Cathay Pacific brings customers curated plant-forward culinary delights

Cathay Pacific is bringing customers a new contemporary range of plant-based dishes developed in collaboration with leading Hong Kong-based plant-forward restaurant, VEDA by Ovolo. This innovative partnership further enhances the wellness dining options available to customers when they fly with Cathay Pacific. Customers travelling in Premium Economy and Economy class on selected long-haul flights departing from Hong Kong can now enjoy a huge variety of tantalising, thoughtfully crafted plant-forward options that focus on nutrition and flavour while celebrating international culinary influences.

The collaboration also aligns with VEDA’s and Ovolo Hotels’ ongoing Plant’d pledge to ethical eating, conscious cuisine and cutting-edge vegetarian, with the group becoming the first hotel brand globally to commit to a vegetarian-led offering.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Customer Experience and Design Vivian Lo said: “It gives us great pleasure to announce this new partnership with VEDA, a Hong Kong restaurant that shares our commitment to providing fantastic cuisine while also being more sustainable.

“For Cathay, the difference is in the detail. We know inflight dining is something that is extremely important to our customers, and we carefully work with partners to bring them memorable experiences by sourcing ingredients, designing menus and preparing dishes with great attention to detail.

“Drawing inspiration from the breadth and variety of VEDA’s dishes, we have collaborated with VEDA and Ovolo Hotels Executive Chef Raul Tronco to develop a reimagined selection of plant-forward creations that reflect our brand values of thoughtful and progressive, and go beyond the norms of airline vegetarian meals.”

Ovolo Hotels Founder and Executive Chairman Girish Jhunjhnuwala said: “VEDA and Ovolo Hotels pride ourselves on being an industry leader. We believe that the world changes, therefore we continue to evolve.

“We want to ensure we are doing our bit to help preserve our environment, promote healthy eating and enhance the image of amazing vegetarian and plant-based dining. Our collaboration with Cathay Pacific aligns perfectly with this mantra and our Plant’d pledge, and our wider ‘Do Good. Feel Good’ sustainability commitment.”

Executive Chef Raul Tronco said: “As a vegetarian, I am very excited to see businesses such as Cathay Pacific embrace wellness and sustainability. When I embarked on this journey, I approached each dish just as I would when creating an item for VEDA.

“Designing a meal to be enjoyed at 30,000 feet comes with its challenges. I had to consider everything from how taste buds are affected at altitude, to cooking techniques. After countless hours of recipe testing, I am really pleased with the result and am confident that the curated VEDA inflight dishes offer travellers variety, vibrancy and incredible flavour.”

As Cathay Pacific moves towards becoming a more sustainable airline, it is constantly improving its operations with sustainable practices to deliver refined dining experiences. By exploring plant-forward alternatives and moving towards more eco-conscious use of resources in its catering equipment, the airline strives to provide customers with a more sustainable dining experience, encouraging them to go greener together. In 2022, the airline removed 56% of its single-use plastic consumption from its 2018 baseline.

The collaboration with VEDA marks the beginning of a series of refreshed experiences for customers, from inflight meals to beverages. Cathay Pacific will be unveiling other exciting inflight dining enhancements in Premium Economy and Economy class in due course.