See how Singapore Airlines' chefs develop meals for the world's longest flights in a luxury spa test kitchen

Singapore Airlines chefs have returned to a test kitchen at a California luxury spa to create a new menu of first class meals for the world's longest flights.

Insider went behind the scenes at the $10,500 per week Golden Door luxury retreat near San Diego as chefs from the airline and spa prepared the next round of menus for flights that can stretch to 19 hours.

Golden Door has attracted celebrities for decades – from Liz Taylor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Natalie Wood to Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart, and Julia Roberts.

Singapore Airlines first partnered with Golden Door on a business class menu for nonstop flights from the US in late 2021 and plans to expand the offerings to first class from Los Angeles and New York in early 2023.

I taste tested the next meals coming to Singapore Air's long-haul flights and found the food matched the quality and flavors of any celebrity chef-backed fine dining restaurant.

My favorite dishes included the signature Singapore Airlines Miso Glazed Black Cod. It's hard to go wrong with a classic.

The delicate and delightful Wild Blue Crab and Avocado Stack was served for lunch at a table overlooking a peaceful pond.

The Rosemary Grilled Lamb Chop with Cali Garlic Sauce prepared by Golden Door Chef Greg Frey looked impressive and smelled fantastic.

Frey and his team at Golden Door developed 32 meals during the blue sky process for the first menu cycle in 2021 – narrowing the count down to about 20 dishes with the help of the Singapore Airlines culinary staff.

"That first time really helped make this time much better," Frey said.

For round two, the Golden Door chefs dreamed up 100 dishes before once again narrowing the field to about 20 meals.

The version 2.0 menu largely replaces the dishes offered during the 2021 launch.

Golden Door meal offerings and combinations in first class, business class, and premium economy will vary depending on flight, route, destination, and time of year.

The food served in each section of the flights will often be the same – but plated differently with Wedgewood China in first class.

Golden Door only hosts 42 guests per week – but all of them eat made-to-order custom meals during a single dinner rush.

"I have an understanding of what's happening on that plane," Frey said. "You've got a lot of bodies that all want to eat at the same time. It's really difficult."

During my visit, the Golden Door dinner menu included five dishes that had flown on Singapore Air in 2021 – including Lemon Roasted Cornish Game Hen, Salmon with Spicy Pumpkin Stew, and Roasted Cauliflower Soup.

"It's a symbiotic relationship," Frey said. "I'm not giving Singapore Airlines things that my guests wouldn't be experiencing here. I didn't make stuff that's just for them."

The Singapore Airlines menu development team and chefs from airline catering partner Flying Food Group traveled to Golden Door to learn the recipes for the new menu items.

The chefs review everything from tasting profiles and plating techniques…

…to ingredient sourcing and packing strategies.

Some food and beverage items could prove challenging to serve on a plane. A pomegranate orange drink will be served with a small dropper on the side so passengers can squeeze a little red drizzle into their glass.

"A little bit of theater is important, but ultimately we want to reflect the value of the meals and the ingredients that are being used," Singapore Airlines Global Food and Beverage Director Antony McNeil said.

After the test kitchen forum, the Singapore Airlines culinary team will pass along details to flight crew instructors about ingredients, cooking, and plating. The airline will then run through the food server sequence in mock-up cabins.

The Singapore Airlines/Golden Door development process began with a performance review of what dishes worked and didn't work from the 2021 menu launch.

"We tend to swap out items which perhaps didn't shine as brightly as we would have liked them to," McNeil said.

The big winner from round one: The Mushroom Portabella Meatball, which became one of Singapore Airlines most popular dishes after a rough start. A slight change to the dish description based on customer feedback helped the meatballs become a hit.

While many airlines shy away from smelly ingredients like garlic, onion, cauliflower, and cabbage, that's not the case on Singapore Airlines.

“We don't avoid any ingredients,” McNeil said. “Probably the only smell that you'll experience coming through the cabin is the signature Singapore Airlines garlic bread.”

Next-generation cabins are more humid than earlier aircraft and pressurized to a lower altitude. The result: Your sinuses don't dehydrate as fast and food tastes more like it does on the ground.

The 7-acre garden and chicken coop on the Golden Door property exemplifies Singapore Airlines' "farm to flight" culinary approach.

It's easy for Frey to pick some rosemary from his garden and grab a few eggs from the coop for his next dish – but scaling Singapore Airlines menus up to thousands of meals per day is a logistical challenge.

Each meal is partially cooked on the ground, blasted in a chiller, stowed and transported to the plane, heated onboard the flight, and then plated for first class passengers.

While the Golden Door kitchen doesn't run on a big recipe book, the Singapore Airlines chefs need to develop an extremely precise process for preparing the new menu items.

"The real challenge is to transpose what we can do here into the setting on an aircraft," Frey said. "How does that work at scale?"

McNeil's job is to think small about the massive operation – comparing an airplane to a flying restaurant.

He cooks for one plane at a time – which is similar in size to a restaurant dinner service.

"On average, we're cooking for a restaurant of about 350 to 400 people every time an aircraft departs," McNeil said.

The Singapore Airlines partnership with Golden Door focuses on wellness and fitness.

Dishes will be strategically served at varying stages of the flight to combat sugar spikes or provide glucose balance.

The new menus keep salt and fat to a minimum while emphasizing bright flavors by adding herbs, seasonings, fiber, and acids to the mix.

Singapore Air and Golden Door are also working on stretches and exercises passengers can do in their seats to promote wellness during the long-haul flights.

The in-flight fitness programs help reduce inflammation, bloating, and heaviness and promote alertness or sleep on long flights.