Hawaiian Airlines is taking a taste of Hawai‘i to the skies.
The airline is doing away with complimentary meals in the main cabin of most domestic flights. Instead, starting July 1, those passengers will be able to pre-order food from a Hawai‘i-inspired menu curated by Maui-based chef Sheldon Simeon.
According to a Thursday announcement from Hawaiian, his menu offers "elevated takes on local favorites and comfort foods," with many items highlighting signature flavors from his restaurants.
Simeon, who's known for his Valley Isle eateries Tin Roof and Tiffany's Restaurant & Bar, has received several James Beard Award nominations and was a semifinalist for Best Chef: Northwest & Pacific this year.
"Already offered in first class, the pre-order model puts guests in control of their onboard dining experience throughout the cabin, with first class guests now benefiting from an expanded selection of menu options," the announcement notes.
"We're excited because this is really about a transformation across our entire in-flight experience from a food and beverage perspective," Alisa Onishi, managing director of Hawai‘i marketing for Hawaiian Airlines, told Aloha State Daily.
It's the first time Hawaiian has offered a chef-curated menu in the main cabin, she says. The curated pre-order menu will be available on all domestic flights between Hawai‘i and the Mainland, except for those to JFK International Airport in New York City, which will continue to receive a complimentary meal.
Other buy-on-board products will remain the same, Onishi says, and the airline will continue to offer free snacks from local partners on board.
"Our most frequent flyers have given us feedback over the years that they've been wanting more choice and higher-quality meal options, so we are exited to provide more selection," Onishi says, noting that gluten-free and vegan options have been requested by guests throughout the years, "and we are now able to provide for them. We're really excited about giving our guests more choice and better quality option for food in-flight."
Onishi says that the airline began to work toward this before its integration with Alaska Airlines, and always had Simeon, one of Hawaiian's featured chefs in 2015, "in our hearts and minds."
"He had done one of our first class menus back then and [was] just such a great chef to work with," she told ASD. " ... He understood how to make food on an airplane taste really good. He understands the restrictions ... we have in the aircraft, so he was really able to create this menu that was island-inspired, using local resources, making sure that there's a story behind each of the menu items. So, we knew from the beginning that Chef Sheldon was one of our first choices. We knew he was the right [person] to partner with for this program because it is the first time for doing this in our main cabin and we wanted to make sure that we had a chef who understood the assignment and knew how to make something beautiful and successful and taste really great from kitchen into the airplane."
During a tasting of the menu Wednesday, Simeon said it's been nearly a year since discussions first began.
"There have been so many ideas, even prior to our first meeting and our first tasting, that we did internally with my chefs at the restaurant," he says. "It was just such a cool opportunity. ... Hawai‘i has some of the best cuisines, some [of the] best restaurants and best flavors that there is, and we have to continue to celebrate that. This is a huge, huge win for Hawai‘i culinary that Hawaiian has given us the opportunity to share these flavors."
Here's what you'll be able to grab from the new menu when it launches:
The morning menu, available for flights that depart between 6 and 9:59 a.m., includes corned beef hash and poached eggs; french toast or banana pancakes with scrambled eggs and Portuguese sausage (don't skip the the spicy-K mayo or banana bread syrup); coconut overnight oats, a vegan and gluten-free option; and a cheesy omelet with chicken sausage and roasted potatoes, which is coming this fall.
Meanwhile, the afternoon and evening menu, available for flights departing between 10 a.m. and 8:29 p.m., includes crispy mochiko chicken and garlic noodles, which comes with mac salad and bag of crispy toppings; a bento that includes grilled teriyaki chicken, tamagoyaki, kamaboko and a shoyu hotdog; teriyaki cheeseburger; grilled chicken bahn mi sandwich; a salad with li hing mango, baby kale, almonds, edamame, grape tomato and quinoa, along with a li hing balsamic vinaigrette; Italian sub; and cheeseburger mac and cheese, which is coming this fall.
Prices for each meal range from about $11 to $17. According to the announcement, the meals will be prepared with fresh ingredients no more than 12 hours before each flight.
You can order through the Alaska Hawaiian mobile app or website two weeks in advance and as close as 20 hours before departure.
Hawaiian and Simeon will introduce new dishes and rotate items throughout the year, the announcement notes.
Residents who are Huaka‘i by Hawaiian members, or who become members by June 24, will get two free meals starting July 1.
In March, Hawaiian welcomed Chef Dell Valdez as its new executive chef. Read more about that here.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
