Each outgoing plane must have on board the correct number and types of meals for all the passengers, packed in special holding or cooking equipment that fits into each aircraft galley (there are seven different types). Every plane must depart on time: it has a departure slot in the air traffic control pattern and a landing slot in another city at a specific time. For the kitchen, this turns each day into a series of 150 fixed deadlines.
The huge stainless steel and tile kitchen contains two food-production areas—hot food and cold food—each with production and storage equipment similar to what we have seen in other high-volume operations. But in this kitchen, when people talk about equipment, they are usually referring to the equipment that travels on the planes—the holding, heating, and cooking equipment they must custom-load for each flight. They must pack the meals in the small square plates, and the trays they must set up for each passenger. Equipment is the focal point of this kitchen, and the Equipment and Sanitation department (EMS) is the heartbeat of the operation, controlling the vital flow.
ESS personnel unload the carts from the incoming planes, wash and sanitize the dishes and carts, and put everything in readiness to be packed and sent out again, usually within hours. It is up to this department to see that the equipment that must go out has come in and that there is enough of the right kind of everything to service each scheduled flight. The food department packs the equipment with its products. The Ramp and Dispatch department transports and installs the equipment on the outbound planes and brings back the used equipment to repeat the cycle.
The cold-food production area seems full of people—almost more people than food. Each worker performs one small step—washing lettuce, destemming strawberries, slicing roast beef, and breaking parsley into sprigs of a specified size. For assembly, a moving belt carries the dishes for a menu item past assemblers, each of whom places one ingredient in its specified position on the dish. The moving belt is the caterer's version of plating or dish-out, which is usually done in other kitchens by the cook. At the end of the line each dish is checked, wrapped, loaded into a waiting cart, and rolled off to a cooler to await departure.
