Creative Kitchens
“Saudi Arabia is the main provider of fresh meat, fish and vegetables but plans are afoot to create a fruit and vegetable farm in the north of Ethiopia”
However, Willy is working on local suppliers to adapt their service to prepare items such as Tilapia in required portions and onions are now pre-peeled and sliced for Emirates. The fully-equipped modern bakery produces pastries, breads and desserts as well as the staple Ethiopian sour dough pancake, injeera, appreciated by staff and apparently KLM crew! The greatest challenge for a caterer in this part
of the world is the provision of fresh supplies. Saudi Arabia is the main provider of fresh meat, fish and vegetables but plans are afoot for the caterer to create its own vegetable and fruit farm in the north of the country. Bananas and papaya will continue to be imported, but Ethiopia is working hard to improve its harvest. On the subject of ‘seasonal’ meals Willy sadly
acknowledged that most airlines simply don’t care. “I commit to give the best fruit in season. This month I am featuring locally-grown cherry tomatoes. In reality Emirates First passengers want what they want and most of our products are brought in from Saudi Arabia. We are 1000 miles from the sea and simply cannot produce the quality required locally.” Built to the very highest specification, it would
appear that no sector has been overlooked in this thoroughly modern kitchen. Swedish- style efficiency and regard for the environment pervades the entire facility. This extends to
power regeneration and the country’s only micro biological testing centre. Heat extracted from the facility’s fridges is cleverly directed to the water heating plant to heat water throughout the unit. There is a water-treating plant and all wash-water is re-used to irrigate gardens and also the company’s impressive greenhouse where Willy organically grows his cooking herbs. All the unit’s power is supplied by hydro- electricity with three back-up generators and water from the municipality is taken through carbon filters and UV filters before put to use. Adds Kamal; “We have a three-day back up of water supply in case of any emergency.” Catering waste is sorted by the Swedish ENVAC system and dish washing is with Diskomat. The place is spotless and, as Kamal readily admits: “Cleanliness is our obsession, even the garbage has no smell!” Everything is monitored day and night by a rack of computers set up by catering software specialist, Inflair. Says Tomas: “Hygiene is a major challenge
in Ethiopia and we have had to pioneer several projects to train our staff and food suppliers to understand the importance of hand and food hygiene. We now have a regular source of suppliers around the country who have been trained exactly to our precise requirement in both hygiene and preparation”. We are HACCP compliant and our in-house laboratory has a capacity to analyse wide microbiological
TOMAS JÄMTANDER WITH EDITOR, JO AUSTIN
Born in Falun in Sweden and married to Yolanda with two sons, Tomas is a familiar face on the airline catering scene. Before moving to Addis last year he was
vp operations in Mumbai for Oberoi Flight Services and Oberoi Airport Services with a staff of 1300. Tomas was responsible for overall operational effectiveness for all Oberoi’s India units which produced 25,000 meals a day. Prior to this Tomas was based in Manila
for nine years working as gm and coo of MacroAsia Catering Services, formerly MacroAsia-Eurest Catering. The unit produced 8,000 airline meals daily for Air New Guinea, Air Macau, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, Emirates, FedEx, Japan Airlines, KLM, Korean Air, Lufthansa, Northwest Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Singapore Airlines. Tomas started his catering career
with SAS Service Partner in Saudi Arabia having trained originally in business and accounting. When not working Tomas enjoys golf, bowling, watersports and, fortunately, travel!
www.onboardhospitality.com 39
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