On 1 June, the Flying Kangaroo together with the Rockpool Group introduced the airline’s new seasonal winter menu taking advantage of fresh and in-season ingredients.
There are certain dishes Qantas’ customers won’t let the airline take off the menu such as the Salt and Pepper squid with chilli dipping sauce and aioli, served in the first lounges in Sydney, Melbourne and Los Angeles as well as the Aussie classic dessert – Pavlova.
However, after eleven months of work, Qantas’ new winter menu, which has been designed by Neil Perry and the Rockpool group, the airline has introduced a few new dishes for the season.
The longstanding partnership with the Rockpool group spanning over 19 years has seen dedicated chefs work on over 300 menus at any one time, testing countless recipes before deciding on the final dishes making the inflight menus for International First, International Business and Domestic Business as well as the menus for Interantional First, Premium and Business lounges and Domestic chairman’s and Busienss lounges.
“We have a real winter feel to this menu with slow cooked meat, chestnuts and white polenta with the flavour profile being all about the season”
Roger Barstow, Qantas Customer Experience, Rockpool Consulting
The ongoing relationship with Neil Perry has seen the airline transforming the inflight dining experience with the dishes being cooked inflight using fresh produce, rather than being reheated onboard.
The open kitchen at Qantas First Lounge in Sydney
Qantas Honey
From June, customers will enjoy Qantas honey as a bespoke offering in the Sydney First Lounge and on board in First and Business cabins
Part of the season menu is Qantas collaboration with The Urban Beehive and Hank’s Jam, which has seen ten beehives being installed on the Qantas campus in Mascot which is now home to 80,000 bees producing first class honey.
The honey is available as a bespoke offering to Sydney First Lounge guests as well as First and Business Class travellers who can enjoy a blend of honey from the Qantas beehives and Hank’s local suppliers.
Guests in the First Lounge will be able to enjoy the honey on buttermilk pancakes with fresh ricotta for breakfast or in Qantas’ cocktail ‘Honey, bee home soon’ made from Qantas honey, Chivas, lemon juice, Angostura bitters and orange rind.
“Honey, bee home soon” – Qantas Honey, Chivas Regal, Angostura bitters, lemon juice and orange peel
Qantas’ winter menu
Crab and vegetable okonomiyaki
Ocean trout confit with pickled cucumbers and capers
Seared Moreton Bay bugs with roasted Jerusalem artichokes, grilled shallots, brown butter, thyme and lemon dressing
Grilled eggplant with goats curd, buckwheat and sesame vinaigrette
Lemon grilled spatchcock with rosemary roast potatoes and anchovy dressing
Slow cooked duck with grilled Treviso and soft polenta
Braised venison with chestnuts, cleric puree and broccoli
Neil Perry’s “Food I Love” fish tagine
Kaffir lime and vanilla baba with tangelo and soft coconut cream
Signature pavlova with fig and raspberry
Popular classic Qantas dishes
Comfort food is popular among Qantas’ International First and Business passengers with one of the longstanding farouite dishes being the signature Rockpool steak sandwich and by popular we’re talking 20,000 steak sandwiches per year.
The Chicken Schnitzel and Swiss Cheese Toasted Sandwish which Business and Premium Economy passengers can enjoy clocks up 100,000 per year and the passengers don’t spread the butter thin with over 500,000 Pepe Saya butters consumed annually.
The Qantas’ flyers don’t just eat well they drink well too which a consumption of 130,000 bottles of Champagne is a testament of.
