What’s Cooking? The KLM Crew Soup Contest

KLM has been serving soup as an alternative starter in World Business Class since 1 July 2014. To make the introduction more interactive, purser and junior ICA product specialist Ingrid Niewold came up with the idea of a soup competition for KLM crew.

The Idea

Ingrid knows from experience that many of her colleagues are real foodies and she has spent many a night copying recipes from colleagues. So it wasn’t long before she hit on the idea. After a bit of research with the food specialists, it became apparent that it would be possible to serve a soup onboard which a crew member had devised! KLM designer René Kemper designed a flyer with the criteria: the soup had to be vegetarian, made from sustainable produce, and it had to be pourable. And the prize at the end? “Your soup on the World Business Class menu with your name attached!”

Participants

Ingrid encouraged crew members at Crew Centre to submit as many soup recipes as they could think of. She received around eighty of them, some even came with wonderful stories attached. The nine most suitable soup recipes—by eight cabin crew members and a first officer Boeing 777—were included in the competition.

The Event

The soup-cooking event was held on 6 December at cooking school and restaurant DeKookfabriek in Amsterdam. KLM staff were there in uniform to welcome and to assist the guests. The jury included food & beverage manager Roel Verwiel, KLM Catering Services chief Nico Polanen, Restaurant DeLibrije’s sous chef Maik Kuijpers, EVP Inflight Services Paul Elich and former swimming champion and government member Erica Terpstra. As a frequent KLM flyer she was invited to give her vote from the passengers point of view. On this appetizing Saturday morning, everyone went to Amsterdam, entirely voluntarily, to make this event as special as possible. All the participants cooked their soups “live”. They then explained them in detail and served them to the jury members.

And the winner is…

Having tasted all nine soups, the jury withdrew to deliberate. It wasn’t an easy decision because all the soups were utterly appropriate. The runner-up—a spinach, sweet potato and coconut soup—was given special mention by sous chef Maik Kuijpers. Senior purser Layla van Homoed produced a fabulous creation, which was vegetarian but also vegan and gluten-free. But the soup that all World Business Class passengers will be savouring from October 2015 is the Eastern pumpkin soup by assistant purser Colette Verdijk! Her reaction? “That’s brilliant! I honestly never expected this! The soup turned out really hot this time.”

The Recipe and the Story

“This just-a-bit-different pumpkin soup has been a favourite in our house for years,” said Colette. She once tasted a soup like it in a charming Amsterdam restaurant and liked it so much she was inspired to try to make it herself. It got a bit spicier each time she made it. As people don’t taste as much at altitude, she thinks the extra kick will be appreciated.

She hopes her soup will appeal to our World Business Class passengers and that they will enjoy it to the full from autumn 2015!