The Glory Days of In-Flight Dining: From Smorgasbord to Baked Alaska

Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio

Milk Street Radio

Food, Arts

4.4 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 12 July 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is airplane food bad on purpose? Historian Richard Foss takes us through the turbulent history of food in flight, from extravagant meals aboard zeppelins, to the flaming Baked Alaskas once served en route to Singapore, to the truth about mediocre food service on planes today. Plus, Rebecca Rupp tells us how carrots won the Trojan War, Amanda Herbert shares a recipe for the world’s first macaroni and cheese, and we head to Bogotá for a lesson on great barbecue.

Get the recipe for Colombian-Style Asado Pork Chops here.

Amanda Herbert is part of the research team for EatMedieval, a collaboration between the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Durham and Blackfriars Restaurant, Newcastle.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi this is Christopher Kimball. Thanks for listening to Milk Street radio.
0:04.0	For everything Milk Street has to offer you can go to our website which is 177 Milk Street.
0:09.0	Or find us on Instagram and Facebook at 177 Milk Street.
0:14.5	Please enjoy the show.
0:16.6	This is Milk Street Radio from PRX.
0:21.7	I'm your host host Christopher Kimball.
0:24.8	Airplane food has a terrible reputation.
0:28.3	Of all the things at the airline studio,
0:31.0	the food is the worst.
0:34.0	Mm, what do you think this is?
0:36.0	Who?
0:38.0	Well, about seven hours ago that was lasagna.
0:49.0	But in the early days of aviation it was more like fine dining. A lot of people think that we started out with something that would be like an economy class and then diverged to create first class.
0:57.0	No, it went the other way.
0:59.0	Flight attendance used to slice chakutary to order.
1:03.0	Caviar was served in coach.
1:05.2	So where did things go wrong?
1:07.7	What's the deal with airplane food?
1:10.8	That's coming up later in the show. But first it's my interview with Rebecca Rup, whose book details the strange histories of common vegetables. It's called How Carrots won the Trojan War. Rebecca, welcome to Milk Street.
1:24.0	Well, thank you very much.
1:26.0	I'm delighted to be here.
1:28.0	So, how did carrots win the Trojan War?
	...

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