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Continental Airlines Introduces New BusinessFirst Menus In July

HOUSTON, June 29, 2000 -- Starting this weekend, on international flights, customers traveling BusinessFirst on Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL and CAL.A) will begin sampling delicious new gourmet meals, created by great restaurant chefs, such as New York’s Tribeca Grill, Roy’s of Honolulu, and Americas of Houston.

After six months in development, the first in a series of four different cycles of breakfast, lunch and dinner menus will begin debuting on transatlantic and Latin America routes on Sunday, July 2. Different menus will rotate each month and will vary by region.

For example, on a Newark to Paris flight, BusinessFirst customers will have their choice of red snapper with corn crust and char-grilled jumbo shrimp, accompanied by fried plantains, a vegetable medley of haricots verts, red pepper and carrot julienne, or the pasta bowl with Porcini mushroom ravioli, melanzana arrabbiata sauce and toasted pine nuts.

BusinessFirst passengers on a Houston-São Paulo flight will dine on boneless chicken breast, accented by chipotle barbecue sauce and roasted chili peppers, red skin potato wedges, and Chinese-style vegetable medley, or a grilled ribeye steak, enhanced by a port wine sauce with roasted mushroom, shallots, grilled vegetables and risotto cake with sun-dried tomato and wild mushroom.

"We’ve taken the best and most popular dishes from some of the world’s leading chefs and blended their wonderful regional cuisines into our menus, creating a fusion of international flavors," said Continental’s Executive Chef Siegfried Lang.

Other changes include larger main courses, accompanied by new side dishes and coffee mugs for keeping coffee warm longer.

Continental’s BusinessFirst class has won numerous accolades for its plush, premium seating and high-touch in-flight services and amenities. Maintaining this award-winning consistency requires menus to be constantly reviewed and updated. This is done with the aid of 22 celebrity chefs, known as the Congress of Chefs. They serve as advisors and periodically fly on board to become familiar with food service at 35,000 feet, allowing them to incorporate customer feedback into the development of new menus. This year, eight celebrity chefs will travel on international Boeing 777 and 767 flights.

Continental Airlines is the official carrier of the Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, Bailliage des États-Unis, the premier International Food and Wine Society, established in 1248 during the reign of French King Louis IX.

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