The Church of Sveti Sava ( St Sava)

 People who know me also know that I am not really a religious person but I do like the history behind all religions and to visit the for many people holy places and sanctuary's on my travels, some are very cool with great story telling behind and some are only just a place for people to be closer to their god, I don't judge anyone in their believes as long as they not try to convince me on theirs.

The cathedral of Sveti Sava in Belgrade Serbia is one of the nicest places I have ever visited and only beaten by Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the temple of Sava have been constructed over many years with stops along the way and are now 98 % finished and a must see if you ever visit Belgrade(that you should)

The story tells that the Turks during the Ottoman occupation burned the body Of Sava on top of the hill to crush the resistance from the Serbs, but did the opposite of curse!! that's us Serbs, we always goes our own way, if you visit the temple please book a tour guide to get as much story as possible and also the advantage to visit parts of the temple not open for public, like the roof top where you have a 360 view of Belgrade. super cool indeed 

Neka vas bog sacuva!

Airline food part 2

 I need to add more to the complexity of airline catering on my previous post, to satisfy customers and clients is always a challenge especially if person don't understand how taste and aroma is affected when you fly on different types of aircrafts, what happen is that your taste buds dries out and so does your nostrils whish ultimately change your perception off taste, what taste good on the ground changes after a few hours in the air, little bit depending, for me I know that my taste changes on flights more than 5 hours.

older aircrafts change more and quicker that new aircrafts due to the differences in cabin pressure, modern less, older more as a simple rule and that makes the food even more difficult to cook, remember that as now in my current unit we do roughly 15 000 meals per day and its impossible to create food as for every individual passenger "you" some like it hot and spicy, some less salty, some more sweet and then put religious, cultural perspective on top and you can maybe try to understand the complexity that adds on top, so yes again, food is not only food, its a sense of feeling, taste, smell, texture and we all have different opinion on this.

In my unit we cook fresh always, some other global caterers load frozen food from large factory's for economy class and that to guarantee same same on every flight which is cool for me, I would do the same if I was the owner, cheaper and more standardized, great and no need to worry.

Covid changes a lot in the industry who try to recover financially and many big airlines started to act as budget airlines but now is going back to quality after the last 2 years of super comeback and thank god we are on the right track to give flying passengers well deserved food on board, so please fasten your seat belts and enjoy the service.

Airplane food, why is it so bad sometimes and how to find standard?

 I see a lot of social media revues and personal postings from people not in the industry, yes everyone is entitled to have an opinion regarding what is served onboard but also need to be realistic, as an airline caterer I have seen and heard things that I am very selected about because I know most of the time the reason behind when people complaint, let me give you randomly some samples why people complaint

want to be upgraded

want to have a refund ticket or extra flights

just in very bad mood and stressed and the partner bitching around

because you can be a dickhead

Karin knows everything

expectations when not a regular flyer and asking for 1 class service paying for Economy

first timers flying business class and expect 1 class treatment

and so many more......

but I thing foremost people compare airline food on board with restaurants on ground without realizing the complexity of serving people with regenerated food (reheating on aircraft)

I know that most caterers out there take pride of what they serve and taking best care to serve safe food for all pax with healthy tasty food especially flying with the big 20

What can go wrong and it sometimes do is flight delays, departure changes, turbulence that can be some challenges for crew regarding timing for reheating of food that they are not in control off, but they will never sacrifice safety before food that's for sure.

then we have the crew issue!! the main reason that the food is bad is for over heating! that's because crew is not trained well, don't care, ignorant, selfish, no customer service and not suited for the job and this goes very much for budget airlines or the below top 50, so guys you get most of the times what you pay for and all have different taste and palette, Turkish, Qatar, Singapore, Emirates, Air France have different setup so choose wisely for you next flight.

Some plates that flies very well if taken care of (upper class service) 

Egyptian junior chefs

 Its great to see the hunger of knowledge from the talented young chefs here in Egypt, they sacrifice a lot everyday to be able to join the squad for the upcoming Africa's Cup competition this coming September.

I am very happy to be called in to help them in their task and to mentoring them together with some other local chefs and I see great progress for every training so far and that makes me super happy, unfortunately the senior chefs in the hotels and restaurants here are not supportive for this your future of Egypt, the old farts are only jealous and bitter with crazy bad basic knowledge under their belt (with few exception's)

this is ridiculous behavior from them and they try to play some kind if bull shit mind game that I see thru and don't buy for a second, fucking loosers !!!  

GO GO GO young brilliant chefs of Egypt, the gastronomy will maybe find its way in another 1000 years In sha allah 

Graduation and final day of school

 So now she is finally done with high school and time for the next step, this amazing little lady is about time to move into the big world (she do tinder) how lucky we are as parents to have a clever, sympathetic and most wonderful daughter that will do greatness in her life, I cant wait to see what will come out of her but first its the art & design school in august then we will see what will follow.

Daddy loves you my sweet pearl

Graduation time

 How time flies fast and my baby is growing up to become this beautiful flower of a young, elegant, sophisticated and absolutely wonderful young lady who now is graduating from High school and up to University, Bianca Liv Electra Unic where did the time go? I am looking forward to see all friends and family in the coming week and to spend time with my loved ones back home, hasta la vista Egypt.

Big congrats my sweet love and daddy loves you more than chocolate 

 

HONORARY HEAD OF DEPARTMENT IN KOREA

 Sometimes its just nice to receive some appreciated and unexpected appointment this time from Youngsan University in Busan South Korea where they appointed me as Honorary head of department for the school of culinary arts, pretty cool and I humble thank everyone involved and the presidium of university.

I hope to be invited in the future to do some masterclasses for the students.