dnata Catering to serve special festive meals globally
Included in the meal will be sage and onion stuffing, roast potatoes and Brussels sprouts
dnata will provide more than five million special meals for its airline partners around the world this holiday season. From mid-December to Boxing Day, the most popular festive meal — a traditional roast turkey dinner — will be served.
Included in the meal will be sage and onion stuffing, roast potatoes and Brussels sprouts. For dessert Christmas cake and mince pies are on the menu. The most popular customer additions will be cranberry sauce and bread sauce.
Robin Padgett, Divisional Senior Vice President for Catering and Retail, dnata, explained the process of creating a festive menu in the December 19 press release: “Festive menus are signed off in November after they have been developed by our award-winning chefs. Recipes are then created for all our global stations along with loading and plating guides with photographs of each stage so that the process is foolproof. We also take the special requirements of our airline partners into consideration, with Halal-prepared meat as well as tasty vegetarian alternatives. Special meals account for 45 percent of total meals provided for our big airline carriers.”
dnata provides catering services to airline partners via tailor-made onboard retail offerings. “We’ll ensure that passengers of our retail customers also receive the festive experience with turkey, cranberry and stuffing sandwiches and a mince pie to purchase as they make their special journey,” Padgett said in the release.
While producing vast quantities of festive meals, dnata’s catering teams work closely with airline customers to analyze consumption trends and use predictive data to optimize the loading of F&B for in-flight catering. Analysis of onboard data not only reduces food waste but also fuel burn associated with carrying excess weight, the December 19 release said. In addition, where possible dnata Catering sources and supplies local produce to reduce the food miles associated with menus.
“We are proud that our global customers trust us to provide them and their passengers with the highest quality meals and locally sourced ingredients,” Padgett said.
Global standards, local menus
“In the UK, dnata Catering’s traditional roast turkey dinner will be served approximately 8,000 times per day. In addition, 10,000 tray set items including mince pies and festive-themed chocolates and beverages will be distributed,” the release said. In the U.S., a similar main turkey meal will be served.
While 75,000 traditional roast turkey meals will be served in Australia for international customers, some airlines will begin with either a local starter of prawn cocktail or mixed grain and cranberry salad. Dessert will be a choice between warm fruit pudding, Christmas pudding cheesecake, or gingerbread-spiced crumble-topped mousse.
