Most people think that designing a menu to be served on-board aircrafts is no different than cooking for a restaurant. Nothing can be further from the truth. In fact, designing menus/food for airlines is a totally different process than cooking for restaurants.
First, there is the fact that, depending on the airline, the volume of food to be prepared can be from as little as 300, to as much as 20 – 30,000 meal trays a day. Then comes the flight times of certain routes, which limit the time you have to serve food trays, and then put them all away before descending to land. Sometimes the flight time is so short that the cabin crew may have even less than 20 minutes to serve the meals and put them away.
Hygiene is also very important for International Airline food services. The caterers have to be at least GMP certified, but today most professional airline caterers are HACCP certified. This ensures that all meals served are clean and safe. All of the food served on-board is prepared at least 8-12 hours before putting them on trays. The food has to maintain a temperature of 4 °C at all times. Once in the service cart to be loaded on board, the temperature is allowed to rise to 8°C. This is applicable to all foods, whether served hot or cold.
Cold food is kept refrigerated on-board in the carts on trays, while hot food is loaded cold, separate from the carts with the cold dishes like salads, desserts or cakes. The hot food is warmed in the oven on board, then placed on the trays and served along side the cold food.
Menu concept: The menu concept which I have designed for year 2018 will be called “Simply Thai” with a touch of Asian Cuisine since we call our Airline “Asia Boutique Airline” but the emphasis will be Thai. After all, we are a Thai company! And please remember that all menu items change every month.
I hope that our passengers especially the majority of our passengers who are visiting Thailand will have a clearer understanding of our menu concept and will enjoy our meals on board this year.
Bon Appetit
Chef McDang