Oh, the catering!

The term 'Culinary' has been used steadily in the corporate flight attendant community for the past years and has been enforced and emphasized as a necessary quality.

It is true. Catering is very important, but what must one do to be good at it?

Before there was flight attendant-specific service training, I used to get contacted by the newcomers questioning,

‘I am trying to break in. The only thing I am lacking is the catering. Any recommendation?’

I used to say, ‘Work part-time at the restaurant and build up your experience in the food business. That hands-on field experience will be a plus.’

I don’t know if anyone actually worked a second job at a restaurant to gain experience, but at the time that was the cost-effective way to gain experience. Why not get paid while gaining experience?

Now we have so many options offered by various training institutions and private individuals. It is up to you to choose which course to take. There are many classes and courses you can take to enhance your skill set, which is focused on the job function. With that, one of the terms that has evolved to be ordinary is ‘Chef.’

The title ‘Chef’ can be used in many different ways. In all reality, anyone can be a chef. Whether you attended a one-day culinary class, one-week cookery school, or had no culinary training, worked in a commercial kitchen without any culinary degree for 20 years… If you call yourself a chef, you can be a chef. And people will believe you.

Good example.

My mom is my father's private chef. She’s been doing it for over 50 years. She not only cooks for my family but for others, too, when we have guests visiting my family. She is experienced in cooking for her loved ones and has many different recipes. I learned a lot from her. Her professional kitchen is the kitchen in her house, and she takes pride in her knowledge in cooking. She can call herself a chef in her own right.

Her friends and other family members agree that she is a chef for my family, and her endearing description of herself gives us a warm heart and a nice big smile. But should she call herself a chef based on her belief and the praise from her family members and friends while sitting amongst other established chefs with notable accomplishments, sharing in-depth discussions regarding certain techniques, different flavor profiles, and kitchen life based on her knowledge? Yes, If she believes she's entitled to be one of them. Would I encourage her to do so? NO. It will be a scene similar to a new corporate flight attendant who just completed safety training and is certified to fly but has no flight experience, portraying themselves as experts. Granted, we all have to start at some point, and there are times you want to be validated and acknowledged by the people around you, but it is not wise to blow yourself out of proportion for the sake of people noticing you as the figure you think you want to be. People around the newly certified corporate flight attendant who don't know anything about corporate aviation will believe he/she is a flight attendant based on their understanding and respect. But, sitting in a room surrounded by the industry's top-notch corporate flight attendants and trying to share the conversation based on experience. It will be rather uncomfortable to sit there trying to appeal as their equivalent without the equal or similar amount of time you spent on the aircraft. People who don't have in-depth knowledge of the industry may believe the new F/A, but in the real professional world, especially in the 'hands-on' experience-driven professional world, you can't play a player.

How bonafide chefs acknowledge and accept other chefs as one of them is irrelevant to corporate flying. Cooking and becoming a chef is a hands-on experience that requires years of commitment & dedication.

I have been doing aviation catering for seven years, and after encountering numerous chefs who were kind enough to show me their side of the world, some parts of me still don’t feel good enough to call myself a Chef. That is not to say I lack confidence or can’t execute the order, but because experiencing what it is like to run a commercial kitchen and knowing in what area I can improve keeps me humble. Cooking is lonely work that requires focus, patience, and numerous trials and errors to perfect one dish.

Much like I became a flight attendant by accident, I became a chef without wanting to become one. Never in my wildest dreams had I ever thought I would be in the business where I provide food. My culinary journey is the opposite of any chef’s journey. I never went to any culinary school or tried to be better at cooking. It all started with traveling the world and eating local food. While travel different countries, I developed my pallet to know the authentic flavors from different countries. Which sets the standard of judgment in terms of flavor.

So, my culinary journey started with eating a lot of different food, developing my pallet, and then dove into cooking to try to duplicate the flavor I remembered. From that, other inspirations kick in, and I go further to create different dishes. Anyhow, the real reason I developed a particular interest in aviation catering was after I encountered the catering service that opened my eyes.

I am not here to teach anyone a lesson on how to be better at catering. I’m not here to recommend which course to take. It is all up to you to decide what’s best for you. This is not a one-size-fits-all industry, and everybody’s experience is different.

My story happened about 3 years into corporate flying, I thought I knew a thing or two. I was confident and could compare and critique the food quality of different catering companies. I never took any interest in cooking on the plane, as the flight department restricted it for safety reasons.

I had no interest in learning more about aviation catering and thought what I received was the norm. My job was to enhance the appearance of the food when I plate it for my boss until the day I received catering from Marsden Catering in Zurich. The business no longer exists, but I am forever indebted to Nicola, the owner of Marsden Catering, for the inspiration she gave me. I had no idea corporate jet catering could be that beautiful and coordinated.  She was an artist. If I had an attitude toward the catering company's service quality and discounted their service for their clients, insisting I shop everything and feel like I was standing on higher ground, I would have been trapped in my limited knowledge of catering. I wouldn't have experienced the episode that changed my life.

My jaw literally dropped when I received her food, and until the last day of her service, she never compromised the quality of her service. One day, after I placed the order, she called me at 5 AM with excitement. She was already at the fish market and wanted to let me know that she found the fish I ordered. I could have thought it was inappropriate to call anyone at 5 a.m., but considering the delivery time was in the morning, I appreciated her effort to go the extra mile. I aspire to be like Nicola and hope to inspire the flight attendants who receive my food. I am wearing her shoes now and realize how much dedication she has put into her company. That is the unseen and unknown hard work of catering companies that flight attendants don’t realize.

Once I encountered the service that piqued my curiosity, I started visiting the catering companies where I placed the order, which I didn’t take seriously before starting to seem serious. I started learning from the pros who knew the things flight attendants didn’t know, and my interest in catering evolved from ordering food to studying the logistics of aviation catering, from receiving the order to cooking to delivery, local cuisine in different countries, and creating the menu for my flight with catering companies procedure in mind.

Then, I started to experiment with cooking on board. It was a Part 91 account and the company was okay with it as long as I keep it safe. Things that were not part of the aircraft galley had to be approved by the mechanic for safety. But I didn't purchase all the ingredients from the grocery store. I had to maintain the integrity of the aircraft and not let the galley area be overwhelmed with food. My chief pilot's quote was 'Airplane is not a grocery store. Keep it like an airplane.' So I coordinated catering companies' services to eliminate food tzunami in the galley and the cargo area. Pilots loved fresh food, but they did not allow me or other contract flight attendant to neglect their working environment with groceries. Since I could only use the oven, I had to develop a way to cook different things only using the oven and microwave without jeopardizing the safety of the flight. It was not easy, but at that time, I made significant improvements with hands-on experience on board,

Visiting different catering companies in different countries taught me a necessary lesson: experimenting with cooking on board became my greatest knowledge asset. Fast forward, those catering companies became the biggest support and source of reliable information for me when I prepared to open my first company.

The downside of all the above was that, over time, I became my own worst enemy. I couldn't rest during the layover. Constant stress to find the smallest garnish and spending my entire layover (which was supposed to be a rest time) took a toll on me. I had no one to blame but myself. I set the standards companies expect. I would do shopping, cooking, being a flight attendant, cleaning the planes, ordering catering, and then running around town to get other catering during the time I was supposed to rest. Constantly struggled to get over the chronic fatigue got old. I was working more but wasn't paid more. But money was not the primary concern. The redundant cycle of not being able to take adequate rest and fly for multiple companies made me feel like I had reached as far as I could as a contract flight attendant, and I needed a new challenge. After being a flight attendant for so long, I felt as though I was trapped and limiting myself as a flight attendant, and I wanted to pursue over and beyond taking care of the cabin and the passengers. That's when the opportunity to open a company in Korea popped up, and I jumped on it without hesitation.

Most people will be more curious to know about how they can excel in catering to accelerate job security. There is no right answer.

But if I must say one thing about how never to fail to provide good catering, it is to change your client’s pallet to match yours. All other aspects, such as where you source the catering and what you prepare, are a secondary priority unless your client appoints particular vendors to source food from. You cannot fail if they like what you like or vice versa. Food may look beautiful, but if it doesn’t taste good, the beautiful plating will not be good enough to override bad taste. In other words, know the taste of the food you serve.

Your clients may like food you will never eat. I recommend you start tasting it and get accustomed to accepting different flavors with an open mind. As long as you keep yourself in your world of ‘I don’t like it. ' That's gross, I won’t eat that,’ it will be difficult for you to develop a sophisticated pallet to expand your area of knowledge in terms of food selection, which in turn will limit your menu creation. It is very difficult to achieve, and you have to fly the same person long enough to know the ‘flavor’ he/she likes unless you are already cultured with different types of food.

You may think having superb knowledge and techniques in catering is the key to success, but I must tell you what’s more important than fabulous catering could be your experience in different types of aircraft.

I mentored a chef who had the culinary experience only the chosen ones can achieve in the country. Got turned down for different flights because there was no flying experience in the particular aircraft type. It could be an isolated case, but I have encountered the same problem. I was too strong in Gulfstream aircraft, and no operations with Bombardier aircraft wanted to give me a chance until I became the Demo team at Bombardier.

Without you being on board to showcase your catering skillset, all the courses you took will not be utilized. The irony is that nowadays, many companies won’t be interested in candidates who don’t have some sort of service course involving catering or culinary.

The most shocking thing I heard about the job description of a corporate flight attendant is ‘Subservient.’ It saddens me to see the understanding of the job function continue to move away from the professional occupation with important duties.

Successful flight attendants fly.

They should be busy flying because they are good at what they are doing. I just had dinner with my dear friend, who has flown an average of 20 days in the past few months as a contractor. And I guarantee you don’t know who she is. She can’t anticipate any online community forums, etc., even if she wants to, simply because she is too busy to fly for different companies and doesn’t have time to do that.

To shine as a flight attendant, you should fly so you can explore your excellent culinary skills on the aircraft. Without a single flight under your belt. Before you purchase all the catering tools and equipment you think you will need when you start flying. It is probably more productive to find a way to get your foot on the aircraft.

The rest will all come together when you start flying.