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

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1. 0:01every omelet served on board Singapore
2. 0:03Airlines economy class is cooked on this
3. 0:05rotating table we're producing here 6
4. 0:097,000 omelets per day minimum in
5. 0:12catering facilities like this one chefs
6. 0:14prepare all the main dishes for nearly
7. 0:1620 million passengers a year 24/7 365
8. 0:20days a year it's non-stop all the time
9. 0:22that's Anthony he's in charge of the
10. 0:24entire catering operation and his food
11. 0:27shopping budget is $500 million a year
12. 0:30year so it's quite substantial amount of
13. 0:32product his kitchen cranks out 168,000
14. 0:35lobster tails every month and over 1
15. 0:37million pound of rice a year but even
16. 0:39the most expensive meals don't always
17. 0:41taste the same in the sky historically
18. 0:43flavors could change depending on the
19. 0:45conditions inside a plane a phenomenon
20. 0:47aircraft manufacturers and Airlines have
21. 0:49spent decades trying to fix just do one
22. 0:52last taste so catering facilities like
23. 0:55this one are left with a logistical
24. 0:56Nightmare how to make 50,000 yummy meals
25. 0:59a day
26. 1:00in a massive time crunch with military
27. 1:03clock white because just like us these
28. 1:05meals can't miss their flight the plan
29. 1:08is ready you need to be
30. 1:10ready so how does Singapore Airlines
31. 1:12serve up so much food in time for
32. 1:18takeoff this is Singapore airline's
33. 1:20biggest catering facility located within
34. 1:23cheni
35. 1:24airport it's run by the airlines
36. 1:26catering partner SATs and while SATs
37. 1:29does make food for for 45 other carriers
38. 1:31Singapore Airlines is by far its biggest
39. 1:33customer SAA to be frank is a very
40. 1:38demanding
41. 1:40customer Anthony works with SATs to
42. 1:42develop hundreds of new menus every year
43. 1:44and creating one dish can take 9 to 12
44. 1:47months there's different menus flying in
45. 1:50different directions and different
46. 1:51Cuisine types Japanese Chinese
47. 1:54Singaporean and obviously Western meals
48. 1:56the airline runs menus from 77 different
49. 1:59departure
50. 2:00so if you're leaving Singapore you'll be
51. 2:02offered chicken and rice or a hawker
52. 2:04soup if you're leaving New York City
53. 2:06you'll get a smok trout salad and of
54. 2:08course the food changes based on where
55. 2:10you're sitting on the
56. 2:11plane in first class Suites passengers
57. 2:14have the most options from caviar and
58. 2:16lobster thermador to beef tenderloin in
59. 2:19premium economy Flyers have just a
60. 2:20couple choices like this Nasi kabu
61. 2:23because the airline Cooks it in bigger
62. 2:25batches no matter the cabin chefs try to
63. 2:27include a protein vegetable starch and a
64. 2:30sauce in each
65. 2:33dish before anyone can get to cooking
66. 2:36they need to suit
67. 2:37up they wash their hands thoroughly and
68. 2:39step into this air shower to remove hair
69. 2:43dust and anything which may provide a
70. 2:46opportunity inside the facility for
71. 2:49[Music]
72. 2:56contamination sat's team of over a
73. 2:58thousand workers handles a lot of food
74. 3:01easily one day we can have about 800 to
75. 3:041,000 menus running they usually start
76. 3:06cooking meals 24 to 36 hours before a
77. 3:09scheduled flight and it's all broken
78. 3:11down into stations it's like a
79. 3:13restaurant you have a salad section you
80. 3:15have a dessert section you have a hot
81. 3:16kitchen bu this is just on a much larger
82. 3:18scale in the premium kitchen they're
83. 3:20grilling meat like this B for the first
84. 3:23and business class essentially what
85. 3:25we're doing is we're cooking the meal
86. 3:27about 30 40% if they cook the all the
87. 3:30way through now it would be really
88. 3:31overcooked by the time it got onto the
89. 3:33plane so chefs depend on flight
90. 3:35attendants who finish cooking it in the
91. 3:37air they just apply residual heat of
92. 3:39about 150 160° in our aircraft ovens
93. 3:42over in the hot kitchen Cooks handle
94. 3:44well all the hot food for first economy
95. 3:47and business class vegetables pasta
96. 3:49noodles rice noodles hot meals soups and
97. 3:52sauces this is some heavyduty batch
98. 3:55cooking chefs boil noodles and giant
99. 3:57bats tomato sauce gets its own tank and
100. 4:01is pumped out into these cooling trays
101. 4:02from the bottom and as with the meat
102. 4:05chefs aren't cooking everything all the
103. 4:08way so a lot of these are um what we
104. 4:11call 50 60% uh finished even vegetables
105. 4:16it's a little bit like a pasta we want
106. 4:17it to be Al Dente so you can see there
107. 4:20it has a little bit of firmness a little
108. 4:22bit of light so if we crack if we break
109. 4:24that we still get some
110. 4:26snap so as it cools the meals will
111. 4:29continue or the food will continue to to
112. 4:31cook until it reaches the uh the core
113. 4:32temperature that we need to achieve for
114. 4:34food safety every tray along the way
115. 4:37gets a tracking label that way if
116. 4:39there's any issue with food sickness on
117. 4:40a flight the airline can trace it back
118. 4:42to the exact batch we also want to
119. 4:44maintain the integrity and the color of
120. 4:46the leaf gream so we cook it in the
121. 4:49hottest possible water 100° we cook it
122. 4:52for the shortest amount of time as
123. 4:55possible once the food comes off the
124. 4:57heat it immediately heads down this
125. 4:59conveyor Bel to the blast chiller that
126. 5:01stops the cooking process in its
127. 5:04tracks some things though are totally
128. 5:07cooked through like these omelets on
129. 5:09this rotating table the eggs come pre-
130. 5:12cracked in a liquid mixture a pump
131. 5:14squirts the perfect amount into each pan
132. 5:16Chef stationed around the table cook
133. 5:18flip fold and stack every omelet we're
134. 5:22producing here 6 7,000 omelets per day
135. 5:26minimum so omelets is uh mostly for the
136. 5:28economy kitchen
137. 5:30once all the elements are cooked most of
138. 5:32the way through they head to this
139. 5:34room so this is what we call casserole
140. 5:37assembly for economy meals and also
141. 5:40business class and some first class
142. 5:42meals this is where they pack all the
143. 5:45food into the foil containers you might
144. 5:46have seen inlight normally from the time
145. 5:49they take the meal components from the
146. 5:50fridge within 35 45 minutes they have to
147. 5:54have put the meal into the tray Anthony
148. 5:57gives chefs photos to show them how each
149. 5:59dish is supposed to look flight
150. 6:01attendants get a similar picture to
151. 6:02follow for plating because we have
152. 6:04around 6 and a half 7,000 Kevin crew and
153. 6:06there's only one of me I can't be every
154. 6:08day at the training College during the
155. 6:09Kevin crew so we do this for
156. 6:12consistency one by one workers pile on
157. 6:15starches sauces meats and vegetables
158. 6:18here's that pasta we saw cooking
159. 6:20earlier they each get a foil topper and
160. 6:23then are carded into a holding fridge
161. 6:25that's where basically the packing team
162. 6:28goes a little bit like a super where you
163. 6:30pick and mix chefs assemble the desserts
164. 6:32in a different room today they're making
165. 6:35floating islands a dessert with a mering
166. 6:37suspended in crem on
167. 6:40glaze all these dishes look great on the
168. 6:42ground but there's one big problem food
169. 6:45can taste different in the
170. 6:47air on some planes your taste buds are
171. 6:50about 30% less sensitive to sweet and
172. 6:52salty foods that's because of the
173. 6:54pressure dryness and engine sound in the
174. 6:57older Tri 7s and a320s the cab is
175. 6:59pressurized up to 8,000 ft so it feels
176. 7:02like you're eating lunch on Machu Picchu
177. 7:04and humidity on board can sit as low as
178. 7:0612% less than some deserts when you have
179. 7:10a dry mouth and a worsen sense of smell
180. 7:12foods can be twice as Bland so
181. 7:14historically that meant Airlines loaded
182. 7:16on salt for you to even taste the food
183. 7:19sometimes leaving passengers feeling
184. 7:21bloated but in new planes manufacturers
185. 7:24are making conditions on board easier on
186. 7:25your body in the a350s a380s and 7 7
187. 7:30Singapore Airlines flies cabins are
188. 7:32pressurized up to 6,000 ft so instead of
189. 7:35Machu Picchu it feels like you're eating
190. 7:36dinner in Denver and because new planes
191. 7:39are made of more carbon fiber it's
192. 7:41possible to increase humidity to about
193. 7:4324% when you have more moisture in the
194. 7:45cabin space your sinuses and your body
195. 7:47is not dehydrating as quickly your taste
196. 7:49and your pallet is not as you know
197. 7:52influenced so Flyers can taste a lot
198. 7:54more these days making it easier on
199. 7:56Chefs like Anthony there's no additional
200. 7:58salt pepper no additional salts Anthony
201. 8:01can use this room to simulate a
202. 8:02pressurized cabin and test how food will
203. 8:05taste in the sky and to address that
204. 8:07bloating issue he uses ingredients like
205. 8:10tmic reduces swelling in your body
206. 8:12inflammation right so you're feeling a
207. 8:14lot more comfortable Ginger is also for
208. 8:17for sleep and rest and relaxation which
209. 8:19leaves just one more hurdle reheating
210. 8:22the food flood attendants only have
211. 8:24small ovens to work with on board so how
212. 8:26do chefs make sure their Foods still
213. 8:28taste good well cooking halfway and
214. 8:31moving quickly helps and they avoid
215. 8:33dishes that don't travel
216. 8:35well we try not to do things that are
217. 8:37deep fried for example chicken wings it
218. 8:40doesn't stay crispy and and none of us
219. 8:43really like to bite into a soft french
220. 8:45fries they also stay away from thin fish
221. 8:48like sea bass a fish which is a bit
222. 8:51thicker a card um a salmon they stand up
223. 8:54much better to you know inlight
224. 8:58experience after all the meals are
225. 9:00assembled the food finally meets up with
226. 9:02the carts you see on board so we have
227. 9:05here the tray assembly area elevators
228. 9:08bring clean trays cutleries and dishes
229. 9:11upstairs a silverware elevator yeah it's
230. 9:14like a you know it's a deluxe ride you
231. 9:16know for your Cutler chefs work on an
232. 9:19assembly line picking and placing all
233. 9:22the napkins all the porcelain the linen
234. 9:25wear the knives Forks everything right
235. 9:27through to the salt pepper shakers and
236. 9:28the butter portions this is a dinner
237. 9:31service for business class and then
238. 9:33they'll put the appetizer so the
239. 9:34appetizer is always preset on a supper
240. 9:36service they'll put a lid on it they'll
241. 9:38put the dressing on the side and then it
242. 9:40will get packed into the
243. 9:42carts it's the same process for economy
244. 9:44class just the table we like the food
245. 9:46isn't quite as fancy that card is packed
246. 9:49with all the meals inside it has a label
247. 9:51tag says what flight number it is what
248. 9:53destination what meal service it should
249. 9:55be this helps cabin crew know what's
250. 9:57inside the carts without having to open
251. 9:59them if you open it
252. 10:02up that document there will correspond
253. 10:05with what meal goes inside so here we
254. 10:07have porcelain here we have the glasswar
255. 10:10and then that will correspond then with
256. 10:12the meal types that come in from from
257. 10:13the from the meal packing side those
258. 10:16carts take a ride on another elevator
259. 10:18and will be loaded onto flights usually
260. 10:20within an hour before
261. 10:25takeoff every team along the process has
262. 10:28to move extremely fast because all the
263. 10:31food has to be cooked assembled and
264. 10:33eaten in Flight within 72 hours so we
265. 10:37never want to exceed 72 hours in terms
266. 10:38of food
267. 10:40processing if the team goes over that
268. 10:42time limit by just an hour they exceed
269. 10:44food safety requirements and can't serve
270. 10:46those meals
271. 10:47anymore this meal will be on a plane
272. 10:50tonight tonight okay so this production
273. 10:54probably occurred
274. 10:56yesterday it all moves so fast because
275. 10:58at the end of the day they've got a
276. 11:00flight to catch you can't miss the plane
277. 11:03[Music]