How They REALLY Prepare Your Airline Food: Why It's Best to Eat Spicy Meals at 30,000 Feet, What Cabin Crew Do with Leftovers and Why Pilots NEVER Eat the Same Meal Revealed

By Harriet Sime
Published: 08:39 GMT, 9 December 2023 | Updated: 11:15 p.m. GMT, December 9, 2023

Beige, bland, unidentifiable: Airplane food doesn't usually enjoy the highest reputation culinary.
But I am one of those people who impatiently wait for the moment, on a long-haul flight, when I remove the silver foil to find out what awaits me for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
What has always interested me is how airplane food is prepared. And how to produce thousands of meals ready to be heated and served at 38,000 feet.
To find out, I spend the day with British Airways at its sprawling 55,000 square foot catering facility two miles from Gatwick Airport. It is run by Newrest Catering, whose 350 employees produce 4,500 meals a day.
The scale of the 24-hour operation is staggering — and cleanliness is key. I start by putting on white chef clothes, black steel-capped boots, a striped apron, a hairnet, a face mask – and head to the industrial-sized metal hand-washing sinks.
I'm helping the team develop British's Christmas menu Airways...

Travel Dec 10, 2023 0 26 Add to Reading List

How They REALLY Prepare Your Airline Food: Why It's Best to Eat Spicy Meals at 30,000 Feet, What Cabin Crew Do with Leftovers and Why Pilots NEVER Eat the Same Meal Revealed

By Harriet Sime

Published: 08:39 GMT, 9 December 2023 | Updated: 11:15 p.m. GMT, December 9, 2023

Beige, bland, unidentifiable: Airplane food doesn't usually enjoy the highest reputation culinary.

But I am one of those people who impatiently wait for the moment, on a long-haul flight, when I remove the silver foil to find out what awaits me for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

What has always interested me is how airplane food is prepared. And how to produce thousands of meals ready to be heated and served at 38,000 feet.

To find out, I spend the day with British Airways at its sprawling 55,000 square foot catering facility two miles from Gatwick Airport. It is run by Newrest Catering, whose 350 employees produce 4,500 meals a day.

The scale of the 24-hour operation is staggering — and cleanliness is key. I start by putting on white chef clothes, black steel-capped boots, a striped apron, a hairnet, a face mask – and head to the industrial-sized metal hand-washing sinks. To find out how airline food is prepared, Harriet Sime (pictured with the Christmas food she helped prepare) spent the day with British Airways in its vast 55,000 square foot catering establishment two miles from Gatwick Airport I'm helping the team develop the British Airways Christmas menu ( photo), which includes a traditional roast turkey with all the trimmings

I'm helping the team develop British's Christmas menu Airways...