when we want them, at a price we are happy to pay), we don't notice how much human effort and ingenuity goes into even the smallest things. Inflight service wasn't always this complex. The first meals were sandwiches, made on the ground and served in the air with tea and coffee. In the 1920s Imperial Airways (an ancestor of British Airways) had 14-year-old cabin boys in monkey jackets serve passengers. The boys had to weigh less than 40 kilograms. The planes were small and underpowered. Forty kilograms was all the extra load they could carry. The first proper flight attendants were hired in 1930 by a predecessor of United Airlines. They were all qualified nurses. The flights were bumpy and there was no pressurised cabin. It's been estimated one in four passengers were physically sick on each journey. The nurses took the food out, then cared for the diners when it was brought back up again. But it was not until the wave of airline deregulation in the 1970s and 1980s that serious attention was paid to the great problem of inflight food: we can't really taste it. The low humidity and high altitude make taste buds 30 per cent less effective. So all meals served in the air are what we'd describe on the ground as heavy and rich - cream, pasta, stews and lots of sauce. The wines are full bodied. There's no prize for subtlety inflight. Cooking in such volume, airlines can certainly save large amounts of