As airlines cut menus, luxury hotels step up

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Hotels aren’t just filling doggie bags with food from their restaurant menus. Some are devising special dishes that travel well and stay tasty at room temperature.

“It’s actually a very difficult thing to come up with something,” said chef Dakota Weiss at the Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey in Los Angeles. “You never know how long it’s going to stick around.”

The meals are a niche product, so sales growth hasn’t been separately tracked. But hotel managers said sales are up.

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The number of so-called “Pen Air” meals leaving the kitchen of the Peninsula has increased to about 30 a week, said dining director Christian Boyens.

The Ritz-Carlton, Phoenix now sells about 20 meals a week from its “Flight Bites” menu, sales manager Kimberly Urich said.

The meals aren’t big sellers for international flights because many of those carriers are enhancing menus as part of their marketing strategies.

Air France recently said it will start serving meals created by Guy Martin, chef at the legendary Grand Velour restaurant in Paris.

Peninsula chef Sean Hardy is creating multi-course meals for first- and business-class passengers on some Lufthansa flights.

Industry watchers said the takeout meals are good for business because hotels can build loyalty among big-spending travelers by feeding them in-flight.

“You’re delivering service, not just when they pay the bill and you put them in a limo, but so that they’re also thinking of you on their flight back home,” Herrera said.

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