35000英尺上的飞机用餐攻坚战

British Airways thinks it has the answer for flavorless airline food: umami.
英国航空公司(British Airways)认为该公司已经找到了改善平淡无味的飞机餐的诀窍：鲜味(umami)。

Airline food can take a beating on its way to the plate. It's cooked many hours before a flight, then rapidly chilled, wrapped, trucked, stored and reheated. This often leaves it overcooked, dry and tough. In the air, passengers lose about 30% of their ability to taste as a result of extremely dry cabin conditions and high-altitude pressure inside airplanes. So even food that might be appetizing on the ground tastes bland at 35,000 feet.
在端上乘客的餐桌前，飞机餐的味道可能会层层流失。飞机餐制作的时间是在航班起飞之前的数个小时，之后还会经过急冻、包装、运输、存储和再加热等环节。这往往会导致飞机餐烹饪过头，又干又硬。在高空飞行时，乘客会丧失大约30%的味觉，原因是机舱中极度干燥的环境和高空压力。所以，即使在陆地上颇为可口的食物，在35,000英尺的高空也可能会索然无味。

For years airlines have added salt to give the food a semblance of flavor and ladled on sauces to combat dryness. Competition among carriers has intensified in business class and first class, and airlines now spend as much as $50 a person serving signature dishes from celebrity chefs. But for many travelers, it often still tastes like, well, airline food.
多年以来，航空公司一直通过在飞机餐中增加盐分的方式来改善食物的味道，并浇上酱汁防止食物变得干硬。航空公司在商务舱和头等舱上的竞争愈演愈烈，目前航空公司在每位乘客身上花费的成本在50美元左右，以供应名厨制作的特色餐点。但是，对于很多乘客来说，飞机餐仍然吃起来像，呃，飞机餐。

People typically buy tickets based on routes, pricing and loyalty programs, of course. There's little expectation for good food in coach, where airlines still serve hot meals on long international flights. But on board in first class and business class, the first thing passengers often think about is food, airlines say. 'You could certainly lose a customer,' said Adrian Jaski, British Airways' manager overseeing catering performance in London.
当然，乘客通常是基于航线、价格和会员计划来购买机票的。经济舱乘客对于飞机美食的预期往往不高，在长途国际航班的经济舱上航空公司也提供热餐。但是航空公司表示，头等舱和商务舱的客人登机后考虑的第一件事往往就是食物。英国航空公司驻伦敦的餐饮经理亚德里安?雅斯齐(Adrian Jaski)表示：“你很可能会因为餐食而丧失客户。”

Enter umami, the savory taste found in tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce and other foods. British Airways had previously worked with Heston Blumenthal, a famous London chef, known as a practitioner of scientifically engineered dishes and creator of delicacies like snail porridge.
解决之道是，加入鲜味这种可以在番茄、帕尔马干酪、蘑菇、辣酱油等食物中可以品尝到的味道。英国航空公司此前与伦敦名厨赫斯顿?布拉门斯(Heston Blumenthal)展开了合作，这位名厨是诸多科技型菜品的实践者，并且是蜗牛粥等美味佳肴的发明者。

On a British television series, he first tried cooking food from scratch onboard a flight; it was chaos. He then prepared elaborate cold plates that took too long for flight attendants to serve. He even tried getting passengers to spray saline up their noses to moisten the palate. British Airways decided that wouldn't fly.
在一档英国电视节目中，布拉门斯首先尝试了飞机起飞后从头开始烹饪食物；结果是一团糟。随后，他准备了精心制作的冷盘，不过空服人员需要花费的上菜时间太长了。他甚至还尝试让乘客向鼻子里喷盐水湿润鼻腔以获得更敏锐的感官。英国航空公司认为，上述办法全部不可行。

Then Mr. Blumenthal hit on umami as a breakthrough ingredient for high-altitude food. Umami is an intense flavor first identified by the Japanese and dubbed the fifth type of taste the tongue can detect, along with bitter, salty, sour and sweet. Mr. Blumenthal tweaked a shepherd's pie recipe to include umami-rich seaweed, for example. 'You can't load more salt but you can definitely up the umami,' he said on his show.
此后，布拉门斯突然发现鲜味可以作为打造高空美食的突破性要素。鲜味是最先由日本人鉴别出的一种强烈的味道，是舌头能够检测到的除了酸、甜、苦、咸以外的第五种味道。例如，布拉门斯将富含鲜味的海藻添加到了肉馅土豆泥饼中。他在节目中称：“你不能添加太多盐，但是你完全可以提高鲜味成分的量。”

After that, British Airways began working with the London-based Leatherhead Food Research on more quantitative study. Thirty professional food tasters conducted a series of experiments on the ground and in the air and found the sense of bitterness in food was heightened at altitude.
此后，英国航空公司与位于伦敦的莱瑟黑德食品研究所(Leatherhead Food Research)开始了合作并展开了更多的定量研究。30位职业味道鉴定师在地面上和高空中进行了一系列实验，他们发现，随着海拔的升高，食物的苦味会增加。

In addition to low humidity, they found that cabin lighting and temperature affect taste -- cold temperatures and gray lighting have been shown to dull the experience of eating. Stress levels of travelers also affected taste.
除了低湿度之外，他们发现机舱的灯光和温度也会影响食物的味道──研究显示，低温和昏暗的灯光会令就餐的体验大打折扣。旅客们的旅途压力也会令食物的味道变差。

And the researchers agreed with Mr. Blumenthal that umami didn't lose its punch at high altitude and could be added to recipes to bolster flavors. Even for items like steak -- notoriously difficult to serve aboard planes without ending up tough and dry from double-cooking -- a crust made of umani-rich ingredients bolsters flavor. 'It's a salt substitute without the sodium,' said Sinead Ferguson, BA's menu design manager.
这些研究人员同意布拉门斯关于鲜味不会随着高度增加而变淡的观点，他们认为可以在菜谱中添加鲜味让食物变得更美味。甚至对于牛排这种很容易因过度加工导致干硬而不适宜在飞机上提供的菜式来说，把富含鲜味的原料裹在它外面也可以改善它的味道。英国航空公司的菜单设计经理辛尼德?弗格森(Sinead Ferguson)说：“这是不含钠的食盐替代品。”

Over the past year, British Airways has altered its recipes to load up on umami-rich foods. And it has pushed catering companies to overplay particular tastes in sauces so that tastes will come through for even the driest palate.
在过去的一年中，英国航空公司已经在菜单上加入了很多富含鲜味的食物。并且该公司已经敦促配餐公司强化酱料中的某些特殊味道，以使飞机餐能令最干燥的味蕾感到可口。

One example: The airline is serving a special tasting menu from the Langham, one of London's grand hotels, in the first-class cabin of its Airbus A380 super jumbo jets, and several recipes were reworked for high-altitude eating.
例如：英国航空公司目前向空中客车(Airbus) A380巨型喷气式飞机的头等舱乘客提供伦敦知名酒店朗廷酒店(Langham)的特别主厨菜单，菜单中的几款菜品的菜谱已经根据高空就餐的特点进行了调整。

For a pork cheeks dish, 'we had to pack more lime and lemon grass into the sauce,' said Kevin Levett, executive chef for production at Gate Gourmet in London, which caters BA's flights.
伦敦Gate Gourmet餐厅的餐饮行政主厨凯文?莱韦特(Kevin Levett)表示，拿一道猪颊肉的菜式来说，“我们在酱料中加入了更多的酸橙和香茅草”。Gate Gourmet餐厅为英国航空公司提供配餐服务。