Celebrity Chefs Cook for Qatar Airways

Can't get a table at Nobu to try the famous black cod? Travelers can now taste the world’s most celebrated food at 30,000 feet, with Qatar Airways' new collaboration with celebrity chefs like Nobu Matsuhisa.

Meals from four star chefs — Matsuhisa, Tom Aikens, Vineet Bhatia, and Ramzi Choueiri — are now served as part of the new Qatar Airways Culinary World Menu for first and business class passengers on flights to and from Doha International Airport. From starters to desserts, the chefs have created in-flight meals that were previously only available at their restaurants or in their cookbooks. Dishes are served on a rotating basis.

Along with his legendary black cod, Matsuhisa offers a crab appetizer with herring and cured salmon.

Tom Aikens, the youngest British chef to earn two Michelin stars, provides French-British haute cuisine with a pea and mint soup with crème fraîche starter and a treacle tart for dessert.

Originally from India and now based in London, Michelin-starred Vineet Bhatia displays his mastery of Indian regional cuisine with a Western sensibility with main courses of herb-crusted lamb chop with roasted tomato sauce, wild mushroom and morel khichdi, stir-fried sesame beans, and a wasabi paneer.

Rounding out the quartet is Ramzi Choueiri, a popular Middle Eastern chef who has been a fixture on Lebanese television and set the Guinness World Record for making the largest serving of hummus. Ramzi’s selections include a traditional Arabic mezze plate with hummus, tabouleh, and muhammara, a Syrian red pepper dip, and for dessert muhallabia, a traditional Arabic milk pudding.

"My food unifies worlds, within the Arab world and also with Western flavors," said Ramzi.

Serving high-altitude haute cuisine can be daunting. Taste buds just don’t work the same aloft, according to Bhatia, who said diners' taste diminishes by 30 percent at 30,000 feet.

While it is still airline food and not quite the same as a seat at a Michelin-starred restaurant, passengers do get personal service, a reclining chair, and a meal created by a celebrity chef while jetting across the globe.

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