Jumbo shrimp cocktail, sushi, filet mignon, Cristal champagne—just about whatever you want can be provided by Air Culinaire.

Juicy lobster tails, jumbo shrimp, snow-crab claws…I start to salivate as I watch generous portions of each being heaped onto a tray. No, I'm not at an upscale seafood restaurant. I'm in the kitchen of Air Culinaire, the Washington area's premier private jet caterer, which opened shop in late 1999 and has served a long list of celebrities, including Robin Williams, Clint Eastwood, Michael Jordan, Colin Powell and President Bush.

Company founder Guy Smith prides himself on providing delicious and beautifully presented food (or "room service in the sky") to private and corporate aircraft at both Reagan National and Dulles Airports. The Seafood Deluxe platter I watch being made is just one of many food options available to customers. The Air Culinaire menu (also available online through www.airculinaire.com) offers everything from gourmet boxed lunches (starting at $16 per person) to first-class gourmet dinners that can cost as much as $50 per person. But the menu is really just a guide. Seasonal and special menus are common, and Air Culinaire will do its best to provide a customer with whatever he requests. This includes everything from sushi platters to premium Cristal champagne.

To top it off, orders are delivered quickly. "At least half of our orders are what I call ASAP orders, and a fair number of them are called in the day before," says Smith. "We have the ability to prepare food on very short notice. If you need it in an hour, I can probably get it to you in 45 minutes." Just ask Vice President Cheney. When in flight during the presidential campaign last fall, Cheney's pilot called on behalf of the then-candidate to request 15 gourmet dinners—to be delivered to Washington Dulles within an hour. Smith pulled it off.

Smith, a chef who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, cares a lot about the quality and presentation of the food his company prepares. "We have seven full-blown chefs who used to run restaurants, and I tell them to create beautiful food," he says. Air Culinaire receives a minimum of three food deliveries a day (morning, noon and night), which ensures that everything is fresh (nothing is frozen).

But Air Culinaire often provides much more than food. When a customer wanted a Tiffany crystal vase to give as a gift while in flight, Air Culinaire provided it. Another time, a late-night request came in for five Disney DVDs. An Air Culinaire employee hustled to Target, Wal-Mart and whatever other stores were open and eventually located four out of the five DVDs in time for the early morning flight—turned out the fifth wasn't available on DVD. Another special request came from Saudi royals who wanted authentic Arabic cuisine. It wasn't a problem for Air Culinaire, since each of its seven chefs has a different area of specialty (French, Italian, Japanese and more).

The company, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, takes orders around the clock. "Some people call and need catering at 2:00 a.m." says marketing director Monalisa Shaheen. Early morning deliveries usually go out at around 4:00 a.m. for 6:00 a.m. flights, and keep going all day.

On average, the company prepares about 60 orders a day (way up from the 20 to 30 daily orders it catered initially). But that's just an average day. The company's biggest day so far came in January during the presidential inauguration. Air Culinaire filled 387 orders to seven different airports—all in one day. Any chance the company will top that record? Maybe. "Corporate aviation is on the rise," says Shaheen.

For more information about Air Culinaire, call 703-920-2040. To check out a menu, go to www.airculinaire.com.