Spring Clean for Virgin Trains’ Best of British First Class menu

30 March 2009

Virgin Trains is introducing seasonal fresh ingredients to its First Class menu. The Spring menu starts on 1 April and continues the commitment ensuring that only produce from entirely British sources is used, which can be traced from farm to plate. The catering offer is provided on a complimentary basis to passengers travelling First Class.

The new menu continues to offer our passengers only the finest British products. Virgin Trains researched the ideal menu and have ensured that everything we use can be traced and authenticated through the entire food chain.

New this Spring for the Light Bites menu is a Honey-glazed Scottish ham sandwich, which comes from Highland Country Foods in the heart of the Scottish Highlands. Their superb Heather Honey Roast Ham is produced from outdoor bred pigs and is liberally coated with Highland Heather Honey and roasted to perfection.

Also on the Light Bites menu is a Salmon and cream cheese sandwich, made in the North Warwickshire town of Atherstone, which Virgin’s train services to Manchester, Liverpool, North Wales and Scotland speed through at up to 125mph. The poached salmon is Scottish farmed, caught and smoked in Fort William, close to the foot of Ben Nevis.

A new addition to the Evening Meal menu is British beef cannelloni, which comprises hot oven-baked cannelloni pasta filled with Somerset Select free range beef with chunky vegetables in a creamy cheddar cheese sauce. The beef comes from a herd made up of Limousin, Charolais, Aberdeen Angus and Hereford breeds which are reared at the foot of Glastonbury Tor. On our North Wales route the beef for the Cannelloni comes from Headland Foods, who source the beef from herds reared in the rolling fields of Haverfordwest, Dyfed in the south of the Country.

For the Evening Meal menu a range of deserts includes Summer mango and raspberry pudding, coffee and mascarpone trifle or chocolate millionaire desert. The selection of cheeses offered on a rotation basis will include Somerset Camembert, Coastal Cheddar, Blue Wensleydale and Smoked Cheddar.

Nic Cuthbertson Virgin Trains Product Development and Purchasing Manager said: “We have spent many months finding the highest quality ingredients from the highest quality producers, and this concept has been further developed for our Spring menus. We have also worked closely with our staff to develop a range of menus that can be prepared and served in the limited confines of a train.”

The popular Great British Breakfast remains available using the highest quality pork sausages, from outdoor reared pigs, made with fresh herbs and natural casings, and served on all Pendolino trains to and from London Euston until 09:59 on weekdays. The sausages will be served alongside outdoor reared sweet cure Suffolk Crown bacon with free range Yorkshire Farm eggs on a potato rösti.

The meat for the sausages comes from outdoor reared Hampshire Cross Bred pigs, sourced from a number of farms in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and East Anglia. The bacon is also from outdoor reared pigs and is processed by Suffolk Crown in Bury St Edmunds. The free range eggs come from Yorkshire Farmhouse Eggs, based in the Vale of York at Thirsk.

Improvements have also been made to enhance the First Class experience. WiFi is now will is available in all our First Class Lounges at stations and will be introduced soon onto our Pendolino trains. Enhanced mobile phone reception is also now available on all Pendolino trains.

It does not cost a fortune to travel in First Class luxury. We have a range of Advance single fares available from just £26.50 London to Birmingham; from £34 to Manchester or Liverpool; from £52 to Glasgow and from £34 to Chester.

And the final word on our First Class food goes to respected ‘Caterer and Hotelkeeper’ magazine who said: “Virgin Trains is head and shoulders above the rest [train operators] in first-class accommodation.” The magazine goes on to say: “...all [menu items] are excellently sourced, and makes the extra money for first class almost pay for itself.”