In the history of cooking, there has been no more challenging environment than those craft in which humans took to the skies. The tale begins with meals aboard balloons and zeppelins, where cooking was accomplished below explosive bags of hydrogen, ending with space station dinners that were cooked thousands of miles below.This book is the first to chart that history worldwide, exploring the intricacies of inflight dining from 1783 to the present day, aboard balloons, zeppelins, land-based aircraft and flying boats, jets, and spacecraft. It charts the ways in which commercial travelers were lured to try flying with the promise of familiar foods, explains the problems of each aerial environment and how chefs, engineers, and flight crew adapted to them, and tells the stories of pioneers in the field. Hygiene and sanitation were often difficult, and cultural norms and religious practices had to be taken into account. The history is surprising and sometimes humorous at times some ridiculous ideas were tried, and airlines offered some strange meals to try to attract passengers. It's an engrossing story with quite a few twists and turns, and this first book on the subject tells it with a light touch.

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The First Toast1: The Forerunners: Lessons From The Balloon Era2: Luxury In The Skies-The Zeppelin Era3: The Early Days of The Airplane Age (1920-1930)4: Sidebar-The Technology of Heat in Flight before 19405: From 1930 to the Second World War-Diverging Paths6: Land-based Craft From 1930 to the Outbreak of War7: Sidebar-A Window Into The Design Process8: World War II and the Postwar Bonanza (1941-50)9: Sidebar-Physiology of Taste in Flight10: Competition, Regulation, and the Jet Age (1950-58) 11: Sidebar: Airline Food in Popular Culture12: Jet Age Mass Transit and Luxury Competition (1958-66)13: Sidebar: Technology of Heat in Flight, Part Two14: Jumbo Jets, Excess, and Cultural Expression (1966-75)15: Sidebar-The Elusive History of Special Meals16: Years of Chaos and Change (1975-85)17: Sidebar-Designing The Flying Meal18: The Decline And Fall of Inflight Dining (1985-Present)19: Tubes and Cubes: Food in space (1961-65)20: Commercialization of Space Food on Earth21: Apollo, Soyuz, and Variety In Space (1966-1994)22: Sidebar-The Difficulties of Cooking in Space23: Shuttles, The ISS, and Taikonauts (1981-Present)24: RecipesRecommended Reading: Books and WebsitesAppendix: Unsolved QuestionsIndex