35000英尺上的飛機用餐攻堅戰大綱

British Airways thinks it has the answer for flavorless airline food: umami.

英國航空公司(British Airways)認爲該公司已經找到了改善平淡無味的飛機餐的訣竅：鮮味(umami)。

Airline food can take a beating on its way to the plate. It's cooked many hours before a flight, then rapidly chilled, wrapped, trucked, stored and reheated. This often leaves it overcooked, dry and tough. In the air, passengers lose about 30% of their ability to taste as a result of extremely dry cabin conditions and high-altitude pressure inside airplanes. So even food that might be appetizing on the ground tastes bland at 35,000 feet.

在端上乘客的餐桌前，飛機餐的味道可能會層層流失。飛機餐製作的時間是在航班起飛之前的數個小時，之後還會經過急凍、包裝、運輸、存儲和再加熱等環節。這往往會導致飛機餐烹飪過頭，又乾又硬。在高空飛行時，乘客會喪失大約30%的味覺，原因是機艙中極度乾燥的環境和高空壓力。所以，即使在陸地上頗爲可口的食物，在35,000英尺的高空也可能會索然無味。

For years airlines have added salt to give the food a semblance of flavor and ladled on sauces to combat dryness. Competition aMong carriers has intensified in business class and first class, and airlines now spend as much as $50 a person serving signature dishes from celebrity chefs. But for many travelers, it often still tastes like, well, airline food.

多年以來，航空公司一直通過在飛機餐中增加鹽分的方式來改善食物的味道，並澆上醬汁防止食物變得乾硬。航空公司在商務艙和頭等艙上的競爭愈演愈烈，目前航空公司在每位乘客身上花費的成本在50美元左右，以供應名廚製作的特色餐點。但是，對於很多乘客來說，飛機餐仍然吃起來像，呃，飛機餐。

People typically buy tickets based on routes, pricing and loyalty programs, of course. There's little expectation for good food in coach, where airlines still serve hot meals on long international flights. But on board in first class and business class, the first thing passengers often think about is food, airlines say. 'You could certainly lose a customer,' said Adrian Jaski, British Airways' manager overseeing catering performance in London.

當然，乘客通常是基於航線、價格和會員計劃來購買機票的。經濟艙乘客對於飛機美食的預期往往不高，在長途國際航班的經濟艙上航空公司也提供熱餐。但是航空公司表示，頭等艙和商務艙的客人登機後考慮的第一件事往往就是食物。英國航空公司駐倫敦的餐飲經理亞德里安?雅斯齊(Adrian Jaski)表示：“你很可能會因爲餐食而喪失客戶。”

Enter umami, the savory taste found in tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce and other foods. British Airways had previously worked with Heston Blumenthal, a famous London chef, known as a practitioner of scientifically engineered dishes and creator of delicacies like snail porridge.

解決之道是，加入鮮味這種可以在番茄、帕爾馬乾酪、蘑菇、辣醬油等食物中可以品嚐到的味道。英國航空公司此前與倫敦名廚赫斯頓?布拉門斯(Heston Blumenthal)展開了合作，這位名廚是諸多科技型菜品的實踐者，並且是蝸牛粥等美味佳餚的發明者。

On a British television series, he first tried cooking food from scratch onboard a flight; it was chaos. He then prepared elaborate cold plates that took too long for flight attendants to serve. He even tried getting passengers to spray saline up their noses to moisten the palate. British Airways decided that wouldn't fly.

在一檔英國電視節目中，布拉門斯首先嚐試了飛機起飛後從頭開始烹飪食物；結果是一團糟。隨後，他準備了精心製作的冷盤，不過空服人員需要花費的上菜時間太長了。他甚至還嘗試讓乘客向鼻子裏噴鹽水溼潤鼻腔以獲得更敏銳的感官。英國航空公司認爲，上述辦法全部不可行。

Then Mr. Blumenthal hit on umami as a breakthrough ingredient for high-altitude food. Umami is an intense flavor first identified by the Japanese and dubbed the fifth type of taste the tongue can detect, along with bitter, salty, sour and sweet. Mr. Blumenthal tweaked a shepherd's pie recipe to include umami-rich seaweed, for example. 'You can't load more salt but you can definitely up the umami,' he said on his show.

此後，布拉門斯突然發現鮮味可以作爲打造高空美食的突破性要素。鮮味是最先由日本人鑑別出的一種強烈的味道，是舌頭能夠檢測到的除了酸、甜、苦、鹹以外的第五種味道。例如，布拉門斯將富含鮮味的海藻添加到了肉餡土豆泥餅中。他在節目中稱：“你不能添加太多鹽，但是你完全可以提高鮮味成分的量。”

After that, British Airways began working with the London-based Leatherhead Food Research on more quantitative study. Thirty professional food tasters conducted a series of experiments on the ground and in the air and found the sense of bitterness in food was heightened at altitude.

此後，英國航空公司與位於倫敦的萊瑟黑德食品研究所(Leatherhead Food Research)開始了合作並展開了更多的定量研究。30位職業味道鑑定師在地面上和高空中進行了一系列實驗，他們發現，隨着海拔的升高，食物的苦味會增加。

In addition to low humidity, they found that cabin lighting and temperature affect taste -- cold temperatures and gray lighting have been shown to dull the experience of eating. Stress levels of travelers also affected taste.

除了低溼度之外，他們發現機艙的燈光和溫度也會影響食物的味道――研究顯示，低溫和昏暗的燈光會令就餐的體驗大打折扣。旅客們的旅途壓力也會令食物的味道變差。

And the researchers agreed with Mr. Blumenthal that umami didn't lose its punch at high altitude and could be added to recipes to bolster flavors. Even for items like steak -- notoriously difficult to serve aboard planes without ending up tough and dry from double-cooking -- a crust made of umani-rich ingredients bolsters flavor. 'It's a salt substitute without the sodium,' said Sinead Ferguson, BA's menu design manager.

這些研究人員同意布拉門斯關於鮮味不會隨着高度增加而變淡的觀點，他們認爲可以在菜譜中添加鮮味讓食物變得更美味。甚至對於牛排這種很容易因過度加工導致乾硬而不適宜在飛機上提供的菜式來說，把富含鮮味的原料裹在它外面也可以改善它的味道。英國航空公司的菜單設計經理辛尼德?弗格森(Sinead Ferguson)說：“這是不含鈉的食鹽替代品。”

Over the past year, British Airways has altered its recipes to load up on umami-rich foods. And it has pushed catering companies to overplay particular tastes in sauces so that tastes will come through for even the driest palate.

在過去的一年中，英國航空公司已經在菜單上加入了很多富含鮮味的食物。並且該公司已經敦促配餐公司強化醬料中的某些特殊味道，以使飛機餐能令最乾燥的味蕾感到可口。

One example: The airline is serving a special tasting menu from the Langham, one of London's grand hotels, in the first-class cabin of its Airbus A380 super jumbo jets, and several recipes were reworked for high-altitude eating.

例如：英國航空公司目前向空中客車(Airbus) A380巨型噴氣式飛機的頭等艙乘客提供倫敦知名酒店朗廷酒店(Langham)的特別主廚菜單，菜單中的幾款菜品的菜譜已經根據高空就餐的特點進行了調整。

For a pork cheeks dish, 'we had to pack more lime and lemon grass into the sauce,' said Kevin Levett, executive chef for production at Gate Gourmet in London, which caters BA's flights.

倫敦Gate Gourmet餐廳的餐飲行政主廚凱文?萊韋特(Kevin Levett)表示，拿一道豬頰肉的菜式來說，“我們在醬料中加入了更多的酸橙和香茅草”。Gate Gourmet餐廳爲英國航空公司提供配餐服務。

Subtle wines don't cut it at 35,000 feet. The key at altitude is to minimize any bitterness in red wine tannins, since altitude makes them stand out more, and maximize fruit in white wine, because that gives it more taste in the sky, according to Keith Isaac, general manager of Castelnau Wine Agencies, the wine buyer for British Airways' business class service.

清淡的葡萄酒在35,000英尺的高空行不通。據卡斯特諾葡萄酒代理公司(Castelnau Wine Agencies)的經理基斯?艾薩克(Keith Isaac)稱，選擇高空酒品的一個關鍵是紅葡萄酒中單寧酸的澀味要儘量小，原因是高度會讓澀味更突出；白葡萄酒中的果味則要儘量濃，原因是果味會在高空中讓白葡萄酒更濃郁。卡斯特諾葡萄酒代理公司是英國航空公司商務艙業務的葡萄酒採購商。

'Wine could be overly expressive and that is good in the air,' said Mr. Isaac, who so far this year has tasted 850 wines for his airline client. 'To me, above all, it's fruit. I spend all day on fruit.'

艾薩克表示：“葡萄酒的口感可能會過於飽滿，這對高空品酒來說是好事。就我來說，最重要的就是果味。我每天都在探索葡萄酒中的果味。”艾薩克今年迄今已經爲英國航空公司品嚐了850款葡萄酒。

Other airlines say they try to tailor food and wine for parched palates, but most haven't gone down the umami road. United, Delta, American and Singapore Airlines, a carrier heralded for its food, say they serve some foods containing umami, for example, but they don't make an effort to pump up use of it.

其他航空公司表示，他們也針對飛行中的味覺變化嘗試了調整飛機餐和酒品，但是大多數航空公司還沒有采用鮮味。例如，美國聯合航空公司(United Airlines)、達美航空公司(Delta Airlines)、美國航空公司(American Airlines)和飛機餐飲的先驅者新加坡航空公司(Singapore Airlines)表示，他們提供的一些餐點中含有鮮味，但是他們並沒有大力推進鮮味的使用。

One reason: Many customers have a difficult time noticing any difference. Skytrax, a London-based consultancy that polls travelers world-wide about airline service, says it has seen 'no visible difference' in customer feedback on British Airways food.

一個原因是：很多客戶並不能輕易地發現其中的變化。針對全球旅行者進行航空公司服務調查的倫敦諮詢機構Skytrax表示，在客戶反饋中，對英航所提供食品的評價“並沒有明顯的變化”。

Jamie Moore, a London technology executive and top-tier flier on British Airways, says that while food service has gone downhill on shorter flights, he thinks food on long trips across oceans has subtly improved. On a recent flight to New York, 'the beef wasn't quite as destroyed as it used to be,' he said, and the bread rolls were soft, warm and tasty. Business class food, he said, 'tends to be quite good.'

來自倫敦的某科技企業高管、英國航空公司的頂級貴賓傑米?摩爾(Jamie Moore)表示，雖然短途航班的餐飲服務與日俱下，但他認爲洲際長途航班的餐飲水平似乎提高了。他說，在最近一次飛往紐約的航班上，“牛肉並不像之前那樣難以下嚥了”，麪包卷也很鬆軟、溫熱、可口。他說，商務艙的食物“似乎越來越好了”。

Others say it's still airline food. 'My test of a restaurant is simply whether I was served a meal I'd want to go back for,' said Howard Long, also a gold-level British Airways customer, 'and I've never had a meal on an airline I wanted to go back for.'

其他人表示，飛機餐仍舊是以往的飛機餐。同樣身爲英國航空公司金卡客戶的霍華德?朗(Howard Long)表示：“我對餐廳好壞的評判標準就是我是否願意再回來就餐，而從來沒有哪餐飛機餐是我願意重溫的。”

But British Airways is undeterred. Internal customer-satisfaction surveys score food higher, the airline says, and it is continuing what it calls its 'Height Cuisine' effort.

但是，英國航空公司並沒有氣餒。該公司表示，內部客戶滿意度調查顯示，食物的分數有所提高，並且該公司仍在繼續推進其稱之爲“高空美食”(Height Cuisine)的項目。

Steam ovens have been installed in first class to supplement the convection ovens airlines typically use. The new ovens are a gentler way to heat bread and pastry without hardening them.

英國航空公司已經爲頭等艙乘客安裝了蒸汽加熱爐，以取代通常使用的對流加熱爐。新的加熱爐在加熱麪包和糕點時不會使它們變硬。

The airline challenged Twinings, its tea supplier, to develop a blend that would work better at altitude. Typically regular tea blends get brewed to taste either too strong or too bland, said Christopher Cole, BA's food and beverage and product change manager. Research took six months, testing with aircraft water and factoring in the lower boiling point of water aboard airplanes.

英國航空公司還要求其茶葉供應商川寧(Twinings)研發一種更適合高空飲用的混合型茶葉。英航的飲食調配經理克里斯托弗?科爾(Christopher Cole)稱，一般的混合型茶葉總是泡得要麼太濃、要麼太淡。研發共歷時六個月，實驗使用了航空飲用水，並考慮了高空飛行時水的沸點較低的問題。

The airline settled earlier this year on a tea that's a mixture of Kenya, Assam and High Ceylon teas.

今年早些時候，英航決定採用一種由肯尼亞茶、阿薩姆茶和錫蘭高地茶混合而成的茶葉。

The next piece of this high-altitude puzzle? Coffee.

下一個需要攻克的高空難題？咖啡。

'We haven't yet come up with something that is noticeably different,' he said. But one promising blend will be tested in-flight after Christmas. With coffee, bitterness really comes through in-flight.

科爾表示：“我們尚未找到解決問題的絕妙辦法。”但是，一種很有希望成功的混合型咖啡將在 誕節後進行高空測試。在高空，咖啡的苦味總是特別突出。

'It's a difficult nut to crack,' Mr. Cole said.

科爾稱：“這是一塊難啃的骨頭。”