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 [Music] 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 [Music] 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 [Music] 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 [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Insider Business

Views: 9,581,449

Keywords: Business Insider, Business News, big business, singapore, singapore airlines, flight, flight meals, food, drinks

Id: b7YgXassC3c

Length: 11min 15sec (675 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 19 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Worldly-Mix4811]

SATS kitchen makes food for other airlines too. So it depends on how much the airline will pay. I find SQ has decreased their portions for economy class nowadays. I sometimes must ask like Oliver Twist for some more..You only get bread roll, main course and dessert which is either on tray or given as ice cream. Compare it to my JAL flight from Singapore which I take regularly..it has a Starter, a salad, bread roll, main course, dessert and ice cream.

[u/sickcents]

Both speak English

Ang Moh no need to have subtitles

Local need subtitles

Reminds me of https://youtu.be/3AgmUTTZ27k

[u/MolassesBulky]

Singapore Airlines does not do flight catering or operate a flight kitchen.

[u/playingdota2forfun]

The quality of SQ inflight food actually quite good if compare with other major airlines brand

[u/hosehliao]

Unpopular opinion, but SQ hasn't been worth the prices for at least 5 years now.

But I still own their stock, so I welcome everyone to pay the markup 😂

[u/Bcpjw]

Looks like Walt’s cooking up an empire! Lol

[u/Plenty_Marzipan_4477]

I only fly sq. Must be loyal to country

[u/katarinamightytravel]

Singapore Airlines is one of the few airlines that still offers in-flight meals, and it's incredible to think that they're able to produce 50,000 meals per day. I've personally been a fan of Singapore's in-flight meals for years, and it's amazing to see how incredibly efficient their kitchen staff is in order to keep up with the demand.