Operator | Airport | FBO | MRO | OEM | Charter | Interiors | Avionics | Training | InflightReturn to front page

navigation FBO Operator Interior Recruitment Training OEM MRO Support Rotor
Search Facebook Twitter
Paula Kraft

Tastefully Yours

Ever had a catering disaster at 30,000ft?

Paula Kraft, founder and President of Atlanta, GA-based Tastefully Yours Catering and founding partner of the DaVinci Inflight Training Institute in Fort Lauderdale.has all the answers . . .

 

 

Oh no, how do I fix this?


I regularly get asked questions about how to fix a catering mistake, a food source’s error, how to create something that was omitted from the catering order, or even how to repair something over cooked or undercooked.

I really love the challenge of finding the solutions. Since this comes up frequently in conversation, in emails - and even late night trans Atlantic calls from flight attendants asking what something delivered by their local food source might be used for - I felt it might be fun to let you in on some of my solutions to cooking and seasoning challenges.

The most common question is, ‘what happens if the food is overcooked or undercooked?’steak

Undercooked seems simple enough right? Well, if you’ve reheated a steak (or any meat for that matter), pulled it from the oven (or the microwave), and sliced it to find that it’s raw, what do you do? If cut meat is put back into the oven, it’ll dry out; the beautiful juicy surfaces of the slices will turn grayish-brown and the edges will curl. For the microwave this will be slightly different, but the muscle of the meat will tighten and curl and there will be no browning. The resulting meat protein left after heating and then reheating will be dreadful to consume. And what if your passenger wants a medium or medium rare cut of meat on the plate in front of them. Not only will the meat be not what they requested, but it will look unappealing.

Quick fixes

The simple quick fix is to place the sliced meat back in the oven covered with lettuce leaves, preferably on a wire rack, but a pan will do. Yes, you heard right - lettuce. The lettuce will cause the meat to reheat with steam, rather than dry heat causing those crusty overcooked slices. The lettuce will add steam – moisture - to the center of the slice and slow down the browning of the center.

The top of the slice will remain pink, but the underside which was placed on the plate to reheat will not. So my suggestion is to make sure that the meat is laid out so the ‘shingle’ presentation has all the meat facing the same direction. This method works best for oven reheating.

If you encounter the opposite and the meat protein is overcooked from reheating, the secret is to cut the meat against the grain so that the muscle length is the shortest possible - or cut into very small pieces to decrease the amount of chew time. The more someone chews the meat, the more what little bit of juice might remain is gone. If possible, add these small bites of meat into a sauce or mixed with vegetables and broth. You can still offer the same menu items, but presented differently. Add moisture, a bit of broth, stock or sauce, layer the meat with the other items so the texture in the person’s mouth changes from dry to moist while being concealed slightly by the other menu ingredients.

For those of you cooking on board (which seems to be an increasing trend) the question you ask the most is, ‘why does my food stick to the pan, even with butter?’

This is cooking science. When food is added to a hot pan, it will stick as it sears, then it will generally release once the constricted muscles relax and then release. If you wait a moment and do not try to force the food from the pan, it will release on its own. If it is stubborn, dip a thin metal spatula into cold water or a bowl of ice and slide under the food to release.

‘My food tastes flat, lifeless’

Many times the food source you use is not aware of the changes in taste at altitude and does not understand the adjustments needed for peak flavor when you reheat or cook in a pressurized cabin.

Everything should be tasted before serving to the passengers. Plan for this when placing your catering orders. If you have added salt and pepper and the food is still flat and lifeless, try adding a touch of acidity. A drop of vinegar, or a squeeze of citrus and the flavor will brighten. Also, if the dish is savory, try to pump up the Umami flavor - the one taste that is not affected as much in the air. Umami is found in foods which contain high levels of glutamates, which help us enjoy a richer, deeper, savory flavor. Some foods which contain high levels of glutamates are soy (be aware of soy allergies), anchovies (watch out for fish allergies), mushrooms and tomatoes to name a few.

There are several other solutions to perk up the flavor of food served on board that you, as the flight crew member serving the food, can do. A simple one is to add pepper. Spices with heat are sensed almost instantly by our taste buds over those without heat. The heat will wake up those taste buds and food will have more ‘pop’.

spice jars

If you are able to season the food from a raw state on board, or can request your catering source to do specific seasoning, use Kosher salt. The reason is the large grains of salt distribute more evenly over the protein than table salt. Use no more than 1/8th teaspoon per serving of protein.

Use fresh herbs to help the food flavors ‘pop’ in the air. I prefer fresh over dried, but dried will do as long as they are rubbed in the palm of your hand or heated in a bit of oil or butter before use to awaken the residual oils in the herbs that are sleeping in the dried state. But my first choice is always fresh.

Now, if using herbs on board, you should consider the time to add them into the cooking or reheating process. Hardy herbs, like thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage, marjoram should be added early into the cooking so they have the time to release maximum flavor while not being overly obtrusive in the dish, but, on the other hand, the delicate herbs such as parsley, cilantro (coriander), tarragon, chives, and basil should be added at the very end, mixing into the sauce, or pan juices or to dust over the food before serving. Their bright color and flavor will be lost if added early on in the process.

Cold foods

We have covered hot foods, but why do so many cold plates- which are the most utilized dishes on board- just not ‘pop’ with flavor. This is a common problem, even for foods served on the ground. Your palate needs to wake up with aromas, texture sensations, sounds, colors, temperature variations on the plate and smells. To get the flavor to open up, especially when flying, you need to be aggressive in the seasoning. Cold foods often have duller flavors – it’s a natural given since the sense of smell doesn’t start the flavor sensation - so be aware and compensate for this.

Season as you would while warm or during preparation, chill and reason to adjust. Do not try and compensate for the extra punch the first time around. Take advantage of sampling the food chilled and adjust with vinegar, citrus, herbs, pepper and possibly even a bit more salt.

With this in mind what happens if you over season and need to undo it?

If something is too salty, add an acid or sweetener from citrus, to vinegars, unsalted tomato, sugar, honey, maple syrup. If too sweet, add an acid or other seasonings. Again your ‘go to’ fixes are vinegar and citrus, but also herbs, a dash of cayenne or if a sweet rather than savory dish, try a bit of espresso or liqueur. One thing in your favor is that sweetness is less sweet in the air than on the ground. If you have overcorrected and now your food is too spicy or too acidic, add a fat or a sweetener. A fat can be butter, sour cream, double cream, cheese or olive oil. A good sweetener would be sugar, honey or maple syrup.

Some other ways to make the food taste better

Save all juices left in the pan when after reheating to drizzle over the food. These juices will have an intense richness.

To tame the smell and flavor of onions, soak the cut bits in a mixture of water and baking soda (bicarbonate) 1 TBSP per cup water. Rinse well before eating. Precutting onions and garlic and holding over for later use will also do the same. So, if having your catering source send prepared garlic and onions, remember their pungency will be considerably less than fresh cut.

To end these helpful hints on a sweet note; if you happen to be baking chocolate cookies, brownies, cakes on board, under bake them. The richness and intensity of the chocolate flavor compounds in chocolate are very volatile. The longer they cook, the more of this flavor is lost.

I have rarely found any prepared food that couldn’t be salvaged or fixed if you think outside the box.

 

Tastefully Yours

 

About Paula Kraft . . .

Paula Kraft is the founding partner of the DaVinci Inflight Training Institute located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and the founder/president of Tastefully Yours Catering, an aviation specific caterer, located in Atlanta, Georgia for over 35 years.

Paula is active with many aviation and catering-related groups including the International Caterers Association, the International Inflight Food Service Association and is a board member of Women in Corporate Aviation. She is the past chair of the NBAA Flight Attendant Committee Caterer’s Working Group for 15 years perfecting unique catering training sessions for NBAA conferences and events. Currently, she serves on the NBAA Flight Attendant Advisory Committee and is a member of the Training and Safety Subcommittee. Paula was a founding member of the Steering committee for the creation of a European Flight Attendant Committee and conference and serves as a subject matter expert to the board of International Standard for Business Aircraft Handlers (IS-BAH).click to visit DaVinci Inflight Training Institute

After founding Tastefully Yours Catering, she has been offering culinary and food safety related training to the general aviation community. With a strong dedication to improving catering safety, risk mitigation and safe food handling, she developed and introduced the concept of “catering safety management systems”. As a certified food safety instructor, Paula offers catering SMS and culinary classes for all aviation professionals.

Paula’s first-hand experience, business acumen, research, and relationships make her an industry expert - one which allows her to share information that will help raise the professional training level for flight attendants today that will reduce the risk of food-related concerns tomorrow.

From Paula . . .

I have coordinated training programs and clinics for NBAA and EBAA 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tastefully Yours

 

BlueSky Business Aviation News | 21st February 2019 | Issue #499

 

 

 

Share this article

 

Back to our front page Order your FREE weekly copy of BlueSky now!

© BlueSky Business Aviation News Ltd 2008-2019