doing special stuff.”

“Call me if I don’t do the right food and I’ll fix it…We are not perfect but we’ll try our best to make it the best standard meal on Air Canada,” said Chef Park. “It wasn’t an easy thing to launch, I’m a detail person…it’s hard to execute en masse.” Chef told me for the first flight, he cooked the meals himself. Going forward Chef Park will be doing random samplings and announced and unannounced audits of the food from every week to every couple of months.

Roll-out of Chef Park’s menu will continue in the Fall to flights from Toronto to Tokyo-Haneda, Vancouver to Tokyo-Narita, and from Montreal to Sao Paulo. In 2020, Chef Park’s meals will also be available on flights to Hong Kong, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Sao Paulo (from Toronto), Santiago and Buenos Aires, and seasonal flights from Calgary to Tokyo-Narita and Vancouver to Osaka.

Going forward Chef Park’s options will be available in Signature, Premium Economy and Economy Class on all flights from Canada to Japan and exclusively in Signature Class on all other flights departing Canada to Asia and South America, in addition to options created by Chef Hawksworth.

An issue affecting food quality that I discussed with Chef Park and with Andrew Yiu, Air Canada’s Vice President of Product, was the strict guidelines for food safety on board. Hot meals have to be pre-cooked and then re-heated in flight. That means chefs have to pick dishes that can handle the double cooking. Fattier meats, fattier fish and dishes with sauces come to mind.

Two dishes on the inaugural Montreal-Tokyo created by Chef Park are “tamari maple syrup braised short ribs” and “Japanese curry” – called beef kare raisu, both able to withstand long holding and heating times.

I didn’t get a chance to ask Yiu about the one thing I think Air Canada should do now to vastly improve its meal serve: allow passengers to pre-order meals before their flights. This month in business class on Toronto-Calgary return flights I was unable to get my choice of meal on either the in-bound or return. No point in boasting about special meals if you run out.

Other international airlines offer the option of pre-ordering and it makes perfect sense. Less spoilage and happier customers. For my upcoming flights on Austrian Airlines in economy I am offered nine different à la carte menus, such as a Japanese style Bento Box, fried chicken breast and Viennese style sweet pepper chicken. All can be ordered up to 24 hours before scheduled departure time – and I can change my choice up until then.

In economy you pay extra for this option but as Air Baltic states on their website, “The pre-order menu includes much wider selection of meals than the one available on board. And besides, people who pre-order meals get served first on the airplane.”

On my business class flights on Singapore, Thai and British airlines I was able to pre order my complimentary meal up to 30 days in advance. Thai Airways even had an interface where I could input my departure city and cabin class to view menus and photos. It’s a win-win for both travellers and airlines. Passengers can lock-in their preferred meal choice in advance and airlines can reduce wastage and costs by reducing the number of extra servings carried on board to provide a choice.

Air Canada carry on with improving the food and get on board with the order ahead trend.