Five years in the making: Top NZ chef Sid Sahrawat behind Singapore Airlines’ new menu in the sky

Thursday, 20 February 2025

New Zealand chef Sid Sahrawat creates seasonal menus for Singapore Airlines first and business class.

Sahrawat's menu took five years to create due to pandemic delays.

The airline marks 49 years of operating in New Zealand with Sahrawat's menu.

A New Zealand restaurateur is taking his much-loved food to new heights.

Acclaimed chef Sid Sahrawat, who owns Auckland restaurants The French Cafe, Cassia, Kol and Anise, has created four seasonal menus for Singapore Airlines business and first class passengers flying from New Zealand from March 1.

“I love travelling and Singapore Airlines is my favourite airline, so when they approached me to, if I'd be keen to do the menu, I said, absolutely,” Sahrawat told Stuff Travel.

“As a chef you always want to push your own boundaries, your own comfort zone. It's all good to make a menu in a restaurant, but to try and replicate that with the same standard, the quality, the eating of it up in the air is a challenge.”

But Sahrawat said it was “refreshing” to find there were not many challenges to creating the menu.

“I was actually amazed that we didn't have to change much at all.

“The recipe is the same as the restaurant so we didn't actually have to change a hell of a lot. I think it changes in altitude, but that's where it's quite handy to have a little bit of salt, a bit of pepper, maybe some chilli flakes or things that accentuate everyone's palate.

“It's similar to a restaurant. We always probe our meat. We always cook it to a certain degree. The rest is all plated on the aircraft so the purée is nice and hot… ice cream is still nice and frozen, not like a soup.

“A lot of things are going fresh right at the last minute, whether it's using a herb or a microgreen… or actually placing the meat or the fish or the garnish. It's just like a restaurant service for them.

“How complicated I can make for them is up to me. You have to keep in consideration that there are not more than about four or five steps because they've got to do it for everyone, not just for one person.”

The menu has been five years in the making, with the airline and chef having the initial conversation just before the pandemic started.

“I know it sounds like a long time ago, but good things take time,” Sahrawat said.

“When I was first asked to do the menu, I wanted it to represent our styles of the restaurants. So if you think about Cassia as modern Indian, [French Cafe] is modern French or modern European, and that's where we've balanced a bit of everything.

“So you could be eating a dish from the French Cafe as the appetiser, and then you could have a main from Cassia and then you could come back to something which is done at the French Cafe for dessert.”

Sahrawat’s first seasonal menu will be a first class lunch of a poached New Zealand crayfish appetiser on a bed of grilled corn and spring onion with macadamia crumble and wasabi mayo.

There will be a chicken broth infused with coriander, garlic, ginger and kaffir lime leaves with a medley of summer vegetables and lychee.

A main course of roasted snapper with bok choy and enoki mushrooms on a rich tomato and cashew sauce seasoned with chilli, cumin and coriander powder, garnished with almond flakes and fresh coriander.

Those at the pointy end will finish their lunch with a pavlova with salt-baked pineapple, passionfruit custard and kiwifruit, garnished with dried cherries and freeze-dried yuzu flakes.

An evening course will start with an entrée of Tandoori chicken sliders with cabbage and cucumber slaw with basil pesto.

A main course follows of Canterbury lamb rack with roasted kūmara, asparagus and korma sauce, then a dessert of a coffee panna cotta with chocolate custard and chocolate soil with fresh strawberries and raspberries.

Business class customers will have an appetiser of New Zealand smoked King Salmon with cucumber and cashew salad and sriracha chilli dressing, then the same dinner and dessert offering.

Singapore Airlines general manager New Zealand George Robertson said it was a “massive milestone” to be in its 49th year operating in New Zealand

“We're really happy to celebrate the milestone going into our 50th year next year with Sid as our guest chef and this is an inaugural partnership and milestone for us in New Zealand, so I'm really excited about that.

“It's the first time in 49 years that we're doing this, so it's a partnership that promises a great deal.”

Roberston said Sahrawat was a really good fit for Singapore Airlines, for his attention to detail, commitment to excellence and willingness to push the boundaries.

“I think those are things that we also identify with, trying to innovate with our products and services, so I think that was just very good synergy.”

Singapore Airlines flies 28 services a week from Auckland and seven from Christchurch.