How First Class Meals are Made!! (Asia’s Mega Kitchen)

This omelette making station can make 860 omelets per hour. And I found it here at an in-flight catering facility capable of making 100,000 airline meals per day. Now that's cool. Preparing great inflight meals is a bit of a science and a bit of an art. The way we taste is different on ground level versus in the air at 30,000 ft. That is completely correct. What is the difference? And today you're going to get a peek behind the curtain to see how it all works from concept to creation. From the factory floor to fine dining at 30,000 ft. There's not a chef on board. You're not going to have a lot of cooking instruments or tools. Considering these limitations, are there certain types of food that you will just never see on an airplane? I'm on a mission to see how Cathay Pacific creates delicious in-flight food with meticulous attention to detail on a massive scale. For one pot, we can cook 300 kilos. That's 660 lb. But before we head to that giant kitchen, we're going to make a quick stop here. Get him is a Michelin star restaurant in Eaton Hong Kong hotel. We have retained nine consecutive years of Michelin star and we serve authentic classic Cantonese cuisine. Yatung Heen is one of three Michelin starrated restaurants teaming up with Cathay Pacific to craft their in-flight dishes. Today we'll see what it really takes to cook at the Michelin star level. Then go behind the scenes into the in-flight catering factory most people never see. Watch how Cathay Pacific develops its Michelin inspired meals. And finally, I'll taste it all myself on a Cathay Pacific business class flight. Welcoming me to Yatung Heen is celebrity chef Tam. Chef has been here since the opening of the restaurant. He's been here with the restaurant for over 30 years now. To demonstrate Yatung Heen's Michelin quality, Chef Tam treats me to one of his signature dishes, tiger prawns. Done two ways. First, sauteed prawns. He heats the wok and blanches the prawns. Part of the mission of Cathay Pacific is to represent food from Hong Kong. To me, that means Cantonese cuisine. For you, what sets Cantonese cuisine apart from any other type of cuisine? After blanching, the prawns are drained. The wok gets a good splash of oil and the prawns return for a fast sizzling fry. The main essence of Cantonese cuisine is really good quality ingredients. You have to start with solid ingredients and build the dish off of that. You can't really disguise it with just the dining. The fried prawns part ways with the oil, then come together with seasonings and cornstarch for a quick sauté. It's time to eat. I am very excited. I'm going to start with a sauté and work my way up to the one with that delicious glaze. These guys are absolutely massive. That's so delicious. Some people say shrimp is a poor man's lobster, but for me, a good shrimp beats lobster anytime. First of all, you can eat 10 to 20 of that and it's still going to cost you less than one lobster. Second of all, this is very springy. It's bouncy. The texture of the shrimp is coming through. It's not overcooked, and it's absolutely smothered in that delicious sauce. That is good. Right here, we have the deep fried shrimp covered in a glaze with a hint of tangy sourness that singes the nostrils. Prawn preparation. Two, deep fried tiger prawns. Each prawn is coated in egg yolk and flour, then dropped into a wok of hot oil. Once perfectly crisp, Chef Tam removes them and whips up a glossy sweet and sour sauce to glaze these meaty morsels. What's interesting talking to the chef is before even talking about cooking techniques, he was talking about the ingredients themselves. So, when preparing food to this restaurant's high standard, half the job is already done when the food comes in the door before it's even been cooked. For example, if you had some shrimp that looked like they've been up till 3:00 a.m., we don't want those shrimp. These shrimp look like they went to Sunday school. Mhm. 10 out of 10 delicious. The texture of the fried shrimp is completely different. It's a little bit more dense and it's developed a bit of a crust or crunchiness on the outside. Meanwhile, that sauce, that glaze is sweet and tangy. Sometimes people say money can't buy happiness. But actually, money can buy these shrimp and these shrimp right now, they're making me very happy. Later, you'll see how this Michelin level quality inspires Michelin style meals in the sky. But next, we're going deep inside a giant in-flight catering factory to find out how thousands of airline meals are made every single day. Welcome to Cathay Dining. This is a huge facility. Right now, we are in the central hot kitchen. And this place is awesome. Right here we have these giant steaming cauldrons. These are made for boiling Shanghai cabbage. That's what's happening right now behind me. As I look around the hot kitchen, there is steam everywhere. There's the fragrances of delicious food. I wish I could reach out and eat it now, but they explicitly said not to do that. Located right beside Hong Kong International Airport, Cathay Dining is a branch of Cathay Group responsible for all Cathay Pacific inflight dishes, including those created in collaboration with Yatung Heen. I'll soon get to taste that dish for myself. This is going to be a first for me. This is sky food eaten on land. How is that going to work? We're going to find out. While Cathay Pacific is the kitchen's primary client, Cathay Dining also serves more than 20 other airlines preparing meals for over 200 flights each day. We can make Western food, Chinese food, Japanese food, and many different kinds of food. Right now, we have prepared like 80,000 per day, but maximum we can produce more than 100,000 per day. Jeffrey Chan is a sous chef for Cathay Dining. He's one of the 2,000 staff here. This place runs like any restaurant kitchen with different stations handling different parts of the meal. The difference, everything here is super sized. We are doing the congee right now. For one pot, we can cook 300 kilos. That's 660 lb. Yes, exactly. This tilting and brazing machine does far more than cook. Depending on the day's menu, you might see it simmering soups, whipping up sauces, or brazing meats. What is the biggest challenge of cooking food at this type of scale? We have to follow the menu so we can order the correct ingredient and the correct amount of food so we can make sure we don't have much wastage. And the most important, we have to taste every dish we cook to make sure the taste is correct. When you say you taste every dish, it doesn't mean every small meal. But it means like right here you have over 600 lb of congee. Someone's going to taste that to make sure it tastes right. Okay. Cuz otherwise you would get really full. Yes. Everything served on board Cathay Pacific is cooked no more than one day before takeoff. To retain the food texture, most ingredients are left slightly underdone, so they'll be perfectly cooked upon reheating in the air. I have seen an omelette bar at a hotel, but I've never seen something like this before. This is insane. There's a big automated circular table here that has How many skillets are here? We have 18 here. This machine is almost automatic. They can pull out the oil and we can set the gram of the egg. Let's talk about how this works. So each of these skillets is on kind of a hot plate. Then right here, there's literally an egg faucet. It can tell when the pan is there and then it drops down the exact right portion of egg. Right now, they're making the cheese omelette. She puts in a fistful of cheese. The second lady over here gives it a bit of a flip. She throws it in the dish and boom, it's ready to eat. And I'm told that every hour you can make 860 omelets. Yes. Why not a thousand? I feel like we could strive for more. Uh, we can speed up. Maybe we can hit the thousand. I like this attitude. Very good. Once each dish is finished, it's portioned into containers and packed neatly into galley carts. Each cart is tagged with its flight number, cabin class, and meal type. The carts are then rolled into a blast chiller. The sudden chill stops any residual heat from overcooking the food. From there, the food makes its way onto the plane where the chilled meals are reborn in an inflight oven and land on your tray hot and steaming. I'll soon have one of those Michelin inspired meals on a Cathay Pacific business class flight. But first, I want to see how Cathay Pacific is developing Michelin inspired meals, not just for business class, but for everyone on board. This here is their economy meal inspired by Yatung Heen, where we had those prawns earlier. I don't know if you noticed, but I'm not on an airplane. This is sky food eaten on land. I even have my silverware in a bag just like being on a flight. And soon we will also simulate turbulence. This meal has been set up exactly as if I was on a Cathay Pacific flight sitting in economy class. You would get your beverage, a side, some fruit, ice cream, and the main course which will soon be unveiled. Right here looks to be a sort of tuna salad. I see some potatoes, tomatoes, a quarter of an egg, and what looks to be tuna. M. This is some delicious cold tuna, just barely seared on the outside, then chilled, and served with these other vegetables. It's very yummy. Right here, we have fresh fruit. What's fun about this fruit right here is we actually got to see them chop it before our very own eyes. In that fruit cutting room, they're literally chopping over a ton of fruit each day. And I don't mean ton as in a lot. I mean a ton as in like 2,000 lbs. Right here, we have a little bit of dragon fruit. At this point in the meal, I'm usually trying to order my second Jack Daniels. And now I will unveil what is inside our lunchbox. Today, I'm having braised chicken and egg tofu with soybean paste, choisum, and steamed jasmine rice. Made in partnership with Yatung Heen, this dish is now produced by the thousands. But here in the R&D kitchen, I'll get a closer look at how it all comes together. It starts with the carrot and choisum. A quick blanch then a fast stir fry. Bringing a Michelin quality dish to the sky. It's far more complex than copying a recipe. Basically, it's impossible to exact copy of the Michelin star food in the plane because of our limitations. While the wok fires up, Chef William gives me deeper insight. So, what is the actual process? It starts with a nice dinner. The chefs will present their food to us. We taste together and then we try to recreate the dishes as close as possible to the restaurant's standards with our limitations. While the veggies take a rest, the wok keeps busy bubbling with oil and waiting for the chicken to hit the heat. The biggest limitation is definitely the volume. Certain ingredients which are very seasonal which you can get only few kilos and we can't actually interpret this into house portions on daily basis. The sizzling oil and chicken move from the wok to the sieve. The wok welcomes shallots, garlic, bean paste, and spring onions. Our chef gives them a good stir before tossing the chicken back in. Another very important point is we take the simplicity of reheating into the consideration when we create the food because the food in the airline is only reheated. It's not cooked there. We cannot do flambe. That's the one thing. Sure. Fire on the airplane. No good. Next, chicken broth, mushrooms, and egg tofu join in. People always say that the way we taste is different on ground level versus in the air at 30,000 ft. He's completely correct. Basically, the sweetness and saltiness drop by 30% in the air. That's what affects all the food. Our chef rounds out the flavors with oyster sauce, sugar, salt, and dark soy sauce. Because we can't taste as well at altitude, people might assume that airlines put in extra salt into the food. Is that true? The way we design food is very important that every single ingredient has to be fully seasoned. But we don't overseason because you don't know if you overseason by 10% by 20% and that's also very subjective. So if you have certain elements which is unseasoned and overseas, it will not work. In the air, the difference, it's even worse. It's even bigger. Now comes the plating or in this case the boxing. A bed of jasmine rice goes in first, followed by a neat layer of veggies and a generous scoop of chicken. Every element is weighed to perfection, keeping each meal balanced and consistent. It is a game, but it's never the same. While Yatung Heen handles the economy and premium economy menus, business and first class menus are shaped by Duddles and Louise. I'll soon get that business class taste on an actual flight. But for now, let's dig into this chicken. This is gorgeous. Usually the best you can hope for economy is some kind of a carb and then it's just smothered with stuff. Here we have clear partitions between the different ingredients. We have carrots, but then we have this right here. It's called choy sum. Fresh, delicious. Meanwhile, right here we have some mushroom, some egg tofu. Let's give it a shot. That's legitimately delicious. I can't believe that. Super savory. A nice deep flavor. Usually, I'm not the biggest tofu fan, but this tofu tastes like it's soaked up all those flavors like a sponge. And then when you take a bite, boom. Which is something I could not say on an airplane. When I was in the kitchen, I learned that when you're at altitude, your sense of taste is reduced by about 30%. So, eating this on the ground, I was worried it was going to be over salted, but actually it tastes great. Finally, we have the apex of this dish right here. The braised chicken. That's really good. If I had to guess, I believe this is the chicken thigh, which is the best part of the chicken. The chicken breast gets a lot of fanfare. Yes, it's low in fat and high in protein, but if you want real flavor, it's all about those thighs. We've seen how Michelin chefs shape Cathay Pacific's food, but now it's time for the real test: trying their business class meal at 30,000 ft. All right, folks. We have made it to the Hong Kong airport and I'm headed to my flight to a destination that will soon be revealed by the end of this video. But first, before the flight, we are going to head to the Cathay Pacific Lounge to see what lies in store. You see, as a foodie going to Hong Kong, you need to be in search of Cantonese food. And when I think of Cantonese food, I think of the three food groups. First, dim sum. Second, noodles. Third, roasted meats. So, are we going to actually find those at the lounge? Let's find out. Descending into deliciousness. I hope. Upon entering, they told me international food is on the right. Chinese food is on the left. Just like when I boarded the plane later, I went left. There it is. Dim sum. So, here we have a vegetable dim sum. Here we have Shumai. And this is the beef ball. I think I'll take one of each. Let's start with what I think is going to probably be the least satisfying. Vegetable dim sum. A little pro traveler tip: Don't have too much chili oil before a long haul flight. This could be a mistake. Oh, that's yummy. I tempered my expectations because it was vegetable, but that's really nice. But now we have to find some balance with this right here, the beef ball. Soft, juicy, savory, succulent, and just the way I like my balls. A little bit tender. Right here we have Shumai. Springy, a nice wrap around the outside, dense pork, super delicious. Next up on the hunt for Cantonese flavors, and this lounge is my favorite kind of bar. Anytime I go to Hong Kong, I have to get wonton noodles. And I love that even if you missed your chance to get wonton noodles in Hong Kong, you can still get it on your way out here. Delicious bouncy shrimp on the inside, a succulent soft wrapper on the outside, and somehow it has that wok flavor inside. It's smoky. Being in a lounge is the only way to justify eating this at 10:30 at night. Absolutely delicious. I love it. My favorite thing about this lounge is that they've captured the best of Cantonese food. There are very few lounges around the world where you can feel like you got a taste of that city or that country just by going to that lounge. But that's the case here. Last but not least, I set out to find roasted meats, catching a glimpse of the international food options along the way. Right here we have shepherd's pie. Right here we have beef... beef bon... beef. I can't say it. I don't know how to say it. Is that French? But with time running out, it's time to head to my flight. I just revealed where I'm going. But you'll only know if you could read Chinese. We are about to board and we are turning left. It's been said that if you turn left when boarding an airplane, that's how you know you've made it in life. Something like that. Here we are. 17K. So, here's the deal. Anytime I fly economy, I get on the airplane the last minute possible. But when I'm flying business like this, I want to get on as soon as possible so I can fully enjoy all the amenities available. Let's take a look at what we have here. A gigantic TV right in front of my face. Right here we have all of our menus. Right here we have a complimentary bottle of water along with some headphones. Right here, a hidden mirror. Hey, how's that? Looking good. Accompanying the seat is an amenity kit featuring an eco-friendly toothbrush, cooling body gel, multi-purpose balm, pillow mist, and an adjustable eye mask with earplugs. Beyond that, there's tons of hidden storage around here, right here, and then right here. Look how sneaky this is. Boom. Another compartment, perfect for your passport, phone, all the stuff you don't want spilling out of your pocket when you're sleeping on your lay flatbed during an overnight flight. Right here we have our blanket and of course some nice slippers. Right here. You can adjust everything with your seat from sitting up to laying down flat to even calling a flight attendant. Last but not least, a hook for your jacket. Listen, it's all about the details. Thank you so much. There's no better way to be welcomed than with a hot towel, especially in humid Hong Kong when you're traveling at midnight. Very nice. And perhaps the best part of this whole pod is that there's a door right here. So when we're flying, I'll actually have my own private area here in the airplane. Finally, nobody watching me and judging how fast I'm eating. Oh, hello. Some welcome free mama. Yes. What do you have? We do have our signature Cathay Delight and oranges, water, some welcome champagne as well. Could I have champagne? And can I try the other one, too? The Cathay Delight. You say Cathay Delight. Yes. This is our refreshing welcome drink. So, thank you very much for having a describe. Thank you. Cathay Delight is a blend of kiwi juice, coconut milk, and fresh mint. Feeling fresh. At last, we finally leave the ground. And I'm getting closer to that meal. 9 hours from now, we'll arrive in a country I'll reveal by the end of this video. Ladies and gentlemen, we are at altitude. The dinner service has begun. And take a look at this. Here we have roasted halibut with scallion oil and butter sauce. This dish is created in partnership with Michelin starrated restaurant Duddles. The halibut fillet is marinated with spring onion, ginger, salt, pepper, and a touch of oil. Then it's baked to perfection. Meanwhile, jasmine rice is stir-fried with bok choy and pickled radish. Now the baked fish is out of the oven and the packing begins. Each portion gets a halibut fillet, a scoop of butter sauce, a bowl of fried rice, and a small heap of stir-fried vegetables and pickled mustard greens. Every component is packed separately. You don't want your halibut sitting in the sauce for a day before eating. Once on board, the flight attendants reheat each part and assemble the dish on an elegant business class plate. And we're back. Time to dig in. Over here, they're calling this Shanghai vegetable rice. I've never heard the word Shanghai before. I like it. Very good. And much better than just a plain boring white rice. This tastes perfectly cooked. I kind of can't believe it's been reheated on a plane. You would never know. I'm going to move some of these herbs back and reveal that delicious fatty skin. Everything today has built up to this moment. Let's give it a shot. Oh, that's good. Tender, flaky, super delicious, rich skin, but my god, that sauce that's on there. It's a delicious blend of flavors. It's super savory. It has incredible flavor. It is fully seasoned. I love it. Here we have those carrots and French cut beans. Kind of crazy that the French were the first to figure out how to cut beans. After hanging out with Chef William, I've learned that this inflight meal is so much more than a meal. First, you have to season for altitude. Second, you have to cook the food, cool it down, then reheat it on the airplane and make it feel like it was freshly cooked for the first time. Third, it's not enough just to be able to make a meal that tastes good. You have to be able to recreate that meal thousands and thousands of times over and over again. Fourth, dessert. What is dessert? So, it turns out on this flight they have a number of dessert options, so I've decided to go with all of them. We have the classic fruit and also cheese with crackers. Right here we have a delicious... and ice cream. I went with macadamia nut flavor. Right here we have a panna cotta. And then right here, this is a jelly. This jelly is what I'm most curious about. Let's dig into it. That's pretty good actually. It tastes like tea. It's sweet. Really nice. They have just dimmed the light. So I think I need to dim this light because I brought it with me on the airplane. After I finished all the desserts, I took a 5-hour nap. Right now I'm 1 hour away from my final destination. And that means it's time for breakfast. On this flight, they have a bunch of different breakfast options, but I've gone with the Chinese option. Here's why. It was just yesterday morning that we were on that factory floor watching over 600 lb of congee being made at one time. And now we have this, the congee. They spruced it up with mushroom, chicken, scallions, and ginger. On the side, stir-fried noodles, and a little bit of fruit. Also, we have some water for rehydration and iced coffee for dehydration. Let's give it a shot. Easy. It looks plain, that bite I just had, but it's full of delicious chicken fat flavor. Very rich, savory, and delicious. Right here we have a bite full of mushrooms, ginger, scallions. Now, that is chicken congee for the soul. A bowl of congee that was mass-produced, but still somehow tastes like it was made by my Chinese mother. It's that good. Let's talk about my final destination because I want you to guess where I'm going, which may not be easy because Cathay Pacific flies to over 100 locations, but here are three clues. Number one, it is a 9-hour flight from Hong Kong. Number two, it is somewhere where I have filmed a series before, but I didn't film any restaurants. And number three, it is in the southern hemisphere. If your guess for my final stop was Melbourne, Australia, you nailed it. I've come here to take on this country's most iconic Australian food, which you'll soon see in a future video. But for now, I want to say a huge thank you to Cathay Pacific for giving me a peek behind the culinary curtain. And until next time, peace.

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