No skimping in these skies

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Chef Barbara Stange displays chicken curry and kalbi short-rib entrees to be served in coach class on Aloha Airlines flights to the Mainland. While other carriers have given up on in-flight meals, local airlines are taking a different path. Photos by Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Chef Barbara Stange and her boss, Alan Wong, created these entrees especially for Aloha Airlines.

Alan Wong's Aloha Airlines menus Coach Hawai'i-bound: hoisin bar-B-Q chicken, Pineapple Room meatloaf or breakfast pizza (depending on time of day) Mainland-bound: chicken curry, kalbi short-rib plate First class Mainland-bound lunch or dinner: tomato and cucumber salad with li hing mui vinaigrette, pan-roasted chicken breast with shrimp edamame succotash and thyme chicken sauce or shiitake Stroganoff on egg noodle with lomi tomato relish Hawai'i-bound brunch: oatmeal banana-bread pudding with dried mango, "GG" Omelet, Hawaiian-style stuffed chicken breast Hawai'i-bound lunch: spinach salad with marinated mushrooms, pickled onions, beets, pipikaula and balsamic vinaigrette, Hawaiian-style stuffed chicken breast or seared confit of tuna on orzo pasta

These and a dozen or so other factors bounce around in chef Barbara Stange's head every day like an unsecured bag in a cargo hold. For three years, Stange and her boss Alan Wong, chef-owner of the award-winning Alan Wong's Restaurant and the Pineapple Room, have been designing menus for Aloha Airlines first-class service to and from the Mainland. Now a coach-class menu is debuting. And they're ready.

They know that braising is best; foods don't dry out or overcook as readily in moist heat. They know that you can't pile the ingredients too high, or the dish won't fit into those shallow oven racks. They know you can't try anything too spicy (kids), too smelly (obvious reasons), too messy (the cleaners complain), too exotic (ingredients have to be available on the Mainland end), too rare (food-safety standards). They have learned that there are myriad arcane Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Agriculture rules that must be adhered to (for example, they can't use any local produce that might harbor fruit flies). Oh, and go easy on the shrimp and peanuts (allergies).

"It's tough," says Wong. "You just have to learn as you go what you can and can't do in the sky."

Many carriers seem to have concluded that what you can't do is make a decent meal without losing money — so they're giving up.

Some major airlines — United, Delta, Northwest — are experimenting with meal sales on some flights. Others offer snacks-only service. Since 9-11, nobody serves meals on flights under 3 1/2 hours.

Which makes it all the more interesting that Aloha Airlines is making this move now. And that Hawaiian Airlines has Maui celebrity chef Beverly Gannon designing seasonal menus for first-class and coach. Asked if Hawaiian has thoughts of abandoning or cutting back meal service, spokesman Keoni Wagner says, "We're not taking that path."

But the local companies' strategy may not be quite the contradiction that it seems: What unites all the airlines is a determination to solve The Food Problem.

Some are selling meals, attempting to make food a profit center — or at least not a money-loser. This option, while interesting, has its problems: Passengers may choose not to buy, and flight attendants, whose job is supposed to be safety, still end up serving meals and counting change. Delta is trying food sales at the gate in Cincinnati, but that puts the airlines in competition with airport vendors.

"Branding" is a trend. LSG Sky Chefs, the world's largest airline catering firm, last month signed a deal with chef Wolfgang Puck to replicate popular restaurant specialties to be sold on airplanes.

Terry Trippler, Minneapolis-based airline expert for the travel Web site OneTravel.com, applauds the local carriers' strategy: "Aloha and Hawaiian realize something that others don't: Americans will eventually tire of flying Greyhound and want to get back to some form of service that reflects what travel used to be." He pointed out that both carriers are relative newcomers to the overseas market. "All those people who are flying Aloha and Hawaiian were flying United and Continental and American before, so they're going to notice the difference."

Tim Winship, whose Extra Mile column is published in The Advertiser's travel section, says what he hears most frequently is an almost contradictory conviction: " 'As much as we hate the food, it should be included in the price of a ticket.' There is resentment when food is not provided or, worse, is provided for an extra fee."

Aloha Airlines president and CEO Glenn R. Zander — the man who suggested serving hot cookies and cold milk in the weary hour between the movie's end and arrival at the gate — says meals are integral to the overseas flying experience, and an especially important factor for boutique airlines like Aloha.

At Hawaiian, too, spokesman Wagner said, "we feel strongly that meal service has helped distinguish us as a carrier, so we have no plans to change that."

Aloha had long hoped to persuade Wong to take on coach meals, but the 9-11 aftermath, the Iraq war and other factors delayed the project. And Wong was hesitant: Creating a dozen first-class meals that can be finished in a closet-size galley was difficult enough; the more than 100 coach meals on each flight must adhere to an even tighter budget, and there's no time for drizzling or primping.

All of the meals are prepared "fresh," within 24 hours of takeoff, partly cooked and chilled, then finished in a convection oven on board. The only thing that gets frozen is the ice cream (an Aloha Airlines signature but not a Wong contribution).

Stange, a cheerful can-do sort who has been with Wong for 14 years, spends her workdays bouncing between the kitchen at Alan Wong's King Street headquarters; Wong's office; and the Honolulu kitchens of Gate Gourmet, Aloha Airlines' caterer.

After every menu change, she hosts tastings for flight attendants, who critique from a working perspective. She also travels to all the catering kitchens used by Aloha, from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Lihu'e, Kaua'i, making sure everyone knows how the dishes go together and that they understand — and can obtain — the ingredients.

Stange and the Gate Gourmet crew — chef Leighton Miyakawa, Ken Lum and Nelson Tani — are joined at the hip, conducting weekly tastings to see that meals are being prepared as directed.

Stange's goal is to capture the flavors that people expect from Wong's cuisine. She often starts with a dish prepared in the Wong kitchens, tweaking it while retaining the essence.

Asked how many times she has been told "You gotta be kidding," Stange laughs and trades amused looks with Lum and Tani.

"In the very beginning, we were rejecting her ideas a lot," said Lum. "But they've gotten this down pretty good."