George Calombaris brings Greek flair to Qatar's first, business class

Australian chef and restauranteur George Calombaris is cooking up a series of Greek-inspired dishes for Qatar Airways' first class and business class passengers, although smashing the plates after your inflight feast is not recommended.

The new menus will launch on Qatar Airways flights from Sydney, Adelaide and Perth from September 1, 2018, with Melbourne following from October 1.

Calombaris has already singled out one of his personal favourites, avgolemono - a classic Greek egg and lemon soup – to feature as a signature dish on the flights, along with a hearty mousakka.

Main courses in first class and business class will include bastourma beef shortrib with onions and potato a là greque...

or a lighter Fraser Island Crab served with lemon marmalade and tabbouleh...

... with the menu changing every three months to keep in step with seasonal produce.

This is Qatar Airways' second collaboration with Calombaris, who also crafted a special menu for the launch of the Gulf airline's Airbus A380 service to Melbourne in 2017.

"We are excited to be able to bring Calombaris’ signature dishes to more Australian passengers this time around with our year-long partnership, and are certain his flair for creating dishes showcasing classic Greek flavours accompanied by fresh local produce will once again be a hit with our passengers," said Qatar Airways Group CEO, His Excellency Mr Akbar Al Baker.

For his part, Calombaris promises to "continuously surprise and delight passengers onboard with these delicious Greek-inspired dishes."

Calombaris joins a growing roster of accomplished Australian chefs working with airlines to raise the quality of inflight dining, with his peers in that sky-high set including Neil Perry for Qantas, Luke Mangan for Virgin Australia, Matt Moran for Singapore Airlines and Luke Nguyen for Vietnam Airlines.

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.