Originally Posted by
YVR Cockroach
Either kitchen staff didn't know what they were doing, or whoever placed the meat order bought the cheapest cuts of beef (cut as well as quality) to keep a lid on costs. I wager it's probably the latter and the kitchen staff did know what they were doing but were told they had to do cook it to conform to the menu.
I think it could be the former.
I doubt there's a true airline kitchen/caterer at YXE ... so WS probably went to some local company with no airline experience to make the meals for those YXE>LAS and LAS>YYC segments.
It probably seems like an easy-enough task for the Saskatoon caterer, but there's both an art and science to airline catering -- and making the food served onboard an airplane actually turn out well. If some Saskatoon restaurant or caterer cooked some kind of meat, then sliced it and plated it ... and then it was stored at YXE, then stored on board YXE>LAS, then waited during the turn at LAS ... and then eventually reheated in a 737 oven? Well, the likelihood of grey shoe leather is high. (It would be very unlike any
local catering gig that this provider is used to.)
And, admittedly, I certainly have no idea how to re-heat steak or beef so that it's both edible and tastes good.
Did WestJet drive the price down -- pushing to cheaper ingredients? Sure, probably. Does the Saskatoon caterer not know how to make reheatable airplane meals - that have to sit for a long time - turn out well? Probably, and understandably yes.