My experience is that the airline is just as important as the airport it is flying out of. No matter who you fly with, for example, if you fly out of Amsterdam it's ALWAYS terrible food. Larger hubs have a more interesting food line-up, so for some airlines it might be more a matter of picking the right caterer that anything... In the end, it's still airplane food. If I get something decent, I am happy.
One airline is worth mentioning- despite the fact that service is terrible in every other way, and I would never fly it EVER again, Alitalia has pretty great food (in business, at least).

In my opinion, in general, the best airline food can be found on Air France, for both business class and first class travel. My wife and I have consistently found this to be the case over the years. What Vanessa said with respect to which city you're flying out of is definitely very important, though. Even on Air France, the food is better when you fly out of Paris than when, for example, you're flying from New York to Paris.

I had an excellent risotto on Silverjet (London to NYC) and a delicious Beef Wellington in Etihad's business section (Abu Dhabi to London – they also served Middle Eastern dishes, as well as more Westernised fayre). Eos was also great, and they were very generous with their great selection of wines and whiskey!

I think it's impossible to find better food than First Class on the new A380 between Sydney and Singapore on Singapore Airlines. Generally speaking, Singapore Airlines food is of superior quality to any other airline.

I fully support DonPablo, I fly quite a lot from Europe to the Americas and in general, no other airline, can match the quality of Air France's food and selection of beverages.

You will be hard pressed to find a more delicious meal than First Class in Cathay where they serve caviar with all the trimmings plus the exquisite 'Baltik' Royal Fillet smoked salmon. I usually have two platefulls and go to sleep!

Now THAT's a meal! Nice photo, Herry.

I think one of the more challenging aspects of normal airline food is that the meals are often made at least a day in advance from what I've heard. That translates to leftovers when all is said and done. But, a good first-class meal can be much more complex because the chefs on the ground will aim to have the food prepped just enough so that the final finishing touches can be done in the air.

Having a good presentation doesn't hurt either. I'd imagine that the salmon wouldn't have tasted as good if it were stuck in a cassarole dish with tinfoil on top!

Let me preface this input by saying that it's not coming directly from me. However, I have a friend, who is a very discriminating world traveler, who just recently traveled First Class to Japan and Korea on Asiana Airlines. He couldn't stop raving about the experience, the food and the service. He said it was the best First Class airline experience he's ever had in his life - better than Air France and better than Singapore Airlines. I think I may give them a try on my next trip to Asia.

If you're not travelling business, and are heading to India Jet Airways does some tasty curries and really great service :-) they do transfers from Mumbai to many Asian hubs.

In my book, by far, it's still Air France and nobody else is even close. The differentiating factors are the food and the wine!

I fly between The US and Europe and within the EU several times a year and have never had a really bad meal in Air France business out of Paris or, surprisingly, Lufthansa business from anywhere. Lufthansa leans to comfort food which very sensibly does not require extreme calibration of temperature/preparedness from kitchen to cabin, but is still quite delicious. If you complain that your filet mignon is not medium rare on any airline in any class, you are setting your standards much higher than normal cruising altitude.