Last night I was looking for something to watch on Netflix and came across Mega Food, a documentary series that looks at how food is prepared in large kitchens. There are examples of all kinds of settings including hotels, cruise ships, and in-flight catering.
I was especially interested in this last example. The production team went behind the scenes at Gate Gourmet’s kitchens in Zurich as they prepared for a flight to Singapore on one of Singapore Airlines’ A380s. I have seen previous reports on how airline food is prepared, usually for shorter flights. This was much more impressive.
Not only is it a huge flight but also Singapore Airlines is known for having some of the best in-flight cuisine. Their “Book the Cook” option lets you pre-order your meal in advance, but there is still plenty of selection if you leave it to chance and order onboard.
Gate Gourmet has its own kitchen just for this Singapore Airlines flight, and it’s divided into three zones for Western, Asian, and special meals. It explains everything from shopping and food prep to cleaning flatware after the used dishes are offloaded. Everything is made from scratch with the exception of the chocolate pralines.
The episode is from 2018, but I hadn’t seen it discussed before. Be sure to check it out if you have a Netflix subscription.
