AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2018 - 40

PILOT BRIEFING

PEOPLE |

The Flying
Chef
The world is his grocery store
B Y A LY S S A J. C O B B

MARK BLY can cook just about anything, just about
anywhere, using just about any cooking method. Freshcaught halibut cooked on a rock, outside a yurt, on Orcas
Island, Washington. Pizza in a convection oven, on a
Boeing 747, in the flight levels. It's not a rudimentary fillet
of fish slapped on a hot stone or a reheated store-bought
frozen pizza (he makes the pizza from scratch, then partially cooks it before boarding the 747 and finishing it in

40 | AOPA PILOT September 2018

the air). Bly, known as The
Flying Chef, goes all-out
with his gourmet meals-
wherever he happens to be.
The Alaska native
began cooking out of necessity when he was a preteen
as he cared for his younger
sister when his educator parents traveled to the
bush. He found inspiration
from Jeff Smith, The Frugal
Gourmet on public television. "I loved the thought
process of putting meals together," Bly recalled.
When he was a junior in high school, Bly learned to fly and discovered that he had a passion for cooking and flying. Both keep him striving
for perfection.
"You'll never have the perfect flight, you'll never make the perfect dish,
but the goal you are trying to realize [is] that you're moving closer to perfection," Bly said. "You do the best you can." Bly said he also loves to make
people happy, whether flying Twin Otters filled with freight and mail to
the bush at the beginning of his career; delivering Amazon packages worldwide in a Boeing 747 today; or preparing meals for family, friends, and
clients. Bly packed a sample lunch that he would make for clients going
into the bush for AOPA to take on the road from Anchorage to Talkeetna,
Alaska, which included rich, high-energy bacon-wrapped Gorgonzolacheese-stuffed dates; scrumptious Kansas City-style barbecue pork ribs
with his special rub; barbecue corn on the cob; and coleslaw. For après, he
packed delicious foie gras with black truffle, caramelized onions, ploughman's chutney, crusty bread, fresh raspberries, and a sliced pear.
Bly's professional training started at the Hilton Downtown in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, after he inquired about a bowl of curry laksa and the
chef offered to take him under wing. Over the next several years during
stopovers, Bly would learn from the chef, then bring ingredients home to
Alaska and cook them for friends.
"When I want to learn how to make a dish, I go to that country, that
specific town and city, and I learn how to make it from the source," he said.
Bly took late TV chef Anthony Bourdain's words to heart-to travel as
far as he could for as long as he could. After nearly three decades of flying internationally, Bly has gathered seasonings and cooking techniques
from all over the world.
"I use the world as my grocery store," Bly said. "I go to Hong Kong like
people drive to the store." He brings seasonings back to prepare food for
friends and his catering business with partner "Delicious" Dave Thorne,
who cooked for singer Neil Young, and chef Scott Johnson, who instructed
Bly at a Viking cooking school. Bly will travel to his clients, cooking in their
homes or in yurts. Bly is currently a partner in a Cessna 206 based at Lake

AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2018

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