Airline food part 6

 A frequently asked question is how do you come up with what you will cater on an aircraft?

So let me try to explain, the whole process is very complex and a lot of departments are involved before it comes on a tray and served onboard, the first thing is that the customer have a idea or request in what direction they want to go, departure time, aircraft type, cabin type, cost, operational needs, equipment

and it goes on forever sometime, from first pitch to serve on board takes usually 10-12 months and somewhere in the middle we start to work and develop ideas where we end up having a customer meal presentation, this can look very differently depending on customer requests and needs.

Most of the time we send suggestions where we get feedback and adjust, after this the customers come visit us and we present the adapted dishes where we on the spot do the necessary changes (always) withe photos taken for reference and future menu grids.

Normally we do 3-4 menu cycles that we use for 3 years rotating with some minor changes during this time, in Kenya there is a raw material issue constantly that we always need to take in consideration when we offer something, this is extremely enjoying and limit us to be too creative sometimes. When all is done, we always do a fit test to see that everything fits in carts and drawers so it can be delivered to the aircrafts, is the sauce sliding? does the prawns stay as plated or moving around? a lot of details that later will be adopted to when we dish out in our kitchen, I hope that this describes a little of how this work and here are some pictures of a fitting trial.

Yes some look messy but we do move around a lot

Hakuna Matata