This month American Airlines is celebrating its 100th anniversary. To commemorate this centennial, AA is offering special dishes in premium cabins that evoke classic dishes of the 1920s. I recently had the chance to try beef Wellington on a first class and against all odds, it turned out very well.
Among the preorder options for my flight was a special “Centennial Beef Wellington” option:
This limited time pre order menu celebrates our 100 year anniversary with a 1920s classic: beef filet wrapped in flaky pastry with mushroom duxelle, served with roasted vegetables and béarnaise sauce. Served with a Waldorf salad and pecan tart.
As much as I love short ribs with a twice-baked potato, I was not going to pass up the opportunity to try this, selecting it as my dinner choice.
Beef Wellington does not make me think of the 1920s, but a Waldorf salad does! (However that salad, created in 1896 by Oscar Tschirky, the maître d’hôtel of the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City, is actually even older!) The original Waldorf salad was a simple mixture of diced apples, celery, and mayonnaise served on lettuce…how would AA’s version be?
I said “against all odds” because the flight was delayed an hour due to a late-arriving aircraft (increasing the likelihood of catering errors as the aircraft was very quickly serviced) and delayed another hour once we pushed back to due to runway congestion…with the ovens on.
While I prepared for an incredibly well-done piece of steak, it seems the pastry around it somehow protected it and it was actually a very good dish (though really was a short rib, not filet mignon). The sauce, root vegetables, and asparagus were also good.
As for the Waldorf salad, it was close to the original recipe, though it had grapes and pecans added on top. Thankfully, there was very little mayonnaise (not my favorite) also some oil and vinegar on the tray, which made the salad quite nice.
Finally, the pecan tart was super sweet, but very satisfying with a cup of Lavazza coffee (it was late evening, but I wanted to get work done on the flight so I ordered coffee after dinner).
If you are flying American Airlines this month, I recommend this dish…while I find most of AA’s catering quite acceptable, I don’t think I’ve ever had a beef Wellington on a plane before and it was something different and a pretty forgiving piece of meat considering how long it was cooked.
Have you tried the beef Wellington on AA?
Each week, my Meal of the Week feature examines an airline meal from my travels over the years. This may be a meal from earlier in the week or it may be a meal served over two decades ago.
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