I was ridiculously excited to receive an invitation to do a back of house tour of Qantas Catering (Q Catering) a few weeks ago. I said yes in a nano-second.
When I turned up I discovered I was the only girl on the tour, with the exception of the Qantas PR and social media team. Everyone else (I think) had responded to a call-out via Qantas’ social media. So it was me with 19 aviation geeks. I was wondering what I had signed up for.
After a rigorous security check (that started when I accepted my invitation), and a quick welcome, we were all kitted out in very stylish outfits.
[We weren’t allowed to take use cameras in the catering facility, so the pics from inside the catering facility were taken by Q Catering staffer David. Thanks! The other photos are mine – all taken on my iPhone 5.]
The fabulous new catering facility has been open for about twelve months. A common theme heard from people working there was how much better it is than the old facility. Smooth operation, excellent flow, impressive food safety checks and balances (as you would expect), and some automation that saves staff from having to walk up to 7km per shift (!).
Qantas Catering’s 17 qualified chefs (just in Brisbane) help make 19,000 meals a day to provide for 126 flights. Domestic and international. For airlines including Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways. As well as Qantas and QantasLink. More than 40 million meals were prepared last year. I may never complain again about having to prepare about 1,500 meals a year.
The annual food bill includes 12.2 tonne of seafood, 9.2 tonne of poultry, 6.9 tonne of red and white protein and 126.6 tonne of fruit and veg. There are about 150 suppliers, including a few well known names such as Brookfarm and Pepe Saya. Those wondering why they use Danish Butter Lurpak will be pleased to hear it is being phased out and replaced with an Australian product.
Each plane type has different requirements in terms of trays and trolleys. Meals are now prepared to order, with the final assembly shortly before meals are loaded aboard. This means far less food wastage as the number of meals produced matches with the passenger manifest, in terms of number and meal requirements. Colour coding is used to differentiate the different sized trolleys. So simple when compared to some of the more sophisticated solutions used elsewhere. Simple but highly effective.
The whole facility was freezing, maintaining low temperatures for food safety. Making me grateful for the extra layer of clothing I had on (warmth over style wins every time!). The warmest room was the kitchen where the hot food is prepared. Which makes sense! I was very impressed with the attention to detail at every stage of our tour, and the pride that our guides, and everyone else we met, had in their jobs.
Chef Neil Perry has been consulting to Qantas for fifteen years. His influence can be seen on Business Class domestic flights and on Business and First Class on international flights. We sampled a few of his ideas at morning tea. My favourite was the spanner crab with caviar and a lychee jelly. The tom yum chicken skewers were also tangy with a hint of heat, and will be going on my dinner menu at home very soon.
After morning tea we visited one of the engineering hangars. The 19 guys were beside themselves with delight! I wanted to go back to the catering facility…
Having said that, it was very impressive. Possibly the largest indoor space I’ve ever been in. An A330 was in for maintenance – not the 2-3 days I thought, but two weeks! It was pretty cool as we were allowed to walk around the plane and sit in the cockpit.
All in all, it was one of the best famils I’ve ever been invited on. Massive thanks to the Qantas Social Media team for inviting me. Even bigger thanks to the person who put my name forward (no idea who that was!). I had an absolute ball.
Oh my goodness. So freakin’ cool. I’d love to work there.
it was pretty amazing 🙂