Delta Air Lines is launching its own version of “Top Chef” with a competitive culinary show that will be aired in-flight and award the winner the chance to help create the carrier’s menu.
In partnership with Food & Wine magazine, the US carrier has announced plans to produce an original video series called “The Cabin Pressure Cook Off: The Search for the Next Delta Chef,” which will pit four award-winning chefs against each other.
The collaboration is meant to help mark the 25th anniversary of the publication’s Best New Chefs awards. All four contenders — Hugh Acheson, Linton Hopkins, Kelly English, and George Mendes — are past recipients of the award.
Acheson helms Empire State South in Atlanta; Hopkins comes from Restaurant Eugene also in Atlanta; English helms Restaurant Iris in St. Louis and Mendes is chef of Aldea in New York.
The new chef will work alongside Delta’s culinary team to develop the new in-flight menu. The original series will be modeled after cooking show competitions, presenting chefs with culinary challenges which will be judged by the carrier’s cooking team — celebrity chef Michael Chiarello, Michelle Bernstein and sommelier Andrea Robinson — in addition to Food and Wine publisher Christina Grdovic.
The series will launch in October, airing on the carrier’s in-flight entertainment system, as well as on delta.com and foodandwine.com.
