What's On & Expat Philippines

(L-R) Miascor GM Rene Haehnen, SkyChef Christophe Camacho and Gulf Air
counrty manager Roberto Hukom

GULF AIR IS OFFERING NEW MENUS ON its international flights from Manila, giving passengers a taste of the airline’s award-winning onboard catering. Amazingly, six different menu choices will be offered in economy class alone.

Gulf Air Country Manager Roberto Hukom explained how the popularity of dine-on-demand and onboard Sky Chefs on their European routes prompted Gulf Air to expand the service to all its long haul sectors, ensuring that the airline offers the finest dining in the skies. Over 120 Sky Chefs from several countries with vast knowledge and experience of specialty cuisines have been recruited by Gulf Air to provide passengers a fine dining experience at 35,000 feet. Most have worked at leading restaurants and hotels, or in luxury yachts and private jets around the world.

Each and every Sky Chef is intimately involved in every aspect of the onboard dining experience – from selecting the ingredients, creating recipes, supervising ground kitchens, to preparing and serving the cuisine. Through this advance, passengers in First Class may enjoy a genuine fine dining experience in the air, ordering anything they want at anytime. Vegetarians need no longer inform the airline in advance about their dietary needs, the Sky Chefs make it possible to prepare a vegetarian meal at a moment’s notice while in flight.

The Sky Chef service has brought several accolades to Gulf Air. This presentation comes on the heels of Gulf Air’s recent recognition as “Best First Class Onboard Catering” from the Skytrax Awards, the most prestigious recognition of outstanding quality excellence for product and customer service delivery in the world airline industry. The airline has also recently won the prestigious “Mercury Gold” award in the onboard service category and named overall winner by the International Travel Catering Association for its innovation, quality in application and customer service in onboard service.

Christophe Camacho, a Gulf Air Sky Chef, was in Manila to personally supervise the preparation and presentation of the new offerings by Miascor-Gate Gourmet, the official catering service provider to Gulf Air and around 21 other airlines. Warmly welcomed by their General Manager Rene Haehnen, we were treated to a tour of Miascor Catering’s impressive facilities at NAIA Catering City. Their ultramodern kitchens adhere to the highest culinary and sanitary standards, with particular emphasis on the proper preparation of halal food.

Also in line with Gulf Air’s efforts to better serve its Filipino passengers, aside from screening Filipino films in flight, their new menu selections include such favorite Filipino fare as Chicken Adobo. Chef Camacho himself worked with local chefs in finetuning our national dishes for Gulf Air’s Sky Meals. Gulf Air also boasts of an onboard Sky Cellar, stocked with an extensive selection of fine wines and spirits. On top of the impressive presentation, the Sky Meals’ true merits may best be judged by the tasting, and in this area we can report sheer satisfaction.

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