There's some fascinating info here about how actual taste and smell change on airline flights, which leads to some challenges in planning meals.
Less fascinating, more irksome, is how the airlines are expressing a renewed interest in coming up with the best of tasty meals … focused on first and business class. Steerage gets pretzels, or maybe a cookie. #ddtb
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Airlines Studying the Science of Better In-Flight Meals
Carriers are turning to science and celebrity chefs to figure out how to make onboard meals more appealing to high-revenue business travelers.
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It's called the cuisine/altitude paradox. My sailor buddy taught me about it. On an airplane, everything pretty much tastes like shit. At sea level even crackers with pub cheese is delicious. And if you find yourself on a submarine, every meal is supposed to be divine. I can attest to the sea level part and the airplane part, but thankfully I've never been on a submarine.
I heard a story about this on NPR this week. It was mentioned that the drone of the engines appears to interfere with the sense of taste, making food seem bland.
@Avo – This article mentions it’s an altitude/air pressure thing affecting taste. Interesting.
Yes, I didn’t mean to imply that the NPR story attributed it entirely to the engine noise. That was a factor in addition to the pressure. Sorry for the confusion.
@Avo – No problem, just an additional interesting component.
So do they work on “eating labs” to recreate these vibration/humidity/air pressure environments?