In Flight Catering

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Yes, after a week, BR ham sandwiches had curled enough to be relabeled as sausage rolls

(A NTNOCN joke, there)

[ricardian]

Being a shift worker (365/24/7, 2 days on, 2 days off = 42 hr week) for most of my 12 years RAF service (1961-1973) I and my single, living-in fellow shiftworkers suffered the vagaries of "out of hours" catering. On a large station like Akrotiri where my watch consisted of a Sgt, a Cpl & about 7 SAC/SACW we usually got "reasonable" out-of-hours catering although the catering staff seemed to begrudge having to feed folk who didn't work office hours. However, on a smaller station it was not unknown for an evening "meal" to consists of a Robirch pork pie and an apple; those Robirch pork pies contained a tiny piece of un-named meat (shades of CMOT Dibbler) which rattled around when the case-hardened pie was shaken.

[Rossian]

....provided from a Nimrod galley. When we used to go off on the OCU Medex from Kinloss there was a longish transit on airways until we descended to our operational area in the Med. It was entirely possible with a tad of organisation to feed all 26 people on board in about 45/50 mins with a full cooked (freshly created ) breakfast; fruit juices, tea/coffee, sausages,bacon, tomato,fried egg and bread (toast wasn't do-able). Coming back transit from USA was also freshly done: seafood (lobster if from Canada) steak, garbage bag salad (iceberg lettuce chopped, tomatoes,cucumber assorted bottles of salad dressing all shaken up in a big black bag),fresh fruit salad and cream. Happy bears all round. What it needs is organisation.
My later role model was the chef on a little French submarine who produced 128 five course meals per day from a galley the same size as a Nimrod galley. There are star performers - and then there was him.

The Ancient Mariner

[CharlieOneSix]

My first experience of sea time in the RN was as an 18 year old (just) cadet when we left Dartmouth for St Peter Port, Guernsey, in HMS Brearley, the College inshore minesweeper. Mid channel I was detailed off to prepare a meal on my own in the tiny galley. With the quite marked sea movement I managed to set fire to some hot oil and the galley in general, in the process destroying what I had prepared. Mrs C16 would no doubt say that 60 years later my efforts have not improved....

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I did a trip on a Nimrod once, part of a fighter affil exchange. Some of their guys got trips in the back seats of Tornados to see how it looked from there, and some of us went up in a Nimrod to get their viewpoint.
I recall the wonders of being served tea and Dairy Cream Sponge whilst transiting to the exercise area. So, we would have died well fed, at least.

[Pontius Navigator]

On the venerable Shack I think I revolutionised the catering. Our rationing for 10 hours + was pretty meager. Direct liaison with the Airmens' Mess had them providing fresh plated meals with a choice.
On one trip to Kef with some 20+ ground crew sitting on the floor, crew in seats, I did a last minute dash to the Mess and collected a full set of full fries. All heated and served within minutes of airborne.
On the return flight we didn't have time to cook the steaks

[Ex-Ascot]

Yesterday in 1919 the first ever inflight catering was served.

[media]The first ever airline meal was served in 1919 on a Handley-Page flight from London to Paris. According to Travel + Leisure in 2017, selections at the time “typically included cold fried chicken, fruit salads and elegantly composed sandwiches, served in wicker baskets on the lightest chinaware servers could find.”[/media]

[tango15]

I once visited one of these establishments that prepares airline 'food,' and I have never eaten a full airline meal since. It's not the kitchens, (which are cleaner than an average hospital kitchen I suspect - shoe covers, hair nets, aprons, gloves, etc., all disposable), it's what they do to the food. The clincher for me was one line where they were preparing steaks. These had been poached rather than grilled, and were now entering an area where they were to be 'finalised'. This consisted of a woman with a branding iron searing the steak to make it look as though it had been under a grill. The whole process struck me at the time as a waste of perfectly good food, (which it was when it entered the premises), for which the airlines paid through the nose.
The best-ever inflight meal I ever had was a vegetarian curry on Air India. So nice I asked for (and received) a second one!

[Woody]

The best-ever inflight meal I ever had was a vegetarian curry on Air India. So nice I asked for (and received) a second one!

I often go for the curry option from the inflight menu, mainly because knowing the ethnicity of most of the people in the kitchens,
they’re pretty experienced in preparing them , seems to work fairly well.

[Ex-Ascot]

I never seem hungry when flying. I was the same as crew. I just used to pick at the cheese board.

On The Queen's Flight we had Concorde catering from LHR. We did flight planning in the steward's bay over breakfast.

[tango15]

The best-ever inflight meal I ever had was a vegetarian curry on Air India. So nice I asked for (and received) a second one!

I often go for the curry option from the inflight menu, mainly because knowing the ethnicity of most of the people in the kitchens,
they’re pretty experienced in preparing them , seems to work fairly well.

My sentiments exactly, Woody. That visit was 35 years ago now, and apart from myself, the manager and the 'head chef', all the staff were from countries a lot further east of the UK.