Glasgow man recreates airplane meals for his husband from their prepandemic adventures
'Ever since I was a kid, plane food is just something that has been fascinating me,' says Nik Sennhauser
In rainy Glasgow this weekend, Nik Sennhauser cooked up a storm.
He made chicken in a tomato garlic basil sauce with some linguine, along with a potato salad and a slice of roast beef as a side dish. He also baked chocolate brownies for dessert.
Sennhauser served that meal to his husband on a plastic tray, reminiscent of the last time they ate it — on a Lufthansa flight from Hong Kong to Munich in 2019.
The confessed aviation geek started recreating airline meals for Sunday dinner earlier this year.
"I started during lockdown because I didn't have anything to do," he told As It Happens host Carol Off. "It was so bad that I actually looked forward to going back to work on Monday."
One Sunday morning, Sennhauser made some sausages with an omelette and hash browns and thought it looked like airplane food.
He already had an in-flight trolley, stocked with plates, glasses, cutlery and trays he collected over the years. So he decided to dust them off and use them to serve breakfast.
"I thought it was quite fun," he said.
That meal transported Sennhauser back to a time before the pandemic, when he'd jump on a plane and head off on an adventure.
At the same time, he said it was a challenge for him every week through lockdown to learn how to cook a new dish and plate it.
"I don't really like cooking," he admitted.
Sennhauser grew up in Thailand and Austria and says he spent much of his childhood travelling.
"Ever since I was a kid, plane food is just something that has been fascinating me," he said.
He remembers boarding a plane from Bangkok at 2 a.m. to fly west to Austria. Once all the passengers were settled in and the flight took off, a flight attendant would come around to serve a hot meal.
"Just magical. You're on a plane and it's dark. It's 3 o'clock in the morning and you can hear the trolleys coming out and the glass clinking," he said. "I always love that just thinking of it."
Sennhauser says he still loves to fly.
Before the pandemic put a halt on air travel, he took pictures of his meals on planes and posted travel vlogs on YouTube.
Now, he's going back to those pictures, picking out flights and assessing their menus.
"I look at the meal that I had and decide whether or not my cooking abilities will allow me to actually make that happen," he said. "And so far, it's been good."
Home-cooked meals
The aviation enthusiast "amazed" himself when he recreated Virgin Atlantic's afternoon tea.
He had never made macarons, eclairs and scones before, and he spent the whole weekend in the kitchen trying them out.
"It turned out fine … they did look the same and [I] tried to plate it as close as possible to the real deal."
Sennhauser says his best recreation has to be the lobster thermidor he made in May.
While most of his meals are inspired by his flights in economy class, the lobster is a signature dish for business and first-class passengers on Singapore Airlines.
"Probably one of my favourite meals to date. I love, love lobster and never really find an excuse to justify spending money on it," Sennhauser shared on Instagram. "Recreating an airline meal was a perfect excuse I would say,"
When it's safe to travel again, Sennhauser says he hopes to go to Japan via All Nippon Airways.
"Their food just looks amazing," he said.
"Since we've not been spending any money on flights for the past year, my husband has greenlit a business class flight that we are actually going to pay for once this is all over."
Written by Mehek Mazhar. Interview with Nik Sennhauser produced by Sarah Jackson
