Airport food

Winning paella at O’Hare Airport

Food, ,

HMS HOST Paella

There was a cooking competition at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport a while back and one of the prizes was having the winning dish featured on the menu at one of the HMS Host restaurants in the airport.

That dish is now ready – so next time you pass through ORD,you can stop by Goose Island Brewery and order the Paella Bowl, based on the winning recipe Sepi Naficy whipped up for the 2016 Channel Your Inner Chef contest.

Your plate won’t be as big as the one in the picture above, which was used to give travelers passing through ORD last week a taste, but it will have grilled chicken and shrimp with spring peas served over chorizo-infused rice.

Go to BWI airport, eat chocolate

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BWI_SPAGnVOLA storefront AIRMALL BWI

Like chocolate?

At Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall (BWI) Airport (Concourse A), Maryland gourmet chocolatier SPAGnVOLA now offers an array of handcrafted chocolate bars, bonbons and truffles made with cacao beans from a single-estate farm in the Dominican Republic that are roasted in Gaithersburg, Md. SPAGnVOLA was named one of the top 10 chocolate shops in the world by National Geographic.

 

 

Farm to Flight at Kelowna Int’l Airport

Food, ,

YLW Fram to flght

Here’s a tasty idea:

In British Columbia, Canada, Kelowna International Airport (YLW) teamed up with a local produce distributor for a Farm to Flight program, which makes various in-season fruits available for passenger to purchase in the airport’s Departures Lounge gift shop, which is past airport security screening.

The fruit is packed in specially packaged containers that fit under airplane seats, so travelers can bring home Okanagan fruit if they’re heading to a Canadian destination or, if they’re on their way to the U.S. – just snack on it on the plane.

YLW Farm to Flight

Restaurant month at airports

Airports, Food,

Rosemary GrilledShrimp-HMSHost Airport Restaurant Month May 2016

 

If you enjoy Restaurant Month deals in your home town, then you’ll be pleased to know that HMSHost is once again bringing the concept to airports.

Through May, HMSHost is hosting Airport Restaurant Month in about 90 participating restaurants at more than 50 airports across North America and Europe, including those operated by HMSHost’s parent company, Autogrill, at Brussels Airport, Zürich Airport, and Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport in Rome.

During restaurant month in my town, each restaurant creates their own special menu to highlight their offerings.

For HMSHost’s Airport Month, each restaurant is customizing a core menu of dishes created by HMSHost’s corporate executive chef and culinary team.

Guests will receive a choice of entrée, accompanied by several side dishes. Some of the dishes travelers will find include Rosemary grilled shrimp; flat iron steak; Parmesan-crusted chicken; and a baked Portobello mushroom.

You can see the full list of participating restaurants at AirportRestaurantMonth.com.

 

Airport eating: cage-free eggs

Food,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationaalarchief/5453358048/in/photolist-85EtNz-7DP1K8-orRxeq-9iTTmC-6eRUN6-ocqfjj-6EwyUK-5q8AnP-81sAiw-5zuozU-4juzPa-od5jMw-xC8MpK-oePmJf-oeMR2k-oePmtq-tAHX1V-4juMxR-bAdBKQ-bP8goV-i5n2qu-ag1M1o-otFnwA-owjX2w-obYVtJ

Photo courtesy: Nationaal Archief via Flickr Commons

HMSHost – operator of many of the airport restaurants you already frequent – has announced that it has plans to switch to “cage-free” eggs at its more than 2,000 airport and highway locations.

They’ll start off by making the switch in early summer at several HMSHost restaurants at Los Angeles International Airport, Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, and McCarran International Airport Las Vegas.

By June you’ll be served cage-free eggs at Tuscany Café, Goose Island, and Tortas Frontera (already serving cage-free eggs) at Chicago O’Hare International Airport; Gladstones and Campanile at Los Angeles International Airport; HMSHost’s restaurant 1897 Market at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, and PGA TOUR Grill and Sammy’s Beach Bar & Grill at McCarran International Airport Las Vegas.

Cage-free eggs will show up on the menu at all the company’s restaurants by 2025.

No doubt there are other airport restaurants already serving cage-free eggs, but it’s good to know HMSHost is joining the flock.

 

Travel Tidbits from Phoenix and O’Hare Airports

Art, Events, Food, , ,

Fresh art at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport 

PHX WOOD SCULPTURE 1

Giant wood sculptures by Phoenix artist Mitch Fry, made from a multitude of small pieces, are now on display in Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport as part of the Phoenix Airport Museum’s exhibition titled, Form Matters.

Look for this exhibition in Terminal 4 in the Gallery on level 3 through July 10. (Hours: 6 a.m. – 9 p.m. daily.)

HMSHost _ Channel Your Inner Chef

Something’s cooking at Chicago O’Hare Airport 

The second annual Channel Your Inner Chef cooking competition take place March 22 in front of a live audience inside Terminal 2 at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

Hosted by HMSHost and the Chicago Department of Aviation, the competition pits five finalists against each other in a 30-minute timed cook-off with the challenge of creating an original recipe from a bounty of ingredients revealed to them only at the start of the event.

Top prize is the chance for the winning chef to have his or her dish featured on the menu of an HMSHost-operated restaurant at O’Hare, two round-trip airline tickets for a flight within the continental U.S. and a VIP trip for two to attend the James Beard Awards Gala on May 2, 2016 in Chicago.

The cook-off will be held post-security in O’Hare’s Terminal 2 and will also feature live music and a secondary stage with cooking demonstrations and sample dishes from HMSHost-operated restaurants at O’Hare.

 

Airports help out local food banks

Food, ,

The upside of modern airports offering a wide variety of fast food outlets, grab ‘n’ go shops and table service restaurants with gourmet meals is that passengers have lots of options when they’re hungry.

SEA GLOBE RESTAURANT

The downside: A lot of unsold food can go to waste.

The silver lining: In many cities there are programs that make it easy to get unsold packaged and prepared food from airports to local food banks and other hunger relief programs.

Denver International is the latest airport to put a food donation program in place.

In a program officially launched this week, participating airport restaurants and food vendors fill coolers on loan from United Airlines with leftover prepared entrees, side dishes, prepackaged salads and sandwiches, sealed beverages, condiment packets, canned goods and other items.

A local organization, Metro Caring, then picks up the food and distributes it to hungry families and individuals in town.

During a two-month pilot phase of the program at DIA, 11 airport concessions donated about 3,500 pounds of unused food to the program.

Other airports with food donation programs include Los Angeles International Airport, which has its LAX Harvest Food Donation program, Portland International, which has donated 90 tons of food (over 120,000 meals) since February 2013 through its partnership with Urban Gleaners, the Port of Portland reports, and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which has donated 155,000 pounds of food to a local since starting a program in 2006.

Many national airport concession operators donate to local food banks at well. HMSHost, for example, gives excess food products to local banks in 55 airports, including Tampa International.

(My story about food donation programs at airports first appeared on USA TODAY)

Military eat free at airports during Thanksgiving

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THANKSGIVING coin postcard

During Thanksgiving week (Nov. 23 – 27), military personnel are invited to eat free in participating airport restaurants across the country operated by Paradies Lagardère (formerly Paradies) as part of its “Treat Our Troops” program.

Active and retired military personnel can show their military I.D. cards when ordering or checking out to receive a complimentary menu item and beverage at these restaurants:

• Sweet Auburn Market – Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport
• Blue Ridge Tavern – Asheville Regional Airport
• 4th Street Vine, McKenna’s on the Fly and the Long Beach Marche – Long Beach Airport
• Bar Symon – Pittsburgh International Airport
• Big Bowl, Magic Pan and Say Si Bon! – Denver International Airport
• Jammin’ Java, Smokewood American Grill and Say Si Bon! – Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport
• Say Si Bon! – Reagan Washington National Airport

Thanksgiving is also being celebrated at Washington’s Dulles and Regan airports with a “Turkey in the Terminal” promotion.

Turkey in the Terminal

At Dulles International Airport, six restaurants are participating in the promotion, including Bar Symon, which is offering a Gobbler Burger; Cosi, which is serving Turkey Chili; and the District Chophouse and Brewery, which is featuring a Smoked Turkey Club.

At Regan National Airport, four restaurants are featuring turkey-themed dishes, including Ben’s Chili Bowl, which is offering a Jumbo Turkey Dog.

Through Nov. 30, both airports are sharing a juicy turkey recipe from Chef Symon.

Snack Saturday: Tasting event at ATL

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ATLANTAHARTSFIELDCORNCORDEart

We all have our go-to foods when traveling.

Now Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is encouraging travelers to break out of their food ruts with a pre-security food festival that will be offering samplings from 32 restaurants at the airport.

The food fest takes place Tuesday, November 10th between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., pre-security in the Domestic Terminal Atrium and participating concessionaires will include: Atlanta Chophouse, Atlanta Stillhouse, Café Intermezzo, Charley’s Philly Steaks, Chick-fil-A, Famous Famiglia, Goldberg’s, Grindhouse Killer Burgers, Lotta Frutta, Low Country, Mustard Seed BBQ, Shane’s Rib Shack, Sweet Auburn Market, Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint, The Pecan, The Varsity, and Wolfgang Puck Fresh Express.

Hungry yet?

Booklest of ten tickets will be sold for $10 and each ticket will be good for one food sampling.

If you’re going to be at ATL that day, go ahead and get your Taste of Hartsfield-Jackson tickets ahead of time here.

ATL TASTE

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