In a previous life, I worked making food for the airline industry making airline food.
Unfortunately, unless you are lucky enough to have travelled first class with BA, Virgin, Emirates or American, you would never have tried the food I made.
But do you know the difference between food in first class and standard class? Aside from it being served on plates and having real cutlery, it comes down to less than £1.
That is based on the ‘budget’ we used to receive to come up with dishes for passengers in first and business class.
I worked in desserts so roughly we would get £2.20 per head. If you think about the ingredients needed for a first-class dessert, this made it tough, but we always managed to eke enough out to come up with something good.
Very much like the job I currently do in the SK development kitchen, making airline food is not just about coming up with anything that you think is nice. It needs a lot of thought and preparation.
In the airline industry, we needed to develop our recipes in laboratory kitchens, then the results were tested in a simulated aircraft cabin, which generates cabin pressure equivalent to the operating pressure inside an aircraft flying at 30,000 feet.
Once they had been inside the pressurized cabin long enough for their palates to be affected, the executive chefs and sous chefs would provide their feedback and we may then need to make changes to get the flavour just right.
Once the recipe was perfected, specific standards for preparation and presentation need to be drawn up for the kitchens to follow. Everything must be measured, from the exact amount of rice to the number of peas and the food is then cooked to safe temperatures before it is assembled on trays ready to go onto the aircraft.
Having mostly flown standard class, but on occasion, through work, being lucky enough to fly business or first class, let me tell you the real difference between airline food – it’s all in the head!
When it comes down to it, it’s not really what you are eating but where you are eating. After all, food is always going to ‘taste’ better on a plate than in a plastic tray, when you are eating it with proper cutlery, rather than plastic knife and fork, and when you are doing this in a bigger seat in more luxurious surroundings, rather than having no legroom and hearing the noise of crying children.
About Sean Flint
Development & Innovation Chef of SK Foods.
Your food. Our Passion.
