Korean Air has rolled out a traditional Korean "table d’hôte" meal concept, in response to the cuisine’s popularity onboard its flights. The new service will be available exclusively for first class passengers on flights bound for the Americas, Europe, Oceania and Southeast Asia from January 1, 2014.
The "table d’hôte" is essentially an entirely separate set-menu of dedicated Korean cuisine. The airline has stated that the new concept will expand the choice of Korean food onboard, and will be served along side the standard menus, that offer a mix of both Korean and Western cuisine.
To widen the appeal of the menu, and help make passengers feel more comfortable with the food, the Korean "table d’hôte" meal will be modified slightly in order to better accommodate non-Korean palates. In addition, all courses will be served separately – a notable different from the past where all components were served together.
The new service will be launched with a winter season menu that features seafood salad with mulberry yoghurt sauce as an appetiser, black rice and walnut porridge with salad and plum dressing as an entrée. This will be followed by a choice of either braised pork and kimchi, or wrapped salmon with bean curd as the main course. Finally, cinnamon punch with dried persimmon will be served as the dessert.
Korean Air intends to change the menu regularly in order to focus on the seasonality of the ingredients, as well as the freshness and taste of the food.
The Korean "table d’hôte" meal concept is the latest in a series of inflight menu upgrades that the carrier has unveiled recently. Just last week, Korean Air announced that first and business class passengers travelling on international routes would be able to enjoy Perrier-Jouët champagne (see here).
For more information, visit www.koreanair.com
Clement Huang
