Delta Air Lines unveils meals by celebrity chef José Andrés

When Delta Air Lines’ CEO Ed Bastian and celebrity chef José Andrés met up in Texas for the SXSW festival last year, they launched an idea. Now, after months of fine-tuning menus and several recipe iterations, Delta One and domestic first-class passengers are in for a treat.

Starting Nov. 4, Delta will roll out menu items from Andrés, offering fan-tested favorites, including a Spanish tortilla with a rich vegetable stew for breakfast as well as indulgent options for later in the day like braised beef short rib with a smoky pepper sauce and creamy polenta, a Spanish-style braised chicken thigh with a celeriac-potato puree and stuffed piquillo peppers with a goat cheese and mushroom filling and a piquillo bechamel, Delta told TPG. The dishes, in line with the trend of tapping beloved restaurants for in-air meals, will be introduced across the airline’s domestic first-class routes as well as on select Delta One flights.

The carrier will then add the chef-crafted menu to more routes and — eventually — add even more dishes.

“We really want to delight. We call it ‘every flight, every bite,'” Stephanie Laster, the managing director of onboard culinary experience at Delta, told TPG. “And I think that’s where it’s really about carefully curating dining experiences that get customers excited and really how we make them feel like they’re dining in a sky-high restaurant versus that traditional airline catering, which can sometimes not be exciting or inspiring.”

The rollout is staggered, following a model Delta has used for other popular menu additions like the Shake Shack burger. And that’s deliberate.

TPG sat down with Laster to talk about how a major airline chooses when to update its culinary program and what goes into a final dish.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Q: When can passengers expect to see the new José Andrés menu?

A: It will be available on domestic first class and select Delta One markets, but coming out of over 40 stations. And so you’re going to see it in major [cities like] Atlanta, Salt Lake City, LA, as well as a host of other stations. So it will have broad reach.

And then you’re going to see a steady flow of expansion with additional dishes.

Q: How did the partnership with Andrés come together?

A: José Andrés actually joined Ed [Bastian] at the South by Southwest conference last year and they had a great conversation, talking about the power of food, the importance of human connection and the impact of people-first culture. Turns out, that is perfectly aligned with who we are as a brand from a Delta perspective.

What chef and his team embody is really the power of food and how you can be a force for global good. And so I think that was just a natural fit, which then led to natural conversations around [how] we should do more together.

Q: How did you go from concept to plate?

A: [We] got the teams into a room together and really started brainstorming and thinking about where are there opportunities … And so really started to hone in on food on board — how can we make it exciting? I think customers are always excited to see something that they may experience on the ground, and then how that translates into the air.

It starts with safety first … really educating the José Andrés team on the nuances of what it’s like in the air and then them being able to take that back and say, “What type of products fit for us?”

Adaptation for air is critical … We did a lot of iteration on what’s the right portions that fit on our serviceware that have to fit in trolleys, that have to fit in certain ovens. So how do we create around those constraints? And so that’s where the team did a phenomenal job of really iterating and then finding the right food that’s fit to fly.

Q: Your taste buds change at 30,000 feet. How do you account for that without sacrificing flavor?

A: Braised proteins do really well … that’s where things like a smoky pepper sauce that will accompany the short rib do really well to help bring more intensity to the palate without just putting more salt, which can sometimes be the default.

Q: How do you make sure a dish people already know and love, like a Shake Shack burger, tastes the same up in the air?

A: [Shake Shack] have very strict standards that drive their consistency on the ground and so that was really important. We worked in lockstep with their team and their innovation kitchen to make sure that we could keep the integrity of their classic Shack burger and take it to the air as close to the same as possible. And I think the team did a phenomenal job of doing that.

They have very strict procedures, equipment types, products. And so all of that was done in partnership with them and their team trained our kitchens to make sure the smash technique, the bun toaster technique, all of that was nailed. We tested that one in the air and on the ground because that one was very tricky as you think about the cheese melting and that reheating process in the air. So a lot of work [went into it] to make sure we could maintain the integrity of their standards but adapt it slightly for the air.

Q: Why choose to roll out a new menu on only select flights?

A: Our process, fundamentally, is really [to] listen, act, listen and [then to] test, measure, expand. We did that very methodically with Shake Shack.

Let’s make sure we get it out there, we can nail it consistently and then we expand. So that’s where you’re going to see we’ve been really intentional about how quickly and where we roll it out so that we can make sure that we nail it.

Q: Are you doing anything different to roll out the José Andrés menu compared to Shake Shack?

A: Every partnership, every dish is always a little bit different. This one, we are coming out with multiple products mainly because José Andrés has over 40 restaurants — he has quite a portfolio of dishes and inspiration from around the world. This just gave us more opportunity to come out and give different times of day and different markets more exposure and opportunity to taste the Spanish influence of chef José’s dishes.

Q: These innovative dishes are a hit in Delta One and domestic first class. But what about the main cabin?

A: We are always focused on how we think about all cabins, nose to tail, and continue to bring excitement there … We just launched Farmer’s Fridge, for example, coming out of LA and that’s available for our domestic main cabin customers to purchase. So keeping it all fresh across all of the cabins is important.

Q: How do you decide when the time is right to introduce a new menu or item?

A: Our general strategy is a combination of keeping things fresh and bringing new and exciting [things], but also sticking with the classics and those comforts. I mean, Biscoff is a great example. You take Biscoff away and I think we would have a major revolt.

It’s always that balance … we’re always in that mindset of listen, act, listen to the data of what our customers are telling us and trends.

Q: What are passengers really craving these days?

A: We know customers like to indulge and they crave those familiar comfort foods, and that’s where we balance what we see from a trend perspective on the ground. How that translates to what customers say they want in the air, and then how they actually behave in the air can be very different. We do focus groups and research and customers say, “I want to be healthy and I want the vegetarian meal.” And then, sure enough, they get on board and [it turns] out that they want the short rib, the glass of red wine and the ice cream sundae. And so we have to recognize that the psychology in the air is very different than even what customers say they want in theory.

I say calories don’t seem to count in the skies. I think recognizing that, that’s where you see the Shake Shack burger doing extremely well. It’s had a sustained take rate … In some markets, it’s as high as 50% of customers [who] preselect are choosing the burger.

The general mindset [is] “Sky time is my time, and I will indulge any time of the day.” That’s where you see people taking that bloody mary at 8 a.m. on a Wednesday morning when they probably wouldn’t do that on the ground. We want to be mindful of that, we want to give people optionality.

When passengers will see the new José Andrés menu

Breakfast

Spanish tortilla

Nov 4: Departing Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Bradley International Airport (BDL), Nashville International Airport (BNA), Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), Dulles International Airport (IAD), Indianapolis International Airport (IND), LaGuardia Airport (LGA), Orlando International Airport (MCO), Memphis International Airport (MEM), Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP), Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY), O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Palm Beach International Airport (PBI), Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW), St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL), Tampa International Airport (TPA)

Dec 3: Departing Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), Dallas Love Field (DAL), Denver International Airport (DEN), Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Ontario International Airport (ONT), Portland International Airport (PDX), Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), San Diego International Airport (SAN), San Antonio International Airport (SAT), Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), San Francisco International Airport (SFO), San Jose Mineta International Airport (SJC), Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), Sacramento International Airport (SMF), John Wayne Airport (SNA)

Lunch/dinner in Delta first class

Braised beef short rib and Spanish-style chicken

Nov 4: Departing ATL, BDL, BNA, BWI, CLT, CVG, DCA, EWR, FLL, IAD, IND, LGA, MCO, MEM, MSP, MSY, ORD, PBI, PHL, PIT, RDU, RSW, STL, TPA

Stuffed piquillo peppers

Nov 4: Departing ANC, AUS, DAL, DEN, DFW, IAH, LAS, LAX, ONT, PDX, PHX, SAN, SAT, SEA, SFO, SJC, SLC, SMF, SNA

Lunch/dinner in Delta One for domestic routes

Braised beef short rib

Nov. 4: Departing ANC, DCA, SFO

Spanish-style chicken

Dec. 3: Departing ANC, DCA, SFO

Stuffed piquillo peppers

Jan. 6: Departing ANC, DCA, SFO

Lunch/dinner in Delta One for international routes

Braised beef short rib

Nov. 4: Departing CVG, MCO, MSP, SLC, SEA, TPA

Spanish-style chicken

Dec. 3: Departing CVG, MCO, MSP, SLC, SEA, TPA

Stuffed piquillo peppers

Jan. 6: Departing CVG, MCO, MSP, SLC, SEA, TPA

In January, the dishes will be added to Delta One for international routes departing ATL, followed by Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), Miami International Airport (MIA) and John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).

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