If you’re flying in a premium cabin on Singapore Airlines, you can choose your main course from a special Book the Cook menu for a customised dining experience in the air.
This guide shows you how to order your gourmet meal before your next flight with Singapore’s flag carrier.
What is the difference between Book the Cook and pre-ordering your main course?
Both Singapore Airlines’ Book the Cook and pre-ordering your main course service allow you to choose your main course up to 24 hours before departure. Both are available for Suites, First, Business and Premium Economy Class passengers.
Where they differ is that Book the Cook has many more options (almost 70) to choose from whereas pre-ordering your main course from the inflight menu is more limited.
However, Book the Cook is not available on all flights; pre-ordering your main course is available network-wide. You’ll want to check your departure airport is eligible for Book the Cook.
Finally, Book the Cook is available right from around six months before departure, whereas you’ll need to wait until three weeks prior to flying for pre-ordering your main course.
In short, if you are eligible to use Book the Cook, then that is preferable to the other program.
Key Points
- For those starting their trip from New Zealand, Book the Cook is available on flights from Auckland and Wellington (the latter only on the leg between Melbourne and Singapore).
- For all other flights in Suites, First, and Business where Book the Cook is not offered, you can select from the standard in-flight menu between three weeks and up to 24 hours before departure.
- You can select and/or change your meal preference up to 24 hours before your flight.
- Available to all passengers booked into those classes listed above, including on award tickets booked through partners such as Air New Zealand and United Mileage Plus.
- However, if you are booked on a codeshare flight, e.g. it has Virgin Australia flight number, it appears you do not get access to this option—phone KrisFlyer to see if you can choose a meal
- A full list of routes and meal types can be found here.
How to Book the Cook with Singapore Airlines
- Go to the Manage booking page on the Singapore Airlines website
- Input your booking reference number and surname
- Select your flight
- Order your meal from the options presented
- Look out for a confirmation email
You should be able to pre-order your main meal from the Book the Cook service from around six months before departure. Make sure to have your choice made at least 24 hours prior your flight.
Summing up
Book the Cook offers an exciting range of additional dishes on Singapore Airlines flights, with dish variety unmatched by any inflight menu.
My experience from advance meal ordering with other airlines such as Qantas is that the cabin crew genuinely appreciate the predictability of knowing exactly what passengers want to eat.
Given you’re guaranteed to get your meal selection, you’ll often be served before others, and the staff seem to be friendlier—potentially as it reduces their need to deal with passenger indecision as they work their way down an aisle. It’s a win-win!
Have you already tried Book the Cook with Singapore Airlines? Tell us about your experience in the comments section below.
Supplementary image courtesy Singapore Airlines.
If a booking in Singapore Airlines business class has been made via Air New Zealand’s website, how do I get the SQ booking reference as I have only received the Air NZ one and it does not work on Singapore’s website?
Hi Jono – as long as you have a Singapore Airlines flight number and not an NZ one, you can reach out to Singapore or Air New Zealand, feed them as many details as possible on the flight, and they’ll be able to find it for you. I had the same problem with a United Mileage Plus booking, United and Singapore were both able to dig it out for me.
Hi there, would you know when CHCH – Singapore will be eligible to Book The Cook?
Hi Roidan – I reached out to Singapore with this question. General Manager New Zealand, Mr Simon Turcotte, has responded with:
“We continue to explore ways to increase our service offering to customers in Christchurch, which is why we have announced the deployment of the Airbus A350-900 on the Christchurch-Singapore route from 7 January 2019. At this stage we are not in a position to offer the Book the Cook service for customers travelling from Christchurch, however we will continue to explore what options are available in the future.”
Very informative Daniel! Thanks!
I am flying from Wellington to SIN which should have book the cook option. When I called Singapore Airlines, the staff mentioned that the book the cook is not available.
I am confused because I saw in the website that it should be available. What should I do?
Hello Agnes, Book the Cook is available on this route, and you can select your options when managing your flight online via the Singapore Airlines website.
My wife’s vegan(ish). They’ve got a couple of really nice looking vegan options on Book the Cook, but I can’t see a way to book one of these and tell SQ that she wants vegan options for the other components of the meal (starter, dessert etc).