Hermann Freidanck

GOURMET

Barbecued spareribs. Chicken stir-fry. Chilean sea bass. Ah, the sumptuous experience of airline dining. If that doesn't sound like mealtime on your last flight, that's because you weren't aboard Singapore Airlines, where the menus are designed by genial German chef Hermann Freidanck, 54, the carrier's food-and-beverage director. Serving 55,000 meals a day--he has won dozens of awards for the way he accomplishes it--Freidanck does not exactly rely on ordinary caterers. "Our business is flying a tube from A to B," he says. "The in-flight experience is what the customer is choosing."

Singapore has developed a database of more than 12,000...