Flight BA2012: Efficiency Savings

Here is a picture I managed to snap inside British Airways' familiar-sounding East London pop-up restaurant/art installation which resembles an aircraft cabin and sells plane food.

First impressions: The tables/table cloths are far less exciting than the cgi render suggested, and the windows are at least 75% smaller.

Which is a great shame, as one thing I've learned about setting up Plane Food Cafes around the world since 2009 is that it's all about expectation management.

I was also rather alarmed by the lack of lifejackets - BA, If you're reading this, I can lend you some of mine at a very reasonable rate.

Flight BA2012 Lands Three Years Late?

'British Airways is to launch a pop-up airline themed restaurant in Shoreditch.'

Really? That sounds like an excellent idea.

'According to BA, the three-in-one art gallery, cinema and dining lounge in East London has been exclusively designed to recreate a premium flying experience.'

I wouldn’t quite say ‘exclusively’.

'British Airways managing director of brands and customer experience, said: “We wanted to bring the flying experience to the public. This is going to be an exciting year for the capital!”'

Yes. Especially if that exciting year is 2009.

Notes:

British Airways is the official airline of the London 2012 Games.

Flight BA2012 will be located half a mile from the original 2009 site of Plane Food Cafe.

The food at Flight BA2012 will cost ten times as much as the food at the Plane Food Cafe, no doubt due to inflation.

Richard's other show in 2009 was all about Plagiarism.

If you click to enlarge the top image, you'll notice that it's actually computer generated.

Sadly Flight BA2012 is already fully booked, so, to avoid disappointment, Richard may turn up in uniform with his trolley to serve refreshments at the launch of BA Flight2012 on April 4th.

Highly Selective Review Quotes.

(Click to Enlarge)

Plane Food Cafe: Napoli Teatro Festival

Plane Food Cafe was spotted in Edinburgh and invited to the Napoli Teatro Festival in Summer 2010.

Here is a review from Teatro Magazine (click to enlarge):

Link

The show was performed in two languages, which required extensive rewrites, rehearsals and the unique performative talents of the popular neapolitan actress Monica Nappo:

Monica's career has gone stratospheric since Plane Food Cafe: Here she is receiving direction from Woody Allen on the set of his latest movie:

This is an example of the 'Plane Food Cafe Halo Effect', which will be the topic of a future post.

The mechanics of the set were reconfigured to suit the space:

and there was a discussion about the show and the issues raised:

The Italian plane food was by far the tastiest yet.

But that title remains up for grabs, as Plane Food Cafe is still available for international touring.

Watch on Youtube

Nappo and DeDomenici relax after a hard fortnight's work.

Richard kills a Time Out journalist.

Almost.

The Edinburgh Reviews Are In..

(Click To Enlarge)

Link

Click here for Broadway Baby 4 Star (****) review.

Report about Plane Food Cafe on EdFestTv

Hmm, the video seems a little cropped. Click here for the full view.

Also, following numerous requests, click below for a hi-res version of the Plane Food Cafe poster:

Buy Tickets!

Here or here (preferably the former).

About Plane Food Cafe

Leading chef Marcus Wareing recently declared that British pub food is now worse that airline food and that, 'if you want a decent bite to eat, you'd be better off getting on a plane'.

Richard DeDomenici finds this a rather environmentally irresponsible thing to say, and has created a far more exciting alternative: a Plane Food Café that sells genuine airline food in plastic trays delivered straight from the airport factories and served at ground level by DeDomenici and his cabin crew.

The cafe is housed in an installation of fixtures and fittings procured from aircraft reclamation yards, complete with on-board entertainment on the wider subject of air travel, which will hopefully provide an immersive, educational experience, to accompany the gastronomic one.

In-flight meals taste different on the ground – pressurised aircraft cabins deaden the taste buds, and the low humidity hinders the ability to smell. Therefore plane food on the ground should theoretically taste spectacular.

It is envisaged that Plane Food Café will help to discourage the environmentally conscious and paranoid from further flying, whilst simultaneously enabling the 95% of people in the world who have never travelled by plane to inexpensively experience the delights of aviation cuisine.

Plane Food Cafe launches August 17th - For tickets visit EdFringe or Universal Arts.

Plane Food Cafe: Glasgow Review

Guardian Restaurant Critic survives Plane Food Cafe

But only just. Read Jay Rayner's words here.

Plane Food Cafe: London

And some great reviews from Treehugger and Londonist.

Richard's Other Show

Click to Enlarge or visit the Website.