I’m a travel journalist and this is why I secretly love airplane food – even the heavy pasta and mystery meat

I can’t help but wonder: am I the only one who Loves airplane food?

I’ve taken all kinds of trips, from quick short flights with Ryanair and EasyJet to premium economy flights with Virgin Atlantic to the US and even some luxury business class flights with British Airways, Qatar and EVA Air.

I also served first class food at the British Airways training school, so I know everything about airline food, from making it to serving it and of course the food itself.

I’ve eaten every kind of airplane food and yet I constantly hear others complain and whine about how unpleasant it is.

I can’t help but disagree.

Sophie Foster defends her love of in-flight meals, describing them as ‘nectar’ (stock image)

Since my very first flight, I’ve had an illicit love affair with in-flight food: from limp paninis to pre-heated kormas.

You can easily enjoy food in Business Class, whether it’s EVA Air’s midnight ramen bowls and fried crab snacks, beef cheeks with rich gravy during dinner on European flights or Qatar’s delicious mezze dishes.

However, I’m also a big fan of reheated metal trays of heavy pasta, plastic cups filled with couscous and some dressing I can’t think of and, perhaps surprisingly to some, even those £6 ham and cheese toasties served at a temperature comparable to magma.

I know airplane food isn’t healthy unless you choose fruit or salad, and that I might be better off skipping that… but I’m not going to.

When you fly in a pressurized airplane, our senses are dulled, making it harder to taste food than when you are on the ground.

According to research for Lufthansa by the Fraunhofer Institute, Artemis Aerospace reports in a blog post that the intensity of salt is 20 to 30 percent lower at high altitude and that of sugar is 15 to 20 percent lower. In addition, almost 70 percent of passengers lose their sense of taste.

To compensate for this, extra salt and sugar are added to the meals so that passengers can taste it.

According to some studies, the average airline meal contains about 360-400 calories per meal (so about 1,500 calories total) and is high in fat, salt and sugar.

Sophie admits her love of ‘a sad breakfast served in a metal bowl’ may stem from nostalgic memories of fleeing as a child

Peter Jones, retired professor of catering at the University of Surrey, commented: ‘Airlines don’t worry so much about food because they assume that one meal a passenger eats makes no difference to the thousands of meals they eat.’

Other ways to spice up airline food include adding spices; nasal, pungent flavors like wasabi and mustard; and the fifth taste (after salty, sweet, bitter and sour), umami, which is found in foods like tomatoes, mushrooms, seaweed and cured meats.

It may be my deep love of umami and salt that makes airplane food taste like nectar to me. I’ve never really had a sweet tooth, so salty, spicy pasta, a rich beef curry, or even a mustard-filled mushroom risotto are much more to my taste.

Another theory is that my cravings for in-flight meals are partly a way to suppress boredom.

The way I look at it is, if you’re stuck at 35,000 feet, there’s not much that can interrupt the journey.

And that’s where airplane food comes in in all its glory.

About an hour after take-off, you will be offered a choice of dishes, your hot drinks will be served and your tray will be placed on the table so you can unwrap it and discover the treasure hidden under the aluminum foil.

It feels like an hour only lasts a few minutes as you happily feast, until the tray is taken away and you’re bored again (and wishing you had another airplane meal).

Sometimes, on extra long flights, it is! What a joy.

“But it’s so bland,” I hear you say. “And the bread is dry and the meat… mysterious.”

Well, I never thought about that, especially if you’ve ever tried the options you get when you take a long flight, far from home.

I admit that my love for a sad English breakfast, often served in a metal bowl, may also stem from my memories of childhood flights and a misplaced nostalgia for family holidays.

But I doubt many people would turn their noses up at Thai Airways’ Thai basil chicken, vegetable pancakes on an Emirates jet, or VietJet’s crab and shrimp glass noodles.

You may not agree with me, but at the end of the flight I am always satisfied and happy.

And you can always pass on your tray and I will finish it.

Admit it, I’m sure I’m not the only one who loves airplane food.