Food on board

EVER BEEN woken up early morning to face an idli-chutney breakfast tray pushed before you?

Or at the end of a long day, tired and hungry, did you have to contend with a dinner of 110 gms of rice, 30 gms of subzi, 15 gms salad and 15gms cut fruit?

The frequent flyers who attended the interactive session organised by the Jet Airways at the Taj flight kitchen, Pallavaram, had plenty to say to the top brass about the airlines and its catering unit.

With the airlines fighting for their share of the pie in the sky, food gets a lot of attention, both from the patrons and the hosts. Nobody is willing to be taken for granted any more and the airlines have realised the importance of good service. According to Vivek Pradhan, manager catering, Jet Airways plans to hold similar sessions at the other metros too. The effort and care that goes into each meal tray served on board was revealed to the patrons through a detailed tour of the flight kitchen.

Then came the presentation of the variety of the meals--Jain, diabetic, kids, low-cal, besides the usual veg and non-veg ones.

Going by the attention paid to the suggestions of the clients by both the airline officials and chef Satish Arora, Director, Food Production, Taj Air Caterers, the fare on board is bound to undergo some revision.

At least, it was reassuring to see it all being taken down by the officials concerned!

Simple fare

He is not in it for the money. At Rs 100 for a vegetarian meal and Rs 110 for a non-veg meal, the motive has to be something else, like love for food, cooking or may be even for the altruistic role of 'annadata' (provider of food) - anything other than the M word. It is difficult to figure out J K Madan, chef at Le Paquebot cafe at the Alliance Francaise on College Road.

The first floor verandah and sit out are converted into a tiny restaurant every Wednesday noon and night. The norm is to book a table before Tuesday. But for dinner, there was no crowd pounding on the doors, which is really a surprise.

Here was good food at a reasonable price and there were not many takers! The only reason I could think of for the low turnout was the low-key publicity given to the venture.

Yet, Chef Madan says he doesn't believe in fast, raging fire. He is one of those low heat simmering kind of guy who wants to take things slowly. And you think today's youth believe in instant success mantra!

Why the low pricing? The answer is simple. Because it is possible to give this food at that price. Nothing more, nothing less. The vegetarian meal on Wednesday this past week had carrot soup, cucumber salad, onion quiche and brandy flavoured fruit salad. The non-vegetarian had chicken with vegetables instead of the quiche. The menu is the same for lunch and dinner, but it changes each week. The portions were certainly not mingy.

At night, the old world atmosphere of Alliance has a charm of its own. But the mosquitoes ruin the picture. It's difficult to enjoy a meal and scratch at the same time. This is chef Madan's second stint at the Alliance.

Last year, he had a trial run on Saturdays for three months.

Le Paquebot has all that it takes to flare up into a raging success, despite the chef's reservation about success too fast, too soon. And here is to wishing that honesty pays.

MARIEN MATHEW

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