What did passengers eat on the Concorde?

The Concorde was seen as a feature of aviation. Its first flight was on March 2, 1969, although it did not enter service as a passenger flight until January 21, 1976. The aircraft could carry 100 passengers between London and New York in just under three hours. It reached a speed of 1,300 miles per hour in half the usual flight time of seven to seven and a half hours of other aircraft. Both Air France and British Airways operated the aircraft, but it was expensive to operate, so only the very wealthy could afford a ticket on the Concorde. It flew five miles higher than the Boeing 747 at twice the speed of sound. The British Airways LHR-JFK route had two flights per day, and Air France operated from CDG-JFK once a day. The cradle-like seats were very small and the aisle was very narrow. Passengers were only allowed one carry-on bag and one limited-weight checked-in bag. There was no in-flight entertainment or music on board. These restrictions meant that Concorde had to be an extra special experience. So, the airlines created a fine-dining experience to compensate. A one-way ticket cost the equivalent of $9,000 in today's money. A total of 208 meals were served per day and Chef Paul Bocuse designed the menu for the first flight. Passengers could drink fine French wines and vintage champagne. Cocktails were also popular, including gin fizz, bloody mary, manhattan and old fashioned. Later, menus were designed by triple Michelin star chef Michel Roux and his brother Albert, who had revolutionised gourmet French cuisine in the UK. Flying at 60,000 feet with low humidity had its challenges, and some food did not taste good, but thankfully, caviar was an exception, so it was a popular choice. There were six cabin crew on board to serve passengers and enforce safety procedures. Meals were served on damask linen in Wedgwood and Royal Doulton China. Cutlery was by Loewe. A typical meal may include champagne and canapés, followed by melon or seasonal fruit or Scottish smoked salmon. The main meal would often be beef fillet, lobster, salmon or beef wellington. A sample menu could include an appetiser of Ballotine of salmon with crème fraîche and a main meal of lamb fillets with a mustard and herb crust, with sea salt roast potatoes or grilled seabass with a caviar cream sauce with Swiss chard and wild rice. An alternative would be the Oriental style noodles with vegetables and chilli served with a ginger dressing. Dessert could be a banana tart, panna cotta, or a cheese platter with figs, followed by coffee, tea and chocolates. Another menu showed lobster with shallot beurre blanc served with a Scottish Loch Fyne smoked salmon and beluga caviar. One of the lavish lunches served was lobster salad with julienne of mango, steak in peppercorn sauce with potato croquettes and an almond, carrot and spinach subric. Duck and venison were alternative options. Caviar and foie gras were often served with steak, along with strawberries and cream for dessert. A typical salad would be a palm hearts salad with Roquefort dressing or artichoke leaves with spiced fruit. Another decadent menu served game pie with wild mushrooms, fillet of veal with marsala butter and confit cèpes. The alternative was corn fed chicken in Parma ham and fondant potatoes with creamed leeks and baby carrots. In New York, fine dining restaurants cooked meals for the Concorde with their chefs on the ground. There were also sandwiches with ham and cheese, egg and bacon and rocket and goat's cheese. Pastry chef Gaston Lenôtre created the Gâteau Concorde especially for the aircraft. This was a chocolate cake with layers of chocolate mousse and meringue and covered in more chocolate. Port and cigars were also served to finish a meal. Breakfast options included mushroom and truffle omelette with hash browns and grilled tomatoes and Greek yoghurt with passion fruit and berries. A full English breakfast was also an alternate option. Passengers could eat and drink for the whole flight if they wished, having up to six courses, but the luxury experience didn't end there. Gifts were given to Concorde's passengers. These included items such as Wedgwood paperweights and photo frames, letter openers and hip flasks made of silver. Air France flight 4590 from Paris CDG to JFK crashed just after takeoff on July 25, 2000, when debris from the runway caused a tire to burst and impact the fuel tank. All 109 people on board died in the accident. Concorde's last flight was the British Airways JFK to LHR flight on October 24, 2003. Between 1976 and its demise in 2003, Concorde had carried more than 2.5 million passengers. Although a much-talked-about and much-missed aircraft, it is unlikely that we'll ever see anything quite like it and its decadence again.