Have you ever wondered what it would be like to tuck in to restaurant-quality food in the comfort of your own home, without even having to get your hands dirty?
Well this dream could now become a reality after On Air Dining, a UK based culinary concierge company that provides quality cuisine to private jet companies and owners, announced that it’s to start providing its services to London based clients at their homes and at special venues. The cuisine will be served by On Air Dining chefs and staff.
The company believes that London, fuelled by a huge influx of ultra-high net worth and high net worth individuals in recent years, is now the global capital for the world’s best cuisine. The company uses only the finest ingredients from around the world such as Kopi Luwak Coffee, Kobe Beef, hand dived shell fish and artisanal products from across the UK.
Around 60% of On Air Dining’s ingredients are now sourced from the UK, the company claims. It also points out that the UK wins more awards for its cheeses than the French, and the quality of its cattle is hard to beat.
A new dish created by On Air Dining for the Channel 4 documentary ‘The World’s Most Expensive Food’ (aired 28th December 2015), and which is now available to clients at home, consists of mahogany and soft shell clams set in a jelly made from its juices; Beluga Caviar; sweet corn puree; umami sponge; crispy onion; Japanese sea weed and oyster leaves; clam chowder foam and golden fennel pollen. Each dish will cost around £190. However, if the client would like to include green sea urchins from the Arctic Circle served live at the table it will cost around £300 per person.
Daniel Hulme, Chief Executive of On Air Dining, said: “Where possible, as a business we pride ourselves on sourcing the very best local ingredients and produce. The UK produces amazing, world class produce that is giving the “foodie” countries a real run for their money. This produce takes a huge amount of love, care and investment, and that is why some of it has a huge price tag.”
To date, On Air Dining has only been providing food to the private jet industry, and in the past year it has seen its business grow by 200%, and it expects to more than double its turnover in 2016. Since, 2014, the number of people it employs has increased from 10 to nearly 40.
An example of the growth of the UHNW and HNW market comes from Gama Aviation, the global aviation services company headquartered at Farnborough Airport, and which is one of On Air Dining’s clients. It says that there are now around 1,769 medium to large private jets in Europe, and the UK has the biggest fleet with 267, followed by Germany which has 192. Gama Aviation operates in excess of $2.5 billion of aviation assets worldwide.
Hulme continued: “There are now around 80 billionaires living in London alone, 11% more than in 2014, and the number of ultra-high net worth individuals – worth at least $30 million – living in the capital is 7% higher than in 2014.
“Many of these people use private jets and it has helped fuel strong growth in our business, and we are now able to prepare food for them at their homes and elsewhere.”
On Air Dining has designed food for the private aviation market that is akin to what clients enjoy at their favourite restaurants. However, it can cost up to £20,000 to develop a dish for business aviation, and they are specifically designed to counter the impact altitude has on food – salt can lose its taste, for example.
Its private jet menu includes dishes such as miso-braised cod with sesame bok choy and shiitake broth; filet of beef with horseradish chips and tomato fondue; seared yellowfin tuna niçoise with soft-boiled quail eggs and fennel mayonnaise; rose water poached rhubarb and custard cream and cherry and chocolate mille-feuille.
Earlier this year, On Air Dining created a new dessert that costs between £360 and £600. Called Wild Kopi Luwak Coffee Coconut and Gold Dessert, it’s made of the world’s rarest coffee beans that cost between £1,000 and £32,500 per kilogram.
The coffee beans are from the purveyors of the world’s most exclusive coffee, Bespoke Beverages. These rare beans are so expensive and are known as Black Gold because they have been eaten and digested by wild civet cats in Indonesia, which gives the beans their unique qualities. The process of collecting and using these beans goes back 170 years.
The beans are collected, washed, hand roasted and then graded: Emerald grade costs around £1,000 per kg; Ruby grade some £8,000 per kg and Diamond grade around £32,500 per kg.
