Qantas meal service: How they train flight attendants

OF THE 7.5 million meals that are served every year on Qantas long-haul flights, there’s one dish that always gives the cabin crew grief.

OF THE 7.5 million meals that are served each year on long-haul Qantas flights, there’s one dish that still gives Qantas flight attendants grief ... the humble scrambled eggs.

“It’s one of trickiest dishes on-board,” says Jo, a Qantas flight attendant of 21 years.

“It sounds silly because you cook it at home, but when you consider the effects of altitude and not having all the facilities you have in your kitchen at home, it’s definitely the hardest to get right.”

Rockpool Qantas chef, David Speck, confirms the struggle.

“The egg quality is so different, (Qantas uses two ingredients for its scrambled eggs — fresh eggs and cream), and the cream in Asia is different to the cream in the USA and again in Europe so it makes the texture and consistency of the raw mix difficult.”

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Meals in Qantas business and first class are cooked and plated onboard.

When the Qantas chefs first tested the recipe, the eggs turned green after a reaction from the aluminium foilies. So today, they use a specially created cardboard ovenproof dish as there are no cooktops on-board, so the eggs are cooked in the galley ovens.

Food service is serious business on-board Qantas, and the menu planning is led by Australian celebrity chef Neil Perry and his Rockpool group.

Every year on their long-haul flights they serve five million meals in economy, two million meals in business and 400,000 meals in first class. New Qantas flight attendant recruits spend around 13 days in service training to prepare for the mammoth task.

They practice in pods that are a replica of a plane cabin and taught the ins and outs of service (always have the Qantas logo on the drinks napkin facing towards the customer).

Kirra, one of the trainers and a Qantas flight attendant of 18 years says one of the hardest things for trainees to get right is silver service.

“We have the trainees practising serving with a fork and spoon an awful lot. We have them practising in their hotel rooms with ice cubes.”

Behind the scenes at the Qantas service training facility.

In-flight food has come a long way with the airline, 20 years ago most airline meals were frozen and pre-packaged, now in first and business class, all the meals are cooked and plated on-board.

Green beans are blanched in boiled water, steaks are cooked in the oven to order and goats cheese tortellini is topped with prawns and shaved cheese.

The menu in first and business class changes every three months and it takes 11 months to plan a menu says Speck. The steak sandwich is still the most popular meal in these cabins, having remained on the menu for 20 years.

So what can’t flight attendants cook on-board? The simple answer is toast, there are no toasters on the fleet of planes.

“It would be fantastic if we could make toast on a plane. That would be my wish list, something so simple,” says Kirra. But if you’ve ever tried the Qantas artisanal breads — you won’t be begging for toast anytime soon.