카타르항공 케이터링: 신선한 기내식과 뛰어난 요리

### 카타르항공: 갓 조리한 기내식으로 기내식의 품격을 높인 카타르항공
* 🍽 카타르항공 항공편에서 제공되는 모든 요리는 **도하 케이터링 주방에서 매일 20만 가지가 넘는 신선한 기내식**을 이륙 48시간 전에 준비하여 직접 만들어집니다.
* 👨 수석 셰프인 펠리페 헴페는 일관성과 원활한 운영이라는 과제를 강조하며 **8년 연속 세계 최고 항공사**로 인정받는 데 기여하고 있습니다.
* 🌱 카타르 항공기 케이터링 회사는 **38개국에서 온 4,000명의 직원을 고용**하고 있으며, 식품 사막에서 운영됨에도 불구하고 **매일 30미터톤의 신선한 농산물**을 사용하여 **3개월마다 새로운 메뉴를 개발**합니다.
* 🥚 주방에서는 **매주 36,000개의 계란**을 사용해 **매일 12,000개의 오믈렛**을 만들고, 업계에서는 드물게 파스타와 소시지 등 대부분의 음식을 처음부터 직접 만드는 데 주력하고 있습니다.
* 📦 각 식사는 바코드를 통해 추적할 수 있도록 세심하게 관리되며, 음식은 조리 후 90분 동안 식혀서 세균 번식을 방지한 후 **3,500개의 쟁반을 보관할 수 있는 챔버**에 보관됩니다.
* 🍞 카타르항공은 또한 **18가지 사전 주문 기내식 옵션**을 제공하고 모든 음식이 이슬람 식생활 법에 따라 할랄 식품임을 보장하는 등 특별한 식단 요구 사항을 충족합니다.
* 🌍 카타르항공은 현재 카타르의 어려운 농업 환경으로 인해 수입에 더 많이 의존하고 있는 현지 식재료 사용을 늘리고 **일회용 플라스틱을 줄이기 위해 노력**하고 있습니다.
* ✈ 전 세계적으로 기내식에 대한 수요가 증가함에 따라 카타르항공은 **비행 노선과 승객의 선호도에 따라 메뉴를 조정**하여 여행객에게 독특하고 정통적인 식사 경험을 보장합니다.

카타르항공은 매일 20만 개의 신선한 기내식을 만들어 경쟁사와 차별화되는 일관성과 품질을 보장합니다.

Narrator: Every single dish is made from scratch at the Qatar Airways catering kitchen in Doha. It churns out more than 200,000 fresh meals a day, even for regional short-haul flights. It all needs to be prepared about 48 hours before takeoff. Felipe: I think perhaps the biggest challenge is just ensuring that there's consistency and that everything runs smoothly. Narrator: The chefs here believe it's part of the reason the airline has been named No. 1 in the world for the eighth time since 2011. This kind of cooking used to be the standard in most flights in America, too, no matter what cabin you flew on. But today, most US airlines don't run their own kitchens, opting to buy from catering services instead. So why has economy airplane food gone from luxury to a point of ridicule in the US? And why do so few airlines still cook their own meals?

No workers are allowed to step foot in the kitchen without walking through this air shower corridor first. Felipe: To ensure that we have no biological or any physical contaminants going into the kitchen. Narrator: This is Felipe Hempe's playground. Four thousand people from 38 countries work at the Qatar Aircraft Catering Company, or QACC. It's a part of the Qatar Airways Group. The team develops new menus every three months. All the produce is fresh, even though they're operating in a food desert. They go through 30 metric tons of fruits and vegetables daily and use custom machines to help prep them for meals. Like this bin, that can wash 12,000 peppers a day. And this machine that peels six cantaloupes in under a minute. Other produce, like dragon fruit, strawberries, and white asparagus, get a more delicate treatment. They're peeled and carved by hand.

Felipe: It's a big routine making almost 200,000 meals a day. The team is rotated throughout their time working here. Narrator: Inside the hot kitchen, the aroma of cumin, garlic, and onions fills the air. Chefs prepare dishes of several different cuisines, from Indian to Arabic and Asian. We base them mostly on the demographics of that flight. For example, for America, we have a lot of traffic from the Indian subcontinent. Narrator: They use over 300 potatoes every day to make aloo tikki, a popular street food in India. The kitchen goes through 36,000 whole fresh eggs a week. And another 3.5 tons of pasteurized egg whites are turned into 12,000 omelets a day. Even the smallest change can be costly. Felipe: We need to ensure that we're going to be able to meet the quantities without having to make any substitutions.

The moment we have any substitutions, then menu cards will be affected and things like that. Narrator: There's also a big emphasis on making most food from scratch, even for items that are often bought frozen or premade, like sausages and pasta. Felipe: If you're ordering ravioli from economy class, you're getting freshly made pasta, which, not many airlines do that. Narrator: Bread products are also prepared on-site. Bakers churn out 10,000 croissants an hour, as well as handmade focaccias. Pastry chefs design new desserts every quarter, like these chocolate brownies made from scratch. Felipe: We're giving this in economy. And it's a homemade eggless brownie, tastes really good, with a mousse underneath. Narrator: While people here handle food all day long, taste-testing is only reserved for a select few. Felipe: For each of our kitchens,

we have a centralized tasting area. So I'm here with Chef Hareesh, who's our executive chef for QACC. Our senior chefs will taste the food, log it down, and give their comments. If something does not pass our criteria, we redo the meals. Pretty good. Yeah. You agree? Narrator: Qatar Airways has a total of 270 international flights leaving from Doha per day. And on average, the airline serves 350 meals on each flight. This facility also provides meals to other One World Alliance partners that fly out of Doha and to the 19 lounges at Hamad International Airport. All the food is halal, prepared in accordance with Islamic dietary laws, because Qatar is a Muslim country. So, for example, you won't find any pork on the menu. But when it comes to drinks, the airline does serve alcohol once you're up in the clouds, unlike some Muslim carriers, like Saudia or Kuwait Airways,

where it's banned. Once each dish is finalized, it's stacked on a tray and labeled. Felipe: The reason we put a barcode is to ensure we have traceability for every dish, as well as for the team on the other side to be able to easily find what they need for assembly. Narrator: It also helps them track any food safety issues down the line. We can trace it all the way back to the person that made it, the day they made it, the time they made it, and we can then further investigate if there's a need. Narrator: The trays are cooled for 90 minutes to prevent the growth of any bacteria or pathogens. And then ... Felipe: Temperature's checked once again by our infrared thermometer. And the food is covered, scanned, and sent for storage. Narrator: It's not possible for the airline to prepare everything on the day of the flight, so usually, they make food in advance.

and refrigerate it for one day at the most. Any longer, and the taste and texture could change, especially for starchy foods like rice or pasta. But nothing is fully frozen. This cooling chamber is set to below 5 degrees Celsius and can store 3,500 trays at a time. A robotic arm adds and removes trays as needed across 30 levels. In the cold kitchen, workers prepare fruit bowls, dips, and about 12,000 sandwiches a day. Many of these items end up on short-haul flights, which are less than three hours long. Peter here will request our mashed potatoes. Narrator: A few hours before the flight takes off, the food trays that were stored in the chiller are brought back in for portioning. Workers on this line have their eyes at all times on the golden sample. The combos are endless and change depending on the route. The economy meals are dished up on trays and packed away.

Business class meals are temporarily portioned in these foil containers. Flight attendants will later plate and serve these dishes, paying a lot of attention to the presentation, which will ultimately look like this. Qatar Airways tries to bring hints of luxury to economy, too, in the details. They offer 18 meals that customers with special dietary needs can preorder. Felipe: We have sort of our religious meals. We also have our medical meals, and then we have our specific meals, like child meals, etc. Narrator: The culinary team has designed 50 meal choices for economy and first class each and 150 for business class that are dished out based on a flight's route and duration. Every cabin gets real silverware. All these items are dried, hand-polished, and assembled again, ready for the next flight. We're always looking at ways to reduce single-use plastic. We are looking at materials for our meal kits to be able to have less impact on the environment.

Narrator: Qatar Airways won several awards, including the APEX Award for best food and beverage. But they can't maintain high standards by only sourcing local products, as Qatar is one of the hottest and driest countries in the world, with no lakes or rivers. Growing things here is hard. Currently, we have more imported ingredients than local. However, this is something that we're trying to change. We're working together with a lot of local farms and fisheries to provide some of our products. Narrator: That includes tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, and bok choy. The trays are stacked in these carts that are rolled onto trucks that head for the tarmac. The trolleys are pushed onto the aircraft and locked into the galleys. Flight attendants then work their magic. We have newer-generation ovens, which allow individualization of temperature and humidity when it comes to reheating the meals.

Narrator: Food has been served on planes since the 1920s. But back then, it was handed out cold because there was no way to heat it on board. In the US, United Airlines opened the world's first airline kitchen in 1936 in Oakland, California, with just six employees making about 60 meals a day. Announcer: Regardless of the season, your crossing will be smooth. Narrator: In those days, the US airline industry was regulated by the federal government. So carriers were legally required to serve every passenger an entree, two vegetables, a salad, dessert, and a drink as part of their ticket price. But the glory years of airline travel and food were the '50s and '60s. Announcer: It was nice to relax in comfort as pleasant as our own living room and to be served with such courtesy. Narrator: Flight attendants on Pan Am made real scrambled eggs in the galley.

Old posters showed them slicing and serving roast beef right from the trolley. And hot meals were served even on domestic economy. But in 1978, President Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act, allowing airlines to set their own fares, routes, and services. Competition immediately heated up. Airlines quickly cut flight prices to attract customers but looked for other ways to make up for lost revenue, like slashing food options. In fact, in the 1980s, the head of American Airlines, Robert Crandall, famously came up with the idea of removing just one olive from every salad, and that reportedly saved $40,000 a year. In 2010, Continental, which is now United Airlines, became the last major US airline to end free domestic meals in coach. These days, the term airline food has become a joke in the US. Many domestic flights in economy offer pretzels and nuts at best.

And low-cost carriers like Spirit Airlines give nothing unless you're willing to pay up. Passengers have even criticized long-haul meals in business class from carriers like United. But all US airlines are private or public, and they claim some international carriers, like Emirates, Qatar, and Singapore, have an advantage because they're state-owned. These days, many airlines use a third-party caterer for hot meals. The largest players are Gate Gourmet and LSG Group. That's the company that caters for several major airlines, like Delta and Air New Zealand. Their head of culinary, Justin Koen, works closely with LSG to develop recipes and prepare 6.7 million meals a year just for Air New Zealand and its lounges. Look, I think I've probably got the best food job in the world, to be honest. I get to fly around the world, taste brilliant food, meet amazing people, and deal with big, hairy problems.

I'll be showing you guys a little venison dish that we've got serving in-flight at the moment. Narrator: He says the biggest challenge is making food that will taste good at 32,000 feet or above. On some planes, your taste buds are about 30% less sensitive to sweet and salty foods. That's because of the pressure, dryness, and engine sound. In older 777s and A320s, the cabin is pressurized up to 8,000 feet, so it feels like you're eating lunch on Machu Picchu. And humidity on board can sit as low as 12%, less than some deserts. When you have a dry mouth and a worsened sense of smell, foods can be twice as bland. So historically, that meant airlines piled on the salt for you to even taste the food, sometimes leaving passengers feeling bloated. But in new planes, manufacturers are making

conditions on board easier on your body. In the A350s, A380s, and 787s, cabins are pressurized up to 6,000 feet. So instead of Machu Picchu, it feels like you're eating dinner in Denver. And because new planes are made of more carbon fiber, it's possible to increase humidity to about 24%. Still, Air New Zealand prepares for all conditions. Justin: You have to be very precise in your cooking temperatures, not only in production, but also in-flight. We then have to heat it to the exact 12 minutes that we specified. And you know, should anything happen, like turbulence, it kind of throws those timings out. And so yeah, it has to be very precise, very specific. Narrator: That's a lot to remember for flight attendants. Justin: Also understanding that our cabin crew are not chefs. Right? They're doing the best that they can.

Narrator: To make their lives easier, Justin's team avoids serving certain foods altogether. Justin: Things like fried foods don't heat up too well, as well as pastries. Narrator: Another hurdle is the sheer scale of the operation. Justin: There's probably around 200 dishes flying at any one time getting made here out of Auckland. You take in your special meal requests. There's 14 different types of special meals, and so you can see how quickly that number compounds across all the different courses, different cabin classes. Narrator: All these challenges feel overwhelming, but Justin isn't easily intimidated. Pressure's a gift, in my opinion. You know, diamonds are created from pressure, so we embrace it, we roll with it, and that's just the airline industry. Planes need to go on time, and catering must be there. Narrator: Meanwhile, demand for in-flight catering keeps growing worldwide.

As the number of airline passengers is expected to rise from 4.5 billion in 2019 to 4.7 billion in 2024. And some airlines in the US are beginning to shift strategies again. Recently, American Airlines opened a brand new facility in Dallas that prepares nearly 15,000 fresh meals a day. They're mostly reserved for their international routes or passengers in premium cabins. The airline says the in-house kitchen helps American cater flights more efficiently and serve customers traveling from their largest hub. Emirates, the UA's national carrier, is a big player in the business, making over 77 million meals a year, even for short-haul flights. And they'll cater their menu based on destination. So if you're headed to Paris, you'll get a croissant in the morning. Flying to Mumbai? You'll most likely get kachoris. Stopping off in Japan? How about some soba or a bento box?

And if you're heading to the airline's home base in Dubai, you'll get the Arabic mezze selection. It also specializes in Middle Eastern sweets, all made in-house. The assembled trays are loaded onto trolleys that run along this 1.5-mile monorail. It's how massive amounts of inventory move safely through the building. Back in Doha, Felipe's team has ways of figuring out which meals passengers actually prefer. Felipe: We do something called offload checks three or four times a week. We will personally go and check what's coming from the flights, and then we can sort of see the trends of what people are eating, what they're not eating. Narrator: The cabin crew also carry a tablet to gather feedback on meals and send those reports directly to catering. Using that data, the kitchen can supply the aircraft with more dishes that people want while reducing the meals they hardly touch.

And that also helps cut down food waste. So, after all this, what's the favorite meal of the man who's tried them all? Every day, we're tasting food. I have a soft spot for Asian food. We keep our food pretty authentic. And I think that's very important for our passengers as well.

How Qatar Airways Prepares 200,000 Meals From Scratch Every Day | Big Business | Business Insider

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카타르항공의 인상적인 케이터링 운영

카타르항공의 도하 케이터링 주방은 일관성과 원활한 운영을 목표로 매일 20만 개 이상의 신선한 식사를 준비합니다.

카타르항공의 자체 기내식 조리 성공은 케이터링을 아웃소싱하는 미국 항공사의 추세와 대조를 이룹니다.

38개국에서 온 4,000명의 직원이 근무하는 이 주방에서는 혁신적인 기계와 신선한 농산물을 사용하여 다양한 요리를 만드는 동시에 비행 인구 통계에 따라 메뉴를 조정합니다.

카타르항공의 독특한 기내식 접근 방식

카타르항공은 갓 만든 파스타와 현장에서 구운 제과류 등 대부분의 음식을 직접 만드는 것을 강조합니다.

카타르항공은 매일 도하에서 출발하는 270편의 국제선 항공편에서 350개의 기내식을 제공하며, 모든 음식은 할랄 식단법에 따라 조리됩니다.

추적성을 위한 바코드 사용과 엄격한 온도 검사는 식품 안전에 대한 에티하드의 노력의 일환입니다.

카타르항공의 기내식 준비 과정

카타르항공의 기내식은 3,500개의 쟁반을 보관하는 냉장실에서 최대 하루 동안 냉장 보관되며 로봇 팔이 쟁반을 관리합니다.

요리팀은 12,000개의 샌드위치를 준비하여 일반석과 일등석에는 50가지, 비즈니스석에는 150가지 기내식을 제공하며 일회용 플라스틱을 줄이기 위해 노력하고 있습니다.

이 항공사는 현지 식재료 사용을 늘리기 위해 노력하고 있으며 식음료 서비스로 여러 상을 수상했습니다.

항공사 기내식은 1920년대에 차가운 기내식으로 시작되었지만, 최초의 항공사 주방은 1936년 유나이티드 항공에서 설립했습니다.

1950년대와 60년대는 따뜻한 기내식과 세심한 서비스로 항공사 기내식의 전성기였습니다.

하지만 1978년 항공 규제 완화법 이후 항공사들은 비용 절감을 위해 기내식 옵션을 줄였고, 이로 인해 이코노미 클래스 무료 기내식은 쇠퇴하기 시작했습니다.

높은 고도에서는 미뢰의 민감도 감소, 낮은 습도, 기내 압력으로 인해 음식의 맛을 내기가 어렵습니다.

최신 비행기는 기내 압력을 낮추고 습도를 높여 환경을 개선하고 있지만, 케이터링 운영은 여전히 수많은 특별 기내식 요청으로 인해 복잡합니다.

이러한 어려움에도 불구하고 기내식 케이터링에 대한 수요는 전 세계적으로 증가하고 있습니다.

항공 승객 수가 2019년 45억 명에서 2024년 47억 명으로 증가할 것으로 예상됨에 따라 미국 항공사들은 전략을 조정하고 있습니다.

아메리칸 항공은 댈러스에 새로운 시설을 오픈하여 국제선 노선과 프리미엄 승객을 위해 하루 15,000개의 신선한 기내식을 준비하고 있습니다.

아랍에미리트의 국영 항공사인 에미레이트 항공은 연간 7700만 회 이상의 기내식을 제공하며 각 목적지에 맞게 메뉴를 조정하고 모노레일 시스템을 사용하여 재고를 효율적으로 이동합니다.