How airline food ends up on your tray table. Picture: iStock

Yet, when you think about the logistics of cooking a meal and transporting it to a plane to be served many hours later at over 40,000 feet in the air, it’s really a wonder that anything actually goes right. Add to that, we lose about 30 per cent of our sense of taste in the air.

“The biggest misconception is that airline food is bad,” says Gate Gourmet’s regional executive chef, Jeremy Steele.

“It depends on the class and for me length of flight, even the time of day you fly. Who feels like stroganoff, mash and peas at midnight after a huge day? I recently had a morning flight and was presented a very basic hot breakfast. All items were well cooked and seasoned perfectly. It was great and this is how all airline food is being benchmarked today,” says Steele.

Gate Gourmet is the catering company behind many of the airline meals originating out of Australia. With presence in every major airport around the country, Gate Gourmet has 33 commercial airline customers, one rail client and even serves high-end VIPs (presidents, prime ministers, rock stars, crown princes etc) on charter flights.

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A Gate Gourmet worker assembles an airline meal. Picture: Simon TsangSource:News Corp Australia

Steele and his team are responsible for coming up with a lot of the meals for the airlines, from first class to economy.

Escape was able to take a peek behind the scenes at Gate Gourmet and see where the in-flight meals are put together during a tasting of Singapore Airlines’ 50th anniversary (in Australia) menu.

Its Mascot facility, near Sydney Airport, is in a nondescript building tucked away in an industrial area.

All the food is cooked and packaged on the ground floor, which resembles a large catering kitchen rather than a production line.

Signs clearly mark out areas for each of the airlines they are preparing meals for and you can see the familiar meal trolleys ready to be loaded up.

There are rows upon rows of stainless steel benches where workers are assembling the dishes, while another section is where all the cooking is done.

Workers prepare meals for Singapore Airlines. Picture: Simon TsangSource:News Corp Australia

Food portions are carefully measured by weight. Steele says this is the critical part, hitting on the right weight goal that will satisfy the airlines’ number crunchers while still providing enough of a decent feed to flyers.

As soon as ingredients are cooked, they’re rapidly cooled to 5C in a fridge before being transferred to the assembly tables.

Depending on the complexity (and class) of the meal, some are completely plated up at the bench by hand while others are only partially put together with the rest to be done on the plane right before serving.

Workers are tasked with putting the whole meal together after making a “gold standard” to copy from.

“The biggest challenge in creating hot dishes is that they must be able to reheat well on board the aircraft, so texture and consistency of dishes is very important,” says Steele.

“The dish must not have too many elements, so we limited the movements or steps it will take to plate up the dish.

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Cooked ingredients are cooled. Picture: Simon TsangSource:News Corp Australia

“Cold dishes are great for us to be able to show our skills of our talented chefs as most items can be pre plated for a fine dining touch, many fresh signature garnishes and dressing are adding at altitude by airline crew in premium cabins/classes so this prevents crispy garnishes from going soggy.”

In developing the first class menu for Singapore Airlines’ special Australian-themed menu to celebrate operating 50 years in this country, Steele says they tried to use a bug (shellfish) for something a little different.

While the dish tasted great on the ground, it didn’t translate so well in the air. In the end, they decided to go with the more conventional and reliable prawns.

And the most difficult food to get right on a flight? It’s pastry, according to Steele, which most flyers can probably attest.

So in the interests of digging deeper into the secrets of good airline food, we put a few questions to Steele:

The oven flashed lemon myrtle rubbed prawns dish for first class passengers for Singapore Airlines’ new 50th Anniversary menu. Picture: Simon TsangSource:News Corp Australia

What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve seen in airline food?

I once refused a snack service on-board a flight from the Middle East flying to Europe. I was served a rock hard bread roll filled with a processed cheese paste paired up with a processed protein product. I believe the items should be recognisable; I still cringe. I couldn’t eat it.

My personal opinion is fusion dishes are on the way out, so I am happy to support origin or destination-specific dishes it’s interesting and a great way to learn and discover different cultures and cuisines.

How do you come up with menu ideas? Do airlines rely on you or do they come with their own ideas?

It works both ways. We sometimes have airline customers tell us the exact gram and they instruct us to follow exact recipes developed for them from the team in headquarters of the airline. We also work as part of a work shop — often design dishes together selecting from prepared samples of all items available.

It’s exciting and challenging to build menus this way. It’s a buzz to collaborate with celebrity chefs or cuisine specialists.

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Salt bush & wild tomato seasoned Jack's Creek wagyu sirloin dish for first class passengers for Singapore Airline's new 50th Anniversary menu. Picture: Simon TsangSource:News Corp Australia

How long does it typically take to come up with a new menu from start to finish?

Designing an in-flight menu is a highly rewarding yet complex process. The typical turnaround time for a new menu is from six to 12 weeks.

We factor in seasons, location of supply and delivery, sticking to the airline’s budget, creating something new or on trend, even working closely with a celebrity chef. All items must also comply with strict hygiene requirements.

How many times do airlines change their menus in a year?

It depends many customers do change their menus seasonally which is great for us and ideal for planning, so we can assure the items are at their peak and available for the length of the menu. Other customers change yearly or every six months, some do change weekly and this is also relative to the class most first class menus change monthly.

It would be the main feedback we receive not about food quality but always that a frequent flyer was looking forward to a new experience and had the same meal as a previous flight.

How airline food gets from kitchen to plane. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

What are the biggest changes/improvements to airline food in recent years?

The biggest change is how airlines are offering preselected meals to passengers before they fly. For example for Singapore Airlines, we have two dedicated chefs cooking their ‘Book The Cook’ meals out of Sydney. The meals are prepared to order and are celebrity chef recipes using selected ingredients.

We are also developing innovative items for retail menus. I’m currently working on being able to offer a hot economy dessert container with a partition for ice cream, it will be a game changer. Think waffles, crumbles, puddings with your favourite ice cream.

Have you found fantastic food in the air - or had a disappointing dining experience? Share your tips on the best food to order, and what to avoid with us at [email protected] for a chance to go in the running for a monthly prize. Each month Escape offers a prize for the best reader tip. This month the American Tourister Airforce 1 luggage set valued at $678.

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Chef Jeremy Steele, regional executive chef for Asia Pacific at Gate Gourmet. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied