At Fitur 2025, held in Madrid from January 22 to 24, gategourmet, a leader in airline catering and onboard services, presented its innovative culinary offerings.
Fitur, recognized as the premier global event for tourism professionals and a key fair for Ibero-American markets, provided the perfect networking and showcasing platform for gategourmet at the Iryo stand.
At the event, gategourmet introduced exclusive culinary services that include a range of menus and tapas currently offered onboard Iryo trains. Visitors to the booth were treated to an engaging program, featuring a culinary workshop led by gategourmet chefs, Aitor Rodriquez Paz and Nacho Diaz, who presented the culinary philosophy behind Iryo’s onboard restaurant, HAIZEA by gategourmet- showcasing how modern culinary trends are reflected in the delicious Infinita Bistró menu, complemented by an impressive show-cooking presentation and tasty bite tastings.
HAIZEA: A Culinary Journey
HAIZEA represents gategourmet’s commitment to crafting a remarkable and modern dining experience characterized by high-quality ingredients and sustainability. Passengers on Iryo can explore their culinary journey through options for pre-ordering and pre-selecting meals, giving them the opportunity to enjoy a variety of unique taste experiences. These innovative gastronomic services include:
- Infinita Bistro: An extensive in-seat service model that enhances traditional dining while traveling.
- Gastrobar Haizea: The first-ever tapas bar on a train, serving high-quality sandwiches, tapas, and pintxos, along with a curated selection of wines from Spain’s D.O. regions.
- Pre-Order Service: Available for Singular and Initial class passengers, allowing travelers to pre-purchase their meals, which range from breakfast to dinner, with recommended wine pairings.
- Mobile Bar Service: A service offering fresh coffee, drinks, sandwiches, and quality snacks to elevate the travel experience.
Showcooking
The Global Embrace concept unites various cultures in a single dish. During the show cooking, chefs Aitor and Nacho demonstrated this idea by reimagining a familiar dish like sushi. They incorporated Spanish tapas and ingredients from different regions, showcasing the diversity of flavors and traditions.
The dish featured high-quality smoked salmon from Spain. The salmon is lightly marinated with Mirin vinaigrette and rice vinegar to add traditional sushi rice flavors, along with a hint of wasabi, similar to classic Nigiri.
Instead of using a rice “ball,” the dish uses rice paper from Vietnamese cuisine. This rice paper turns into a crunchy cracker that fits the tapas theme and melts in the mouth, allowing the salmon to be the main focus. Before adding the salmon to the rice cracker, the cook sprinkles seaweed powder on it to provide an iodized flavor that reminds one of sushi, coming from Nori.
Since soy sauce usually accompanies Nigiri, the cook places small drops of soy sauce on the salmon. This preserves the familiar sushi flavor in this new format.
During the presentation, the chefs highlighted the role of good marketing in introducing new products. They explained how marketing has changed in the restaurant industry and how important social media is today. With experience managing a community of around half a million followers, they share techniques to improve post visibility and generate interest in new products or services, both online and offline.
Retail and cafeteria services
Additionally, gateretail organized interactive sessions at the Iryo booth that educated and entertained attendees about the retail and cafeteria services available onboard. Highlights included masterclasses and tastings featuring Royal Bliss, Simon Coll Chocolate, Illy Coffee, Gonzalez Byass wines, and Mahou beer.
With an unwavering commitment to culinary excellence and passenger satisfaction, gategourmet and gateretail continue to enhance the travel experience on Iryo, ensuring that each journey is filled with delightful flavors and memorable moments.
About gategroup
gategroup is the global leader in airline catering, retail-on-board and hospitality products and services. gategroup provides passengers with superior culinary and retail experiences, leveraging innovation and advanced technology solutions. Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, gategroup delivers operational excellence through the most extensive catering network in the aviation industry, serving passengers from over 200 operating units in over 60 countries/territories across all continents. For further information, please visit: www.gategroup.com.
