QANTAS: Did Neil Perry really have anything to do with this?

Apparently, I’ve been complaining about the food on Qantas for a very long time.

I found this short piece about ‘FLATS’ in my archive — purportedly, food in economy on a Qantas flight.

Just what you need as an in-flight refreshment -something that looks like it’s from the black and gold supermarket range, not from the gourmet hand of Neil Perry. 

This was my snack on a Sunday afternoon flight with Qantas from Melbourne to Sydney back in 2011. 

Pre-digested

The packaging looks like old-style generic supermarket groceries. The ‘Flats™’ are somewhat disgustingly tasteless squares of what looks like predigested vegetables.

And by ‘pre-digested,’ I think you know what I mean. 

At least the sausage rolls and the pies illustrated in this story look like what they are. That pizza at the top, less so.

Details

The website of Fine Fettle assures me that they are real vegetables ‘dried’ rather than fried.

I think I would prefer the fried.

Neil Perry runs restaurants. Does he really approve these selections?

I wonder what Neil Perry really does for Qantas. He is responsible for these snacks and ‘meals’ if the notes to the 1st class menu are to be believed:

“Qantas and Neil have collaborated to bring you restaurant style cuisine inflight. Every detail is influenced, from creating the menus to training chefs and cabin crew worldwide.”

I’m afraid that this sounds like puff when you get served something like ‘Flats™’ in a plastic box, covered by plastic, packaged in a black and gold cardboard sleeve.

Next time if they offer you ‘Flats™’ – ask for the pretzels.

2PAXfly Takeout

And this is not the only example. Since 2011, I think there have been quite a range of packaged food crimes in the Economy Class on Qantas. Sometimes passed off as ‘snacks’ but often called ‘lunch’, and rarely ‘dinner’ when at least you get a free drink.

Now, when you actually consume these as a ‘snack’, as in something to tide you over until the real meal, then that’s OK.

What I get pissed off about is when you are a busy traveller, and sitting on a plane is the one time you have time to actually consume a meal, and what you get is