How Singapore Airlines Makes 50,000 In-Flight Meals A Day | Big Business | Insider Business

every omelet served on board Singapore

Airlines economy class is cooked on this

rotating table we're producing here six

seven thousand omelettes per day minimum

in catering facilities like this one

chefs prepare all the main dishes for

nearly 20 million passengers a year 24 7

365 days a year it's non-stop all the

time that's Anthony he's in charge of

the entire catering operation and his

food shopping budget is 500 million

dollars a year so it's quite substantial

amount of product his kitchen cranks out

168 000 lobster tails every month and

over 1 million pounds of rice a year but

even the most expensive meals don't

always taste the same in the sky

historically flavors could change

depending on the conditions inside a

plane a phenomenon aircraft

manufacturers and Airlines have spent

decades trying to fix let's do one last

taste

so catering facilities like this one are

left with a logistical Nightmare how to

make 50 000 yummy meals a day in a

massive time crunch with military

clockwise because just like us these

meals can't miss their flight the plan

is ready you need to be ready

so how does Singapore Airlines serve up

so much food in time for takeoff

this is Singapore Airlines biggest

catering facility located within Changi

Airport

it's run by the airline's catering

partner SATs and while SATs does make

food for 45 other carriers Singapore

Airlines is by far its biggest customer

Sia to be frank is a very

very demanding customer

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he works with SATs to develop hundreds

of new menus every year and creating one

dish can take 9 to 12 months

there's different menus flying in

different directions and different

Cuisine types Japanese Chinese

Singaporean and obviously Western meals

the airline runs menus from 77 different

departure cities so if you're leaving

Singapore you'll be offered chicken and

rice or a hawker soup if you're leaving

New York City you'll get a smoked trout

salad and of course the food changes

based on where you're sitting on the

plane

In First Class Suites passengers have

the most options from caviar and Lobster

Thermidor to beef tenderloin

in premium economy Flyers have just a

couple choices like this Nasi karabu

because the airline Cooks it in bigger

batches no matter the cabin chefs try to

include a protein vegetable starch and a

sauce in each dish

before anyone can get to cooking they

need to suit up

they wash their hands thoroughly and

step into this air shower

move hair dust and anything which may

provide opportunity inside the facility

for contamination

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sat's team of over a thousand workers

handles a lot of food

easily one day we can have about 800 to

a thousand menus running they usually

start cooking meals 24 to 36 hours

before a scheduled flight and it's all

broken down into stations it's like a

restaurant you have a salad section you

have a dessert section you have a hot

Kitchen business is just on a much

larger scale in the premium kitchen

they're grilling meat like this filet

mignon for the first and business class

essentially what we're doing is we're

cooking the meal about 30 40 percent if

they cook the meat all the way through

now it would be really overcooked by the

time it got under the plane so chefs

depend on flight attendants who finish

cooking it in the air they just apply

residual heat of about 150 160 degrees

in our aircraft ovens over in the hot

kitchen Cooks handle well all the hot

food for first economy and business

class vegetables pasta noodles rice

noodles hot meals soups and sauces this

is some heavy duty batch cooking chefs

boil noodles and giant bats tomato sauce

gets its own tank and is pumped out into

these cooling trays from the bottom

and as with the meat chefs aren't

cooking everything all the way

so a lot of these uh what we call 50 60

finished

even vegetables it's a little bit like a

pasta we want it to be al dente so you

can see there it has a little bit of

firmness a little bit of bite so if we

crack if we break that we still get some

snap

so as it cools the meals will continue

or the food will continue to to cook

until it reaches the the core

temperature that we need to achieve for

food safety

every tray along the way gets a tracking

label that way if there's any issue with

food sickness on a flight the airline

can trace it back to the exact batch we

also want to maintain the integrity and

the color of the leaf grain so we cook

it in the hottest possible water 100

degrees

we cook it for the shortest amount of

time as possible

once the food comes off the heat it

immediately heads down this conveyor

belt to the blast chiller that stops the

cooking process in its tracks

some things though are totally cooked

through like these omelettes on this

rotating table the eggs come pre-cracked

in a liquid mixture a pump squirts the

perfect amount into each pan Chef

stationed around the table cook flip

fold and stack every omelette

we're producing here six seven thousand

omelettes per day minimum so omelets is

uh mostly for the economy kitchen

once all the elements are cooked most of

the way through they head to this room

so this is what we call casserole

assembly for economy meals and also

business class and some first-class

meals

this is where they pack all the food

into the foil containers you might have

seen in Flight normally from the time

they take the meal components from the

fridge within 35-45 minutes they have to

have put the meal into the trade Anthony

gives chefs photos to show them how each

dish is supposed to look flight

attendants get a similar picture to

follow for plating because we have

around six and a half seven thousand

cabin crew and there's only one of me I

can't be every day at the training

College during the cabin crew so we do

this for consistency

one by one workers pile on starches

sauces meats and vegetables

here's that pasta we saw cooking earlier

they each get a foil topper and then are

carted into a holding fridge that's

where basically the packing team goes a

little bit like a supermarket where you

pick and mix

chefs assemble the desserts in a

different room

today they're making floating islands a

dessert with a meringue suspended and

cremon glaze

all these dishes look great on the

ground but there's one big problem food

can taste different in the air

on some planes your taste buds are about

30 less sensitive to sweet and salty

foods that's because of the pressure

dryness and engine sound in the older

triple sevens and a320s the cabin is

pressurized up to 8 000 feet so it feels

like you're eating lunch on Machu Picchu

and humidity on board can sit as low as

12 less than some deserts

when you have a dry mouth and a worsened

sense of smell foods can be twice as

Bland

so historically that meant Airlines

loaded on salt for you to even taste the

food sometimes leaving passengers

feeling bloated

but in new planes manufacturers are

making conditions on board easier on

your body

350s a380s and 787 Singapore Airlines

flies cabins are pressurized up to 6000

feet so instead of Machu Picchu it feels

like you're eating dinner in Denver and

because new planes are made of more

carbon fiber it's possible to increase

humidity to about 24 percent when you

have more moisture in the cabin space

your sinuses and your body is not

dehydrating as quickly and your taste

and your palate is not as you know

influenced

so Flyers can taste a lot more these

days making it easier on Chefs like

Anthony there's no additional salt

pepper no additional salt

Anthony can use this room to simulate a

pressurized cabin and test how food will

taste in the sky and to address that

bloating issue he uses ingredients like

chew maker juices swelling in your body

inflammation right so you're feeling a

lot more comfortable Ginger is also for

for sleep and rest and relaxation which

leaves just one more hurdle reheating

the food

flight attendants only have small ovens

to work with on board so how do chefs

make sure their food still taste good

well cooking halfway and moving quickly

helps

and they avoid dishes that don't travel

well

we try not to do things that are deep

fried for example chicken wings it

doesn't stay crispy and none of us

really like to bite into a soft french

fries they also stay away from thin fish

like sea bass

the fish which is a bit thicker a Cod a

salmon they stand up much better to you

know in-flight experience

after all the meals are assembled the

food finally meets up with the carts you

see on board so we have here the tray

assembly area

elevators bring clean trays cutlers and

dishes upstairs the silverware elevator

yeah it's like a you know it's a deluxe

ride you know for your Cutlery

chefs work on an assembly line picking

and placing all the napkins all the

porcelain the lemonware the knife's

forks everything right through to the

salt pepper shakers and the butter

portions

this is a dinner service for business

class

I didn't put the appetizer so the

appetizers always preset on a supper

service

they'll put a lid on it they'll put the

dressing on the side and then it will

get packed into the cards

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it's the same process for economy class

just the tableware like the food isn't

quite as fancy

that card is packed with all the meals

inside it has a label tag it says what

flight number it is what destination

what meal service it should be this

helps cabin crew know what's inside the

carts without having to open them

if you open it up

that document there will correspond with

what meal goes inside so here we have

porcelain here we have the glassware and

then that will correspond then with the

meal types that come in from from the

from the meal packing side

those cards take a ride on another

elevator and will be loaded onto flights

usually within an hour before takeoff

every team along the process has to move

extremely fast because all the food has

to be cooked assembled and eaten in

Flight within 72 hours so we never want

to exceed 72 hours in terms of food

processing

if the team goes over that time limit by

just an hour they exceed food safety

requirements and can't serve those meals

anymore

this meal will be on a plane tonight

okay so this production probably

occurred yesterday

it all moves so fast because at the end

of the day they've got a flight to catch

you can't miss the plane

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foreign

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