Creative Kitchens
Excellence in East Africa
Addis Ababa is an increasingly important hub in East Africa. The country is full of surprises and Addis International Catering is no exception. Jo Austin visits a remarkable achievement in airline catering in Africa
Swedish-born Tomas Jämtander has always been a man keen to take on a challenge, and his energy and foresight as coo of this superb facility in East Africa will surely put Addis International Catering in the very forefront of the world’s airline industry. Together with his hand-picked international
team of competent, skilled professionals including operations manager Kamal Amarasinge; executive chef Willy Reisen; purchasing manager Gamini Salgado; adgm sales and customer services Makeda Yohannes, Tomas is focused on the expansion and development of the business to deliver excellence to Africa and the world. If first impressions are anything to go by, then he has a very good chance of doing just that. Located beside the runway of Bole International Airport, operations at the 15,000m2 facility began in 2008 with the backing of Sheikh Mohammed Al Amoudi, Ethiopia’s leading business man, a major investor in the country in projects ranging from 5 star hotels to agricultural development on a massive scale. The facility’s first airline customer was KLM and this has been swiftly followed by Emirates, Egypt Air and Saudi Arabian Airlines. Return catering is on offer to Turkish Airlines, bmi and Kenya Airways and as Ethiopia grows its tourism, the business hopes to expand alongside. With a capacity for up to 15,000 halal meals
a day, Tomas is now ready to receive new airline clients who might be stopping over in this important hub. The kitchen already caters a wide number of VIP flights out of Addis for clients such as the United Nations and African Union and current production is running at around 1000 meals a day with the help of 235 local staff who work shifts to keep the facility open 24/7. An inspection of the facility reveals superb
dry storage facilities where local and imported foods are stored separately. All incoming
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www.onboardhospitality.com
The hand-picked team at Addis International Catering
goods including meat, fish, vegetables and fruit are weighed, scanned and temperature- checked before being stored in separate cool or frozen storage facilities to ensure no cross- contamination and temperatures are monitored by computer as well as manually. Daily colour- coding on foods gives instant indication of their ‘use-by date”. All eggs are pasteurised using another Swedish device! . State-of-the-art European kitchen equipment
and chillers and impressive stainless steel prep areas demonstate a unit ready for business. Even the inter-department doors have been designed to open ‘on touch’ to avoid any scratches. The
main kitchen has separate arenas for fish, meat and pantry. Says Willy: “We make our own vegetable stock.
There is very little pre-portioning in Ethiopia so this is a job done in-house before cooking.”
“We are HACCP compliant and our in-house laboratory has the capacity to analyse wide microbiological parameters of all our products”
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