[Airplane Food Like This] Visit Cathay Pacific’s Inflight Kitchen

By: Ding

Many of us have eaten airplane food, but how is it actually made? This time, Fever Travel steps into the Cathay Pacific inflight kitchen to share the process of making airline meals.

You may have seen it many times while driving by, but what does a Cathay Pacific catering kitchen really look like inside?

 This visit was introduced by Cathay Pacific Catering Services Director Caston, CEO of Cathay Pacific Catering Services Michelle Lam, and General Manager Wong Man-kit.

Just like Cathay Pacific’s kitchen staff, visitors must wear full protective gear to ensure hygiene.

Cathay’s inflight kitchen produces over 80,000 meals daily, so aside from having clear divisions of labor, it has also introduced many advanced machines in recent years to improve efficiency. Preparing an airplane meal is quite different from a regular restaurant meal—cooked ingredients need to be rapidly frozen, and the volume of ingredients handled is much larger than that of a typical eatery.

One major feature of the inflight kitchen is the sheer quantity—take this fryer, for example, which can produce over 8,000 servings of McDonald’s fries per day.

The newly introduced omelet machine streamlines omelet production, with all the omelets being handled by these two staff members.

The inflight kitchen handles a huge volume of ingredients. For instance, this automatic stir-fry pot can cook 300 servings of fried rice in just 15 minutes.

The bread served on flights is baked right here in the facility.

Some of the bread served on flights is also baked in large ovens.

Hong Kong’s first automated plating machine can handle up to 25 trolley carts per hour or 400 carts per day—that’s one-third of Cathay Pacific’s daily meal demand.

It turns out that an airplane meal goes through so many processes before it reaches you. Besides the kitchen staff, there are also delivery and ground service personnel involved. Next time you enjoy an inflight meal, maybe you’ll be able to appreciate the care that went into making it.