TYPICAL KITCHENS IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY: PART 5
The hot-food area is much smaller, since only the entrees for the first-class passengers are made from scratch. They are prepared in 1 OO-portion batches, assembled and chill-packed in individual portions, and held in refrigerators until use. Entrees for coach passengers are bought frozen, prepared by vendors to airline specifications.
Two to three hours before flight time, the exact number and kinds of meals for each plane are moved from the refrigerator to the ramp area. Here another moving belt is activated, carrying the trays that will be served to the passengers. Assemblers position each tray mat, napkin, cup, salad, dressing, dessert, roll, butter—everything but the hot entree, which will be added to the tray when it is served. These trays are then packed in dry ice and loaded into the equipment that fits into the plane's galley.
The hot entrees are also packed into equipment that fits the plane for which they are headed. If that equipment can heat or cook, the food is packed cold; otherwise it is heated, packed hot, and kept hot until service two to five hours later. Both hot and cold equipment is then loaded onto the waiting truck that will service that particular flight.
Delivery to the plane completes the caterer's service goal. The caterer serves the airline rather than the individual customer. In fact, each airline it serves plans its own menus, develops its own recipes, and sets the quality standards and the budget. The caterer simply meets the airline's specifications.
The food manager is comparable to a sous-chef or production manager. The ramp and dispatch manager and the equipment and sanitation manager have comparable responsibility in their own spheres. The sanitation side of the EMS is as important as the equipment responsibility because of the many problems of handling and holding such large amounts of food safely under potentially hazardous conditions. The operations manager would correspond to the food and beverage director. The food-production supervisors are comparable to a sous-chef in a hotel kitchen, but unless there is an emergency they seldom do any food preparation.
Part of the challenge of everyone's job is the need to adjust to the unexpected. A situation can change dramatically minutes before flight time if a canceled flight from another airline adds an extra 200 passenger. The weather in airports 3000 miles away can play havoc with schedules, force changes in the type of plane, and turn the best-laid plans into a
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