Masterchef judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace critique Heathrow food

Masterchef judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace critique Heathrow food

Masterchef judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace have been appointed as the "official taste buds" of Heathrow Airport.

The pair was tasked with sampling the food at all 73 restaurants and bars at the international airport and then setting a six-month challenge to improve the dining experience for travellers.

Every year 26 million food orders are placed at Heathrow, at venues that include fine dining options such as Caviar House and Prunier, Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food, Oriel and Rhubarb, as well as high street concepts redesigned specifically for travellers such as YO! Sushi, Strada and Carluccio's.

Following their taste tests, Torode and Wallace have called on the Heathrow food and beverage team to introduce healthier food choices across the terminals and to create a platform to champion British culinary talent.

Ben Crowley, head of food and beverage at Heathrow, said: "Heathrow's food and drink offering is designed specifically with travellers in mind - from people passing through several time zones in a very short space of time to those needing a meal in minutes.

"We've been recognised on a global level but for us this is not enough. We want to continue to innovate to be the best in our league for airport dining. We are hugely excited about responding to the challenge John and Gregg have set and at bringing a new dimension to Heathrow food and beverage offering."

Wallace commented: "Food is our first love and at the heart of everything we do; so we were delighted when we were invited to take part in this eating challenge - and to contribute to the guide.

"We were blown away by the range on offer to hungry passengers at Heathrow; catering for such a huge spectrum of passengers is truly a herculean task."

Heathrow has produced 10,000 copies of Food on the Fly, its first ever food guide, which will be published and handed out to passengers to mark the summer getaway with a digital version available to download from www.heathrow.com from July.

Heathrow food facts & figures:

\ Breakfast is the most popular dish of the day at Heathrow, with almost five million eggs, 6.4 million croissants and 4.5 million rashers of bacon served every year
\ The airport plates up more than 1.5 tonnes of caviar and 25,000 kilos of salmon, and shucks over 240,000 oysters annually. This seafood requires a garnish of 400,000 lemons every year.
\ Heathrow pours over 800,000 glasses of Champagne every year every year.
\* Over 250,000 pieces of sushi are served at Heathrow each year, and 630,000 portions of steak
\
Heathrow's food and beverage team work with leading nutritionists to review the food and drink on offer and provide guidance and advice on travel eating
\
Heathrow has previously introduced travel concepts including a picnic area serving a pre-flight relaxation menu of dishes scientifically proven to help people unwind.
\
The airport is also introducing ‘take onboard' menu options for passengers

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking