jspira

Last week I took a tour of United's Chelsea Food Services' kitchen at Newark and wrote about it for Frequent Business Traveler magazine, where (as some of you know) I serve as editorial director.

The purpose of the United gathering was to present new and experimental meals but I wanted to document how people actually prepare the meals. The smells are quite inviting, the food is freshly prepared (I was told United tries to schedule the food for just a few hours before flight time as opposed to what some kitchens do, which is the day before).

Everything looked very fresh and appealing and it was clear to me that the workers cared a lot about the quality of the meals they produced.

If you have any questions, I'm happy to try to address them based on what I saw but the eight photos in the photo essay also tell a great story.

Photo Essay: How Your Airline Meal Is Prepared
Behind the Scenes in United Airlines’ Kitchen

krazykanuck

I like how in one of those pictures the worker's white cook jacket says "Continental Airlines"

Gunner14

I saw at least two of them

JetAway

As I suspected, much like a hospital kitchen, with quality to match.

boss315

Looks like our school district's main kitchen that prepares 150,000 meals a day...gives me a better perspective on why UA's food is like it is!

EWR764

The quality is determined by how much the airline chooses to spend on catering, not necessarily the kitchens. Meals for the likes of SQ, CX and OZ F cabins are often prepared in kitchens right alongside the UA chicken "bouquets"...

JetAway

I've watched videos of SQ's food being prepared at both SIN and JFK and the process appears to be much more individualized than we see in the UA pics.

eghansen

Food prep at UA and CO has gone downhill a great deal in the last twenty years mostly due to budget cuts, but also different prep methods.

In the 1980's and 1990's, first class and business class food was loaded on in aluminum trays with different foods separate. I.e., meat would be in one tray, potatoes in another and vegetables in a separate third. The dishware (which was called a "setup") would be separate. The flight attendant would heat the food and apportion the food herself onto the plates. Today it looks like the food is pre-placed on the plate in the kitchen which leaves the food mushed together when it is served.

In addition, more food in those days were loaded on in bulk. I.e., nuts for first class would be loaded on in a big plastic bag and the flight attendant would dish out the nuts until the bag was empty. Today the nuts are loaded pre-allocated in bowls so you only one one portion and the FA's can't offer your seconds.

ThisYearsModel

Flush twice. It's a long way to the cafeteria.

ozziegumby

http://www.frequentbusinesstraveler....is-prepared/7/

The meat patty in the 'breakfast' looks like its been pre-cooked before it arrived at the kitchen, then frozen, then thawed out and reheated in the air?

That or else its been sitting on the counter for most of the day. I must admit the photos of the kitchen look rather 'blah'...much like the general culture of the airline (one part they are actually consistent)

JVPhoto

How am I supposed to sleep tonight???

JetAway

I read or saw somewhere that a lot of the catered items are prepared by contractors and shipped to the airline for use in the meals. I imagine the sausage is one of those items.

EWR764

All of which is determined by the company's catering guidelines and budget. Obviously, more labor-intensive preparation is more costly. In any event, the issue was how the kitchen itself appeared... Very few kitchens, even those in some of the finest restaurants in the world, look like Williams-Sonoma catalogs.

Generally speaking, international/p.s. entrees are still prepared this way, and Chef McLoughlin alluded to the fact that they were looking to expand the number of markets which receive plated entrees, instead of casseroles, as it allows for a more personalized experience in markets where there is sufficient flight time to do a longer service.

Casseroles are plated in the flight kitchens, wrapped in color-coded foil, stacked into metal containers, and loaded directly into the ovens, while tray setups with cold items, silverware, linens and condiments are loaded into carts and boarded. More or less the same way hot economy meals are provisioned. On the other hand, on flights where meals are individually plated, each component of the various dishes are placed in separate aluminum containers and loaded in the ovens.

denCSA

The Miami Airport show that aired on Travel channel (I think?) had an episode last year where they showed the meal prep kitchen and process from start to finish. It was probably one of the more interesting episodes actually, and highlighted the fact of how clean and sanitary these places need to be. I think they were preparing the Alitalia flight's meals, it was interesting to see and I appreciated the details and work that went into the preparation. You never think about it until you see it laid out like that.

jspira

As he said this at the event, I wondered if the flight attendants would welcome the personalization - or chafe at the extra work.