Creative Kitchens


the process is ongoing. The results are already excellent. Says Graham: “When I came here it was obvious that our seven local stations were where we needed to concentrate our efforts. ITCA’s first hygiene seminar in Kazakhstan two years ago was another step on the road to developing standards


Hubert shows each kitchen how to cook the menus and how to develop items they didn’t previously cook, as well as doing hygiene audits.


and it was followed up by another last October, again led by ITCA’s training consultant Colin Banks and director of business development Luciano Rossi (see page 110)


“We have to talk to each of our Kazakhstan kitchens separately as they are all owned independently,” observes Graham. “So we recognised the need for a chef to come in and go around the individual units to impart some idea of what is needed specifically to do good inflight catering.” Enter in May 2009 Hubert D’Mello, lately of Emirates, and well known to Graham from his days in Dubai. Hubert initially came in as consultant chef, and is now to join the Air Astana team full time. “We’re both chefs,” says Graham, “we get on well and we each understand the way the other works. We set out by going to the caterer to find out what the raw material


availability is at each station. We go to the shops and markets, we go to the abattoir to check on the cuts of meat, we take it back to basics. Then we design menus that are not too complex and based on regular availability. Hubert then gets out and shows each kitchen how to cook the menus, how to develop items they previously didn’t cook, as well as doing hygiene audits.”


At first there was some resistance to an outsider, says Hubert. Now he is welcomed and has equipped himself with enough of the language to be able to say everything he needs to in catering terms. As Graham says: “We are not criticising, we are building partnerships with them, helping them and thus helping ourselves at the same time, as well as all the unit’s other customers. And we have made tremendous progress. We now use only fresh vegetables in Business, frozen in Economy, no canned products at all. We have vastly enlarged the range of meal items we can


is the benchmark for the whole of central Asia. Our priority is still a very heavy emphasis on continuing training programmes for our 800 or so cabin crew. By the end of next year we’ll have 1000. Specifically, we are working on management structures so that all our crew members belong to a group and feel they have the support of their manager at all times, whatever the problem, professional or personal.” On catering, says Trevor, there are some interesting challenges ahead. ”We already tend to offer quite a lot on short sectors, and now we are looking at increasing the choice on these flights. A while ago we couldn’t have relied too much on sandwich-type offerings, but now that the kitchens have started to produce really good quality bread we have a lot more possibilities in that area.” He too is appreciative of the input Hubert has with the caterers: “There was one particular lady who initially told him ‘we can’t do omelettes, we don’t do omelettes.’ In the end she did, and now when Hubert goes in she rushes up and gives him a big hug and asks what he is planning to do that day on the menu development. She is just loving learning new skills, and as Hubert’s Russian is also getting very good, everyone benefits.” Which pretty much encapsulates the Air Astana story to date.


Hubert d’Mello: new ideas for local kitchen


call on for our menus.” In addition, Hubert’s activities at home give Graham more freedom to deal with catering activities at all of Air Astana’s 23 outstations abroad.


Another new face at Air Astana is inflight services director Trevor Wood. He has now been in place for just over a year, bringing with him 20 years’ experience in service delivery. “What we’ve embarked on here is to put the customer right at the centre, and if you look at our results on Skytrax audits you can see that we’ve come from zero to hero in a relatively short time. What we offer now


Asian Winter Games Air Astana was the official carrier for the seventh Asian Winter Games held in Almaty and Astana in February this year (2011) It is estimated the event hosted 2,500 athletes from 32 countries and some 10,000 visitors. www.airastana.com


www.onboardhospitality.com


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