"Continental Airlines" news and stories

If you're flying on Continental Airlines, paying extra for that roomier seat in BusinessFirst class, you'll also be getting higher-end meals designed by Continental's executive chef, Siegfried Lang.

Last month, the airline upgraded its BusinessFirst menus on international flights, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The airline even customizes its menus for each major overseas market, including an Israeli kosher kitchen for flights to Tel Aviv.

"We have two Japanese chefs making authentic Japanese food every night so we're not having a Western concept of what a Japanese meal should be," Gerry McLoughlin, Continental's food and beverage development manager and corporate executive chef, told the paper.

Houston chef Bryan Caswell, owner of Reef, Stella Sola and Little Big's, designed one new menu item -- a seafood medley of turbot fish and grilled shrimp served over spiced green lentils and topped with lobster sauce, the paper reported.

Even back in the days when airlines weren't suffering like mad, I never thought there was much to the world of air food. I figured there were some powers-that-be types that picked some meals, most likely from an independent food distributor, and that was that. These days, I figured there was even less -- purchase crap, microwave and serve, if they even share more than a granola bar.

Then there was that infamous letter to Virgin Airlines chastising their sorry excuses for food, which led the airline to invite the reader to come to their "catering house" and give his input. Catering houses ... But that's not all -- FOXBusiness now reports that Chef Bryan Caswell, owner of REEF and Little Bigs restaurants in Houston, has been added to Continential Airlines' Congress of Chefs. Not group, not board, but Congress.

Before writing this, I looked up some Continental reviews, since I haven't flown them in a while and perhaps I was missing out on a culinary experience, but reading here, I don't think I have. Or rather, there's an enormous divide between the Business class menu, and the airline that has "won numerous awards for its international BusinessFirst service [and where] Continental's Congress of Chefs and Sommeliers carefully select menus and wines for each country the airline serves."