Italian chef creates airline meals

Celebrity chef Aldo Zilli gives in-flight food a taste of Italy. He is revamping the menus of Thomsonfly, using his specialist knowledge of Italian cuisine.

Airline passengers are set to get a taste of Italian cuisine this summer. Thomsonfly has announced that it has enlisted the help of Italian celebrity chef Aldo Zilli to oversee its new in flight meal service which will be ready for summer 2007.

Aldo, who owns Zilli restaurant group in London’s Soho and runs a cookery school in Abruzzo in Italy, has started working closely with Thomsonfly’s airline catering team. He’s also collaborating with the three catering companies Thomsonfly uses to produce the on board meals. The top chef, who has recently appeared on the British TV shows Celebrity X factor, Celebrity Fit Club, and Dinner Dates - as well as his own cookery programmes - has visited each of the factories involved in the food preparation. He has even invited the ‘head’ chefs from each company to spend some time with him at his ‘Zilli’ chain of restaurants in London.

Aldo Zilli said “This is such an exciting project to take on, airline food will never be the same again. When Thomsonfly first approached me I immediately jumped at the opportunity as I’ve always thought airline food is not at its best”. He also added, “Now I have had my introduction to the company and its enormity, I realise now what a challenge this is going to be but I’m very excited to be involved.”

The new Aldo Zilli inspired menus will be available in Thomsonfly economy and premium class. Customers will benefit from a complete Aldo Zilli cuisine experience, as his input is evident in all elements of the airline meal tray including salads, main meals and desserts as well as quality, branded condiments. To ensure that no one misses out, Thomsonfly offers all its customers pre-bookable meals.

Colin Mitchell, managing director for Thomsonfly, said; “This partnership should go some of the way to change people’s perceptions of airline meals. Aldo is already getting into the swing of things and is showing lots of excitement, as he has never been involved in anything like this before. We are looking forward to working with him and seeing the end result”. Thomsonfly currently operate from some 20 UK airports to over 80 destinations worldwide.