Josh is an Aviation Journalist and lifelong aviation enthusiast who’s now turning that passion into a career. From watching planes and playing flight simulators at a young age to now sitting in the cockpit, Josh has always been drawn to the world of flight.
Currently training to become a commercial pilot, Josh aims to make aviation interesting and accessible to everyone, whether you’re in the industry or simply passionate about aviation.
Now actively building a career in Aviation, Josh is focused on telling stories from inside the aviation world, stories shaped by firsthand experience, curiosity, and a genuine love of all things that fly.
When people imagine international first-class dining, the mental image is usually predictable: caviar service, champagne, white tablecloths, and tiny portions arranged with architectural precision. A hot dog rarely enters the picture. Unless, apparently, you happen to be flying SWISS this summer, where one of the airline’s headline menu additions is a limited-edition gourmet hot dog called the “Bastardo.”
At first glance, it sounds almost deliberately absurd, an airline owned by the Lufthansa Group serving elevated street food in one of aviation’s most premium cabins. But the story becomes more interesting once the details emerge. SWISS has not simply thrown a sausage into a bun and called it innovation. The carrier partnered with Winterthur-based gourmet hot dog company Frau Hund to create a seasonal first-class offering. The dish features a Puntbier sausage, red coleslaw, apple chutney, sour cream, roasted walnuts, and cress. The Frau Hund “Bastardo” is available on all SWISS First flights departing from Switzerland from June 3 to September 1 of this year.
SWISS has spent years using its onboard product to reinforce a sense of Swiss identity. The airline regularly collaborates with chefs and brands, rotates seasonal menus, and frequently incorporates regional products into premium cabins rather than relying on a static luxury formula. Seasonal additions in SWISS First have previously included products such as caviar and truffle-focused offerings.
Airlines increasingly understand that premium travel is no longer just about getting passengers from one place to another in comfort; it is also about creating an experience. Travelers flying through Zurich are not simply purchasing a seat and a meal. Increasingly, they are buying into a curated experience intended to reflect the airline’s home market.
That makes Frau Hund a surprisingly logical partner. Founded by trained chefs Chris Maurer and Alex Prack, the company intentionally set out to elevate a product often associated with convenience food. In an interview with the airline, Maurer noted that the goal was to create a hot dog that could be viewed as a genuinely premium product rather than a quick snack from a kiosk.
“We chose a product that has a bit of a bad reputation in society, or at least one where quality offerings have been hard to find.”
The Bastardo was not selected by accident. According to details released about the collaboration by One Mile at a Time, the first product considered for onboard service was another Frau Hund creation called the “Deutsche Dogge.” Product developers at Gate Gourmet later decided that a lighter option would work better in flight, ultimately leading to the “Bastardo” being chosen instead.
That decision reflects a reality of airline dining that passengers often overlook: food behaves differently at altitude. Texture and contrast become increasingly important in cabin environments, which may help explain the combination of sweetness, crunch, and acidity built into the “Bastardo”. Suddenly, walnuts on a hot dog begin sounding less like culinary chaos and more like an unusually specific engineering requirement.
Even the presentation required redesigning. During testing, the original recreation reportedly kept tipping over on SWISS First porcelain because the product had originally been designed for takeaway service rather than premium cabin plating. The eventual solution was surprisingly simple: modify the cut of the bun, so the hot dog remained upright. It is difficult not to appreciate the image of airline teams conducting emergency hot-dog stability testing somewhere in Switzerland.
It aims to close a financial and environmental gap in the airline industry by bringing data analysis to food and beverage services
More Than Just A Hot Dog: The Bigger SWISS First Experience
The Bastardo may be grabbing headlines, but SWISS First itself is designed as an intentionally exclusive product. Across the airline’s long-haul fleet, including the Boeing 777-300ER and Airbus A330-300, with A350s now beginning to enter service, first class remains one of the smallest cabins onboard. On the 777-300ER, for example, the first-class cabin contains just eight seats arranged in a 1-2-1 layout across two rows. On an aircraft carrying around 340 passengers, that means first class accounts for only a small fraction of the total cabin.
The seats are closer to private suites than traditional airline seats. Each suite measures approximately 22 inches (56 cm) wide and converts into a fully flat bed roughly 80 inches (203 cm) long, while privacy partitions, personal wardrobes, and large storage areas are built into the design. On the 777, SWISS also introduced one of the largest entertainment screens in commercial aviation at the time of launch, measuring 32 inches.
The experience extends beyond the seat itself. SWISS First passengers receive access to dedicated lounges, personalized onboard dining, priority services, and increased baggage allowances of three checked bags weighing up to 71 lb (32 kg) each. Premium touches including Zimmerli sleepwear and Sisley amenity products on selected routes reinforce the airline’s broader focus on a traditional luxury experience. In that context, the Bastardo feels less like a complete change in direction and more like an unexpected addition to an already carefully curated premium product.
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