The self-taught 45-year-old Blumenthal from London is best-known as the owner of The Fat Duck, the three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Bray in Berkshire that is considered as one of the top restaurants on the planet.

His new task has seen him work with and mentor another British chef Simon Hulstone, who also has a Michelin star at his Torquay restaurant The Elephant, to improve the famously bad food that usually gets served on a plane while the Olympics and Paralympic take place.

"If you were charged five or six quid for an airline meal in a pub you'd take it back," said Blumenthal, famous for his scientific approach to food with inventions like smoked bacon and egg ice cream.

"But in a plane we eat it.

"We've got nothing else to do.

"One of the things we did while mentoring Simon was amend his dishes for the sky.

"We need foods that are more acidic, more salty.

"With the senses suppressed you need to push things up.

"BA and other airlines don't have to give so many options – it's always better to cut the variety down and focus on doing a few things well."

Blumenthal admits that he has a hatred of overcooked fish on a plane, saying that it is an ingredient that must be treated with care.

"Fish always gets obliterated [on a plane]," he says.

"You need someone on the plane who knows what a piece of overcooked fish looks like."

In an attempt to counter the problem, the Club (business class) BA menu features a lot of smoked and cured salmon options supplied by the luxurious London smokehouse Forman's Fish Island.


Forman's, which is owned by Lance Forman, is a fourth generation salmon smoking family business famed for providing some of the world's highest quality salmon.

It is also closest venue to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, increasing the links to the London 2012 Games.

But despite allowing Forman's famous salmon on the menu, Blumenthal revealed that some more elaborate Olympics-themed dishes were quickly ruled out.

"There was always the danger of doing something too Olympics-related – Olympic onion rings or a chocolate podium.

"We were trying to get the balance right."

BA's Olympic menus will be available on long-haul flights departing from London Heathrow between July and September while Hulstone will be cooking at airline-themed pop-up "Flight BA2012" in Shoreditch in London from April 4 until 17.

Foreman's salmon can be purchased by clicking here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]