It’s a bird; it’s a plane; it’s a flying restaurant? Acclaimed Dutch Chef Angélique Schmeinck has created quite a stir with her popular CuliAir Skydining, the world’s first hot air balloon restaurant, where lucky diners enjoy a three-course meal while floating in the skies above Holland.
After 25 years of restaurant experience (including a 12-year run at the Michelin-starred De Kromme Dissel) and several cookbooks under her belt, she wanted to venture into new territory. In 2003, Chef Schmeinck, one of only two Dutch female master chefs, was inspired to launch a contemporary haute cuisine in the skies business, preparing gourmet dishes in a hot air balloon ride while using the balloon as a huge convection oven. The results were instantly popular with travelers.
The idea of cooking on a hot air balloon was brilliant, considering the internal balloon temperatures rise to around 100 degrees, meaning that food can be cooked slowly at low temperatures. This is the perfect technique for aroma development and preserving the juices in fish or meat dishes.
Using a custom pulley construction, the dishes are transported to the crown of the balloon envelope in special-purpose steel oven baskets. After cooking, dishes are hoisted down to the custom-made kitchen, where they receive a live cooking finish to perfection with crisp vegetables and a decadent sauce.
"I'm in the middle, and the guests and pilot are around me so I can hand over the dishes," says Chef Angélique. "I can explain the dishes, and I can feel when they are a little bit nervous. Some people have a fear of heights, and I can relax them. It's a very personal and intensive experience."
"I have now done over 70 flights with over 700 passengers," she continues. "But every flight for me is special because you don't know what happens. It's one of the most wonderful things a chef can give to a guest, something they will never forget."
Temperature sensors line the interior of the balloon, which are inspected from the kitchen basket during flight. This allows the chef to determine exactly whether dishes should be slightly lowered or raised over the heat source to achieve a perfect result. The entire experience lasts four to five hours, including a reception in the meadow, dinner in the hot air balloon, and a champagne celebration and dessert at the landing location.
"On one of our first test flights, we thought it would be great to connect three balloons together and go with three balloons up in the air," says Chef Angélique. "We had one kitchen balloon and two restaurant balloons with 50 guests. For me, it's all about creative thinking, which in these times is very important. So many restaurants copy each other, and there is so little originality."
The website maxtravelz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Airbnb was the top-spending travel brand on U.S. national TV during the first 11 months of 2022 at an estimated $86.5 million, but it was merely the ninth most-seen among travel websites, hotels and motels, resorts and theme parks, cruise lines and airlines.
KLM has won its court case against the Dutch government, which proposed cutting flights at Schiphol Airport from 500,000 a year to 440,000 a year to reduce noise pollution.
Global aviation leasing watchdog Aviation Working Group — that monitors leasing and financing laws on behalf of planemakers and lessors — has placed India on a watchlist with a negative outlook. Citing India’s failure to comply with international aircraft repossession norms after cash-strapped airline Go First was granted bankruptcy protection, the UK-based entity’s outlook falls under the Cape Town Convention, an international treaty on plane repossessions. India’s score has been reduced to 3 from 3.5 earlier. The move could translate into higher leasing costs for other Indian carriers. India’s inability to process deregistration applications for aircraft, whose leases got terminated before a freeze was imposed, resulted in a negative outlook, the watchdog said in a notice. Go First’s lessors include SMBC Aviation Capital, CDB Aviation’s GY Aviation Leasing, Jackson Square Aviation and Bank of China Aviation. The inability to repossess Go First’s planes in a timely manner comes as Indian air travel is booming and local carriers, which regularly turn to lessors to help finance plane purchases, have ordered hundreds of new jets. Go First filed for bankruptcy protection last week, blaming “faulty” Pratt & Whitney engines for the grounding of about half its 54 Airbus A320neos. The airline is only the latest — after the failures of Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines — struggling to stay afloat in an increasingly competitive market.
A ban on smoking marijuana on the streets of Amsterdam’s red light district went into effect on Thursday, part of a push by the city’s first female mayor to clean up the area.
Real estate development firm Quadrum Global said this week that it planned to bring The Williamsburg Hotel under its Arlo Hotels brand by September — having in April bought that boutique hotel in Brooklyn, New York, for $96 million.
Senior hospitality editor Sean O’Neill interviews travel tech reporter Justin Dawes about his experience on the floor of the Hospitality Industry Technology Expo and Conference, better known as HITEC. The conference bills itself as “the world’s largest hospitality technology show,” and Justin was there in Toronto last week covering it for Skift.
KLM, Delta, United and scores of carriers have filed an appeal at the Dutch Supreme Court to overturn a move by the Dutch government to curb traffic at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, the Dutch airline said on Tuesday.
For nearly a century, the Monte-Carlo Beach hotel has been welcoming well-heeled guests—including Grace Kelly, Leonardo DiCaprio and Rihanna—to the French Riviera. After two years of renovation, the hotel reopened last year with a chic, minimalist redesign by architect India Mahdavi that pays homage to the 1930s. The reborn Monte-Carlo Beach features three restaurants, a PAOMA spa, and a new emphasis on sustainability.