BlueSky Business Aviation News
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Paula Kraft, founder and President of Atlanta, GA-based Tastefully Yours Catering, visits the first European Air Ops Conference in Cannes.

That Riviera Touch

OW! That sums up my recent trip to attend the first European Air Ops Conference in Cannes, France last week. It was a whirlwind, with my journey beginning in Paris.

As many of you know from seeing some of my presentations at conferences - especially when I speak about food, food handling and safety management systems - I like to use food as examples of the information I am presenting, so my stop in Paris was to work with Uppersky Gourmet at Le Bourget to prepare such examples.

My presentation at this conference was entitled: 'Catering Safety Management Systems and its Importance to the Integrity of the Cold Food Chain'. Sounds kind of boring and technical, right? Never! It is exciting stuff and loads of fun for me! It may sound a bit like a “let’s slide out of the back of the room before anyone notices” kind of program, but when I add a touch of drama and food props, I think I can keep the audience's attention.

As usual, Uppersky and their staff were amazing. As I roll in their door loaded with suitcases big enough for a small child to live in (not to mention traveling cooler bags!) Alain greets me with a smile and what I would call 'Southern Hospitality, Paris-style'. It took several of the team to move me and my luggage inside (no one said I had to travel light) and as VP Pierre Rambroul and I sat in Uppersky’s conference room to plan the foods we would prepare, Bérengère offered to prepare lunch.

I like to joke a bit, so I told her I would love to have foie gras, caviar and champagne. When I noted a bit of agreement with my request in her facial expressions, I recanted my desire for these foods in a panic. In the Atlanta market we rarely get a request for caviar (unless it is ‘redneck caviar’ with black eyed peas as the round black jewels- not fish eggs) and I have never had a request for foie gras in my 45 years in business. Bérengère appeared minutes later with my lunch meal complete with foie gras presented with toasted ginger bread and wonderful fig jam. I must admit I was in a fantasy world, it was like heaven on earth. As I found out later, Pierre’s grandparents raised geese for foie gras when he was a child, and grew up having it frequently. I immediately named Pierre my foie gras expert. I felt my lack of experience and expertise would otherwise have prohibited me from creating the perfect foie gras memory - to always remember the perfect flavor and texture could forever be based on this delicious slice I enjoyed for lunch.

I love food halls, specialty markets and gourmet vendors- imagine that? I love to take pictures of what I see so I can share it with my kitchen staff for them to better understand what a client may be asking for if they come from someplace other than the US.

In order to see what was available for our clients heading to Europe, Pierre took me shopping. I had a blast! I can’t wait for the next client to order a tea service or even coffee service as I found in Paris, beautiful molded sugars in every shape imaginable that can hang on the rim of the cup! Pierre had to talk me out of bringing home the foie gras and caviar due to refrigeration, but I did load up on chocolates . . . maybe to go along with that coffee or tea?

To continue our journey, we load the food (Pierre’s kitchen prepared while I was shopping) and all of the baggage on a train and depart for Cannes. EBAA outdid themselves and have set a new bar for all conferences to strive for. I fell in love with the booths, of course fewer than you will see at BACE or EBACE (however, double what EBAA had expected to attend!), their style was clean and contemporary. Each booth had a custom backdrop included in the price of the booth prepared especially for that company, with a lighted sign extending into the aisle as an easy location finder. Each booth was also equipped with power, a table and four chairs and a locking cabinet as well. The booth price also included allotted times for use of a private conference meeting room with an administrator to coordinate times the rooms were available. Great idea for those of us who wish to have an all-inclusive price.

This show also marked the announcement of one of the most inventive forward thinking programs designed for cabin crew and EBAA member operators.

EBAA created WE CARE to connect cabin crew to operators by requiring a minimum training standard for the cabin crew to achieve in order to be a listed as a certified cabin crew member. These cabin attendants can connect directly through this site with operators in search of a cabin attendant. The landing page for this program is up and running for those who wish to get started and apply to be part of the program. Operators can post the dates they will need a cabin attendant, and the cabin attendants can post the days they are available on their profile page (being able to continually adjust their available schedule) and the same is offered to the operator.

I will have much more on this as it unfolds! Amazing - as it the first done by an aviation association for its members and most important is that EBAA has set a list of training necessary to be “certified”. My congratulations to Christine Mairesse with EBAA who has worked for months to create this project from an idea to reality and EBAA for taking this step to improve our industry.

EBAA also launched another new program at their first Air Ops conference that deals with collecting data about safety occurrences. It is a voluntary program for operators to report issues from runway excursions to minor accidents - basically any safety related issue to build a data base of incidences so that they can be studied to improve the overall safety within general aviation and provide new data that can be helpful in developing Safety Management Systems and recommended best practices . . . all confidential.

As things wound down at the conference I had the opportunity to visit two local caterers; Private Catering and a relatively new caterer to the market; Culinary Jet. I was introduced to Private Catering by one of my clients about 15 years ago, when they brought home a plastic bottle with a screw cap and wanted me to find that particular bottle - clear, lightweight and a locking seal - to use in Atlanta.

The label on the bottle was Private Catering. How easy for me as I called them and they gladly shared the source for the bottle. Believe it or not, I still have that bottle in my office cabinet as a reminder of how important it is to share information. Not having met Private Catering in person, I later attended a conference about 5 years ago called Airport Expo where I was asked to speak about aviation catering. As I walked around the conference hall, I noticed the most magnificent tray of canapés. They were a work

of art. I stared in awe for some time when I was offered to have one. I hesitated as it was too perfect to eat. With about 10 seconds to reconsider, I decided I would have to have one.

I selected a multilayered/multicolored bite. I picked one to sample (more like devour as I am always willing to do this for my readers) and my mouth exploded with fireworks. Sorry, no other way to say that. Not only were they the most beautiful things I had ever seen, they tasted as good as they looked. I loved them so much, I actually took a picture and still have it on my phone. As it turns out, I found out that the catering was provided by Private Catering. Again, Private Catering popped up with something incredible.

In the years that followed, I met Private Catering's Sylvain Fontan at numerous NBAA/EBAA events, always whipping out my handy cell phone to show him I still carried around the picture I had taken years earlier in Cannes at Airport Expo. Since I was passing through Nice airport, Sylvain invited me to visit their kitchen to see their facility and to discuss and witness how they handle food through the cold food chain. Can you imagine what they served to me as a treat when I arrived? You guessed it . . . the famous canapés I have been dreaming about tasting again. Marie Cardon was an excellent hostess and tour guide as we
compared notes on procedures to meet food handling regulations and the differences in various countries. Sylvain and Marie; watch out as I will be back - but this time for the recipes!
I met the team from Culinary Jet during the EBAA Cabin Crew Conference in Brussels this past September. Culinary Jet is in their third year after expanding into a new facility nestled near the Cannes airport. They have an amazing staff of welcoming friends.

I am always amazed by the kitchens I see and the amount of work, time and financial obligations required to build a business to meet the regulations, the training and knowledge one must have to be an aviation caterer. This job just doesn’t happen, it evolves and grows with each year that passes. Once we toured the kitchen and compared notes as to how and why certain things were built the way they had verses the way I built and designed Tastefully Yours, we shared so many similarities - even across continents.

Our day at Culinary Jet ended with the most relaxing lunch overlooking yachts and boats lining the shore in Cannes. I could have stayed all day with the ocean breeze lightly blowing across the table and the warm sun warming my bones. Wonderful, Atoessa and Max.

Traveling as I do, I can appreciate what each and every caterer has to sacrifice and commit to you- our client- in order to serve you as if you are all family. The importance of attending conferences and networking, and getting involved in the industry only makes us a stronger vendor, but also one who can better understand your catering needs as you travel the world. If we catering sources connect, we have the ability to get in touch with your home-based caterers to provide your requests exactly as you prefer simply by connecting with each other.

We, your catering sources around the world, all serve you, the clients. My clients in Atlanta are Sylvain’s in Nice, Max’s in Cannes, and Pierre’s in Paris. I wish to thank everyone who hosted me and shared their kitchens with me.

 


Let me introduce myself . . . 

My name is Paula Kraft and I am founder and President of Tastefully Yours Catering, an aviation specific caterer, located in Atlanta, Georgia for over 35 years.

Aviation Catering is a science not taught in Culinary School; it’s a function of experience, experimentation, basic trial and error, with constant feedback from flight crews and clients. It is a two-way communication. It is vital that this information and knowledge be shared throughout the industry. To this end, I have worked as the Chairman of the NBAA Caterer’s Working Group, a subcommittee of the NBAA Flight Attendant Committee, the NBAA Caterer Representative to the NBAA Flight Attendant Committee, for 9 years. 

Currently I am an active member of the NBAA Flight Attendant Committee Advisory Board and the NBAA International Flight Attendant Committee, Women in Corporate Aviation, Women in Aviation International, National Association of Catering Executives, International Flight Catering Association, the International Food Service Association and the International Caterer’s Association.

I have coordinated training programs and clinics for NBAA, EBAA and BA-Meetup conference attendees for over 10 years, created mentoring programs for caterers and flight attendants to broaden their aviation culinary skills, and to assist them in adapting to the unique challenges and constraints found in catering for general aviation. I recognize the need for training and have worked closely with flight departments, flight crews, schedulers and customer service reps at the FBOs to ensure that catering specific training provides information and skills necessary to reduce risk while assisting them in their job duties that include safe food handling, catering security, accurate transmission of food orders, and safe food production, packaging and delivery.

I fell into aviation catering quite by accident. I was the in-house caterer and bakery supplier for Macy’s department stores in Atlanta when catering was ordered for a Macy’s customer which was soon to change my life. After the client enjoyed the catering provided, I was summoned to the client’s corporate office to provide several of the items delivered through Macy’s to the executive dining room. Within a week, I was providing food for the flight department and my first order was for the President of a foreign country (as I was too be told soon after). So, here I am, some 35 years later, still loving every minute of every day in aviation catering.


Got a question?

Paula welcomes your comments, questions or feedback
email: paula.kraft@blueskynews.aero

 

©BlueSky Business Aviation News | 21st October 2016 | Issue #388
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