Chef Li Jian looks pleased. He delicately balances the mint leaf on the pumpkin puree held in a fine crusty cup of dough, serrated at the edges. The background is drawn in a wave of orange and raspberry sauce, on which orange sections, sliced strawberries and currants are placed, like a cluster of precious gemstones in a finely crafted piece of jewelry.

The chef's creation is an attempt to make unconventional use of familiar materials and achieve a fine blend of the Oriental and Western food palate.

We are in the sprawling dining hall of Beijing Airport Inflight Kitchen Ltd (BAIK). Li, who is the assistant manager of the production department, has prepared a range of experimental dishes on the theme of Chinese-meets-Western, especially for China Daily.

Bacon beef roll in Worcester sauce. [China Daily]

On-board meals, says BAIK general manager Alvin Foh, are tending increasingly toward fusion cuisine. BAIK caters to 19 international and 26 domestic airline clients and when it comes to the high-end consumer, "we try to give them the best of both worlds, on a par with the fare available in Beijing's finest restaurants".

Willie Ding, BAIK marketing manager, International Airlines, points out that the passenger profile has changed in recent years. While five years ago, the food served on board was English/Continental or, at best, Thai/Singaporean, today the demand for Chinese and Western cuisine on aircraft flying over Chinese skies is 50-50.

Hot and spicy Sichuan noodles with Italian macaroni and fish roe, served with black sesame sauce. [China Daily]

"More Chinese are flying international and they are increasingly looking for the Chinese touch."

Sun Yizhang, general manager of the food and beverage department, China Southern Airlines, agrees. "High-end customers prefer Chinese food, according to a recent survey." Their quanzhongcan (all-Chinese) menu has been a huge hit since its launch in October 2007, and is served on all Beijing-bound flights.

His sentiments are echoed by Claes Karlsson, SAS food and beverage manager. "Scandinavian Airlines offer all business and economy extra class passengers a choice of Chinese food out from Beijing. In economy class all hot meals are Chinese." Jasmine tea is served to all passengers between Copenhagen and Beijing.

Charles Wu, IBM vice-president, Beijing, who averages six international flights a year, is delighted with the innovation in on-board cuisine. "Previously, on a long flight to New York, one would have the same food served three times over, but now there is an astounding variety to select from, including distinct styles in fusion and Asian cuisine."

In the face of growing passenger expectation, the chefs at BAIK are working overtime. While innovation is the key, cost-effectiveness is also paramount.

Says chef Li: "Fine dining on board works only on long flights when the food is served in three parts."

Pumpkin puree and fruits in orange and raspberry sauce. [China Daily]

Designing a new menu takes him at least half a month, and exhaustive research, beside the physical toil and frustration over a series of trial and errors, till one achieves the desired effect. The culinary experiments are then laid out in front of the airlines' representatives.

"We have to satisfy them in terms of quality, color and presentation. When any of our experimental dishes is picked by an airline we have to work hand in hand with the concerned airlines' own food and beverages unit before the dish reaches the customer's table."

For example, China Southern Airlines has collaborated with BAIK designing beef stew, pineapple with chicken balls and Beijing-style soya bean paste, all of which have gone down extremely well with customers.

BAIK's top 10 dishes on the Chinese-Western menu for this season include baked fish with chive sauce and king prawn. Jumbo prawn, marinated Chinese-style, and garnished with Italian parsley and smashed bread crumbs is laid out on a fish-shaped loaf. Keeping it company are baked fillets of cod fish, sprinkled with chive sauce.

A small helping of pasta, served alongside, comes wrapped in mashed seafood and garnished with thyme. An assortment of sliced vegetables - shitake mushrooms, red bell pepper, asparagus, lotus roots and basil leaves, deep-fried in batter - complete the pretty picture.

Baked fish with chive sauce and king prawn. [China Daily]

The sea cucumber preparation looks slightly eerie: steamed in very old chicken stock and simmered with leek and ginger. It takes on the look of dark little creatures with hedgehog quills. A dash of lobster sauce in the background and a few steamed florets of broccoli, add a Western touch. A bunch of deep-fried noodles, laid out like the branches of a tree in winter, is decidedly Chinese.

The bacon beef roll dish has the meat cut in small wedges, marinated in Worcester sauce, soya sauce, corn starch and water, to give it a suitably heavy coating. These are covered with bread crumbs and deep-fried garlic, before frying to give it a crispy texture. The Chinese element is in the marinade and the deep frying.

Chef Li Jian prepares a dish in Chinese-meets-Western style. [China Daily]

Li's specialty rainbow dessert is arranged in rings of vivid colors in a slender wine cup. Chinese and Western elements are arranged in alternate layers. The first is mashed green peas boiled with sugar, followed by blueberry, pumpkin, raspberry and yogurt. The topping also comes from mixed sources with dollops of white cream, mint leaves, currants, chocolate stick and a sprinkling of minuscule osthmanthus flowers.

The bean paste and goose liver preparation, in a way, replicates the previous dish, only that the rings of goose liver paste, red wine jelly and bean paste are savory than sweet.

A dash of vinaigrette sauce in the background, heightened by a sprinkling of crushed garlic and parsley, and a bunched-up assortment of red and green bean salad, corn, tomato and lettuce, make this a dominantly Western offering, to say nothing of the slices of walnut, olive, thyme and bread crust, used as garnishing. "But Western cuisine would never include bean paste," as Li points out.

The next preparation comes in three parts, small, quaint helpings of delicate victuals. There's lotus roots with glutinous rice, sprinkled with osthmanthus flowers, coriander leaves and hair-thin strips of carrot. Thin slivers of Sichuan chicken are cooked in chicken stock and Chinese wine, which lend the meat its tenderness. The hot and spicy sauce with chopped peanuts and chives sprinkled on the cold meat gives it both texture and flavor. The third element, looking like a luminescent blob of liquefied crystal, happens to be jellyfish and chicken, marinated together in sauce, salt, pepper and sesame oil and garnished with fine slices of cucumber and red bell pepper.

The endless stream of delicacies, parading out of Li's kitchen also include hot and spicy Sichuan noodles, which come with a combination of Italian macaroni and fish roe, Chinese sesame paste and shredded chicken, piled up in a multi-tiered, multi-hued pyramid.

And then there is the snow-skin terrine cake. Layers of plain cake, green tea paste with red beans, and strawberry are arranged on top of each other. The wrapping, a white skin, made out of flour mixed with sweetened milk, is 100 percent Chinese and hardly ever found in any other kind of cuisine.

(China Daily July 31, 2009)