gategourmet elevates menu options for SWISS Business and First Class
Chef Manuel Steigmeier
gategourmet and Swiss restaurant FAHR have announced they will work together to deliver the new meals onboard SWISS long-haul flights for the next three months.
The First and Business Class meals that SWISS will be offering travellers on its long-haul services from Switzerland are the creation of starred chef Manuel Steigmeier, who worked in collaboration with SWISS’ catering partner gategourmet to jointly create the new seasonal menus.
SWISS’ inflight culinary program “SWISS Taste of Switzerland” has been operating for more than two decades, taking passengers on a journey through various regions of the country through food. Every three months, in collaboration with its catering partner gategourmet, a new top chef is invited to create a varied selection of quality dishes from their “home” canton to be served aboard SWISS’s long-haul flights from Switzerland. The meal creations are also accompanied by wines and cheeses from the featured region.
This process has practically become a routine for the culinary team of gategourmet Zurich, the September 6 press release said. Over the years, the experienced team from the test kitchen has already welcomed more than 80 guest chefs from top Swiss restaurants, to jointly create the new seasonal menus for SWISS First and Business Class. On this occasion, the starred guest chef responsible for the creation of the First and Business Class meals is Manuel Steigmeier, chef de cuisine at the FAHR restaurant in the Aargau village of Künten.
The collaboration with chef Manuel Steigmeier began with a briefing at the FAHR restaurant, where the menu ideas were discussed and developed together. The process entailed analyzing the feasibility of the production and scaling of the dishes in large quantities, exchanging recipes, sourcing quality ingredients and then creating the menus and recipes with chef Manuel Steigmeier at the gategourmet development kitchen in Zurich airport (ZRH).
The final dishes were tested and then presented to the SWISS inflight development team, along with the rest of the menus for Premium Economy, which were designed by the gategourmet culinary development team. A special highlight of the Economy and Premium Economy menu includes the canton Aargau’s “Rüeblikuchen” carrot cake.
A gategourmet meal for SWISS Business Class
SWISS First travellers can enjoy a starter of char tatar with dill mayonnaise, cucumber and yogurt mousse, followed by a choice of main courses: braised veal cheeks with cremolata, cherry jus and mascarpone polenta or sautéed cod with chimichurri, creamy fregola sarda and roasted autumn vegetables. A chocolate financier provides a sweet conclusion to the First Class offer.
Once the menu was approved by the SWISS team, a careful planning process began to prepare for changing the complete menu cycle for the next three months.
“In recent years, gategourmet has been continually enriched with innovations from the different guest chefs, staying tuned with the latest culinary trends,” said Patrick Dudler, Executive Chef Product Development at gategourmet Zurich. “This culinary programme represents a win-win situation for the three parties involved: SWISS can offer its travellers new menus designed by different starred chefs, gategourmet is continually enriched with innovations from the different guest chefs and the guest chef ultimately gets to put his name and stamp out into the world.”
gategourmet is the primary supplier of SWISS’s inflight food and beverage products. The culinary team at gategourmet serves around 150 passengers per day in First Class and more than 500 in Business Class. This requires very precise processes and strict adherence to recipes and hygiene protocols, in order to maintain the daily quality onboard and reflect the signature of the guest chef's creations.
