A Look At The Last Meal Served On The Iconic Concorde Planes

Typically, people look down on airline food, believing it to be too inconsistent in quality and too high in price to be worth eating. Through the years, people have learned the do's and don'ts of airline food to improve their overall experience, like avoiding drinking coffee and opting for ginger ale instead. However, airline food was not always considered low quality.

Meet the Concorde, an airplane known for its out-of-this-world fine dining and A-list celebrity roster of passengers. This high-tech form of air travel was the first supersonic jet to carry passengers commercially. It was operated by two airlines, Air France and British Airways, and flew from 1976 to 2003. The Concorde was famous for meals featuring bottles of Dom Perignon and lobster tails. Although these flights are no longer running, they did go out on top, with the last trip featuring a final meal of Scottish smoked salmon and caviar, vintage Champagnes, lamb cutlets, beef fillets, lobster fishcakes, a truffle omelette, and a buttermilk panna cotta dessert.

As much as the famous and wealthy passengers enjoyed their luxurious meals, the Concorde planes eventually proved to be too costly to maintain, among other logistical issues. The solution was to either raise the cost of flying to an even higher amount or to end Concorde flights. Ultimately, the latter decision was made and the Concorde planes, along with their extravagant meals, became yet another part of the long history of airplane food and aviation.

One thing that remained consistent throughout the decades of Concorde planes' service is that meals were always multi-course. Meals always began with Champagne and a selection of hors d'oeuvres, a small appetizer, and canapes. From there, guests could choose from a small menu of entrees.

Typical fare on a Concorde flight for entrees include an English breakfast platter, lamb fillet, grilled sea bass, or vegetable and noodle salad. A dessert menu would follow, giving passengers the choice between a fruit tart or a selection of various cheeses. Bread rolls, chocolates, coffee, and tea were also available as part of the dessert portion of the meal.

If the final meal served onboard a Concorde flight sounds unusually decadent, that's because it really was. Although the meals on Concorde flights were always well known for being impressive, the chefs purposely went all out for the last flight. It served as both a means of celebration of the excellence aboard Concorde flights through the years and a proper farewell party for the niche form of air travel.