Can a cheeseburger on an airplane ever be nearly as good as one on the bottom? Or will it solely ever be “fairly good, for one thing on an airplane”?
At the same time as inflight meals have largely vanished from home coach, they’ve remained fixtures up in top notch (no less than, on longer flights). Whereas the menus have different over time, there are just a few frequent standbys, together with a stunning one: the common-or-garden hamburger.
When you may suppose a burger would get soggy or gross, it really works pretty properly on a aircraft, so long as you do not count on to get it medium-rare.
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Many of the prep and cooking for inflight meals is completed on the bottom, whereas dishes are heated on the aircraft in specialised convection ovens earlier than they’re served. It is simple to warmth a burger patty in these ovens, and even when they get a little bit extra totally cooked than one would favor on the bottom, a well-done burger works higher than an overcooked steak.
That is very true for “smash burger”-style burgers like Shake Shack’s, by which the patty is pressed down on a highly regarded griddle, searing the skin and protecting the within juicy whereas making the burger thinner and totally cooked via.
That is in all probability what Delta Air Strains had in thoughts when it determined to offer Shake Shake’s famous burgers as a meal option on board. In what the airline dubbed a “first-of-its-kind” collaboration, the airline started providing Shake Shack-branded entrees in top notch this month on flights over 900 miles departing from Boston Logan Worldwide Airport (BOS). It plans to broaden the partnership to different airports all through 2025.
As TPG’s resident “beef in the sky” beat reporter (severely — it’s sort of my thing) who occurs to be based mostly in Boston, I used to be assigned to hop on a flight to see whether or not Delta and Shake Shack can really pull this off, or whether or not the advertising and marketing push is all filler with no meat.
I booked a one-way ticket to Denver Worldwide Airport (DEN) by way of Minneapolis–St. Paul Worldwide Airport (MSP), since I needed to get to a United hub for a unique task. I made certain that the flight was lengthy sufficient to have the complete meal service in top notch — BOS-MSP is available in at 1,124 miles, in response to Great Circle Mapper — late sufficient within the day that I may ensure that lunch could be provided, fairly than breakfast.
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There’s one essential element to remember when you’re hoping to get the Shake Shack burger in your subsequent flight: It is solely accessible when you order it upfront. This was a element that I might seen within the press launch however forgotten about. I used to be checking my reservation within the Delta app after I observed the choice to order my meal and determined to do this, however I did not get a notification or reminder that I may do this. It is doable that if I hadn’t gone and chosen a meal by myself, I might have gotten the notification later.
So: I had my flight, and I had my burger ordered. Would it not be well worth the journey? Here is the way it went.
Delta Shake Shack burger presentation and sides
In home top notch, Delta gives a drink service shortly after takeoff, and flight attendants supply passengers a selection from the snack basket whereas the meals heat up.
First-class meals on Delta are served on a tray, with all the programs directly. The burger is served on a ceramic plate on a branded Shake Shack paper liner.
You may discover lettuce, tomatoes, onions and pickles on a smaller plate, together with a small plastic dish with the restaurant’s signature Shack Sauce. There are additionally packets of ketchup and mustard for anybody who prefers these.
Shake Shack’s fries are famously scrumptious, however you will not discover them subsequent to your burger. As a substitute, the principle meal is served with potato chips and a Caesar salad (with dressing on the aspect).
I am really OK with lacking the fries — a burger is one factor, nevertheless it’s powerful to make french fries edible in any respect on a aircraft, not to mention nearly as good as those straight from the fryer on the restaurant.
You may have to attend till you land to fulfill your milkshake cravings, too; as an alternative, Delta serves a Shake Shack brownie for dessert.
The burger, in the meantime, is served with melted American cheese on a toasted potato bun, identical to on the restaurant. When the flight attendant positioned it on my tray desk, it regarded wonderful (except for a few stray drops of cheese), in some methods higher than it might on the restaurant, since there, it is wrapped in paper foil. I hadn’t smelled it from the galley whereas it was being heated up, however that unmistakable aroma was positively there as soon as it got here out.
How was the Delta Shake Shack burger?
I do not fairly know the way they did it, however one way or the other, Delta and Shake Shack nailed it.
The burger tasted just about precisely like it might on the bottom, as if I might gone to any of the chain’s areas in cities across the nation — or in airports like MSP, DEN and New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK).
The bun is flippantly toasted on the interior sides whereas staying heat, mild and fluffy on the outsides. The cheese is melted as if it have been on a scorching griddle (apart from these little bits of extra that you would be able to see within the photographs), and the patty was steaming scorching with the very same style and texture that you simply’d discover on the bottom. It is virtually spooky.
Holding the toppings on the aspect serves a twin function: It retains them from getting soggy, and it permits passengers to assemble their burger with what they need and omit what they do not.
I piled all the fixings — lettuce, tomato, onions and pickles — on my burger and used the knife from my cutlery to unfold the Shack Sauce on the within of the highest bun. The greens have been all recent, crisp and flavorful, and the sauce was identical to on the bottom.
As for the patty itself, it tastes like a Shake Shack patty. The surface is seared, it is cooked totally via within the smash burger type, and it is juicy and engaging. You possibly can’t actually ask for extra.
Every thing else was tasty as properly, even with the sandwich as the principle star. The Miss Vickie’s chips are good and salty, and every part within the salad tasted recent and flavorful.
Lastly, the brownie was scrumptious, even when it jogged my memory of — and made me crave — a decadent shake.
Backside line
By some means, Delta and Shake Shack managed to make an airplane burger that tastes precisely the identical as a fresh-cooked one at one of many chain’s areas on the bottom. It is simply the very best burger I’ve had on an airplane.
I bear in mind when Shake Shack first began getting massive within the 2000s. Even because it began to broaden inside and outdoors of New York Metropolis, it could possibly be exhausting to get one of many burgers, because of lengthy traces pushed by loads of (comprehensible) hype. Even when it opened areas in New York’s Grand Central Terminal, JFK and Citi Area, lengthy waits have been inevitable.
That makes it much more wild that now, you may have one of many well-known burgers delivered proper to your seat aboard your subsequent flight.
Some could scoff on the concept of getting excited for a fast-casual dish in top notch — what occurred to the wonderful eating of yesteryear? — it is value noting that it is a match for what top notch is immediately. It is much less an opportunity to take pleasure in wonderful eating, and extra a possibility to be served any meal in any respect. So it’d as properly be an entree you may take pleasure in. And when you’re a fan of burgers or Shake Shack, it is protected to say you may take pleasure in this one.
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