When it comes to serving meals in flight in economic class on a commercial flight, there is no also A lot of preparation for flight attendees to worry: Hot those meals of aluminum foil, add the cold items to a tray and load them in the cart. In a private jet, however, it is a completely different game.
Beyond being responsible for safety on board, hostesses in private airplanes are also chefs, servers and waiters. (Not mentioning housewives!) And when it flies to high profile clients worldwide, it is expected to provide excellent gastronomic experience and not just a reheated frozen food.
That is why the PLANET 9 Private Aviation Company sends its hostesses to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in San Antonio, Texas, for several days training designed to sharpen its preparation, cooking, veneer and service skills. So, I joined the team to learn exactly how it is.
Courtesy of planet 9
Courtesy of planet 9
Four flight apprentices and I begin with perhaps the most important lesson: food security. We learned the basic concepts of food safety, with some specific flight details. Sushi, for example, is better avoided in a private Jet menu. The fish takes time to get from the store to the aircraft, and does not always refrigerate at the right temperature to prevent the fish from spoiling.
Then we reach the funny part: cook. When reserving a private jet through planet 9, it is not limited to an established menu. Instead, you can share your culinary preferences with the team and even request specific dishes to customize your gastronomic experience on board. To that end, the hostesses must be completely versed in the kitchen almost everything. And they also need to discover how to achieve that within the limits of a very small plane galley with limited appliances.
Courtesy of planet 9
The Planet 9 CIA program ran through a variety of menu elements, showing us not only recipes, a smoked salmon avocado toast stole the show in the morning the first day, but also tips and tricks to prepare them on board. While there is a lot of space in the CIA kitchen, the instructors recorded a small work space to imitate the galley, and limited our kitchen and appliances utensils to what is located in the planes. Open flames are a non-logo in airplanes for obvious reasons, so galleys are mainly limited to microwaves and ovens. (When the dishes require stove cooking, they can be prepared on the floor and reheat and spoil in the air).
The veneer, in particular, is an art form. “Think about your dish like a canvas,” said chef Uyten Pham before immersing himself in a demonstration to teach us to plant fruits. She asked us to give her a color theme or palette to work, we chose the yellow fruit, and we cut carefully and place the fruit elegantly on a plate.
But it’s not just about aesthetics. Practicality is also important, since you want your guests to easily consume anything placed in front of them. Think: Peel bananas or oranges in advance.
Courtesy of planet 9
Pham and his colleague, chef Vincent Carvahlo, also challenged us to think about the complete sensory experience for guests beyond taste and vision. “I am a great admirer when it comes to hot bread. It’s a great weakness of mine,” said Pham. “His plane is so small that there is no way that they can’t smell that.” It is an excellent way to open the appetite of a guest.
At the end of the program, the apprentices tested their new skills (they devised a menu of several dishes, cooked it and served the “guests”, also known as their accommodation companions (at this point, I was observing the action) . .
When observing the planet 9 CIA training program, there is one thing I learned with certainty: my rudimentary cooking skills would never cut in a private jet. I will simply take my seat as a passenger and gently thank my flight assistants for all their hard work.
