Questions and Answers

I met a chef who works on board an airlines. Have you experienced that on board? Do they just heat meals and make it look presentable or do they do the cooking on board? Have you any photos of what a kitchen on board an aircraft looks like? Which airlines have on board chefs?

I haven’t personally but I’m sure they are severely limited in their cooking options due to safety – no sharp knives, no frying. That said, I’m sure these chefs offer better on board options than the normal fare.

Austrian and Etihad are two and probably others. As [USER=1566]@Gia[/USER] says the options are limited so I’m not sure the “chef” label applies. But they can cook eggs and I even had some good fries on an Etihad flight,[ATTACH=full]242[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]240[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]241[/ATTACH]

I think it’s between the two options. They probably have mostly or completely pre-cooked items that can be combined and heated and presented like the Etihad biryani combos and some dishes like eggs that can be made from scratch from a small heat source.

On UA biz flight FRA-JFK, flight attendant refused to take the jacket of a fellow passenger because, she said, “I’m the chef”. So yes, UA does have chefs on board!

[USER=2714]@travlermb[/USER] Are you sure UA? Because they don’t have chefs that I know of and don’t fly to JFK and when they did they didn’t fly to FRA from JFK.

MarkS, sorry it was to IAD and yes it was UA. It was another instance of the oh so helpful UA FAs. She repeated 3 times she couldn’t help customers “because I’m the chef”. This really happened

IAD works, but… other than the flights this wacko FA isn’t working UA doesn’t have chefs onboard. Makes for a great story tho!

[USER=2714]@travlermb[/USER] was it during boarding or during the flight?

Usually UA has one of two FAs who are on galley duty during the flight and they heat the meals and prep the carts and plates for the FAs working the aisle, if this was during mid flight and it was the galley FA they could have been in the middle of cooking and couldn’t walk away hang the coat then wash her hands again if it was when meals were being prepared. Saying “chef” is easier than saying “galley FA”.

Customers are sometimes odd and have asks in the middle of the flight when the FA is obviously prepping 40-50 meals. I am just trying to give the FA the benefit of the doubt, if it was on the ground she should have hung the coat.

On my Qantas flight DFW-SYD, the chef came around (at least the F cabin) and introduced herself and asked how the meal was.

[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/01/25/what-do-onboard-chefs-do/[/URL]