Hurled Through Time and Space: Concorde Episode 5: Fine Dining at Twice the Speed of Sound

After the appetizer and salad courses, our dinner tray arrived. Dressed with five pieces of silverware and a Concorde linen napkin, each tray had an individual china butter dish and salt and pepper shakers, and was decorated with a fresh carnation with a pin, should we elect to wear it. We did.

The dinnerware was white china, banded in silver and black. We had earlier made our selection of entree, having to decide between Three Filets, "Fillets of beef, lamb and pork, seared on a hot griddle and flavoured with a light savoury gravy" - or - Salmon with Chablis, "Poached Scottish salmon finished in Chablis sauce enhanced with Beluga caviar." (Diane, as before, was the happy recipient of my caviar.) As we tucked into our salmon, we were holding altitude at 51,000 ft. and speed at Mach 2:00; twice the speed of sound.

At 1320 London time we had 2300 miles to go. Our altitude was 52,000 ft. Still at Mach 2:00. Our entree trays were removed and dessert was on the way. We soon were enjoying "a variety of fresh fruit and berries set in a light Champagne gelee," with "a selection of English Stilton, Farmhouse Cheddar and French Tomme de Savoie cheese with butter, crackers and crudites."

As we finished dessert, we were at 53,500 ft. with 1470 miles to go. Soon coffee, laced with four-star brandy, arrived with a selection of chocolates. Our outside temperature read minus 57 degrees celsius.

Each of us was presented with a scale model of a Concorde about 10 inches long.

Next post: Hurled Through Time and Space: Concorde Episode 6: What 60,000 ft. looks like from the flight deck.