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Airline food are perhaps made with the
lofty intention of keeping you occupied all through the long haul. Rather
than looking out of the window which provides a vista to a scary science-fiction-like
emptiness, airlines smartly let your mind focus on how to chew that sandwich
which seem to be re-inforced with leather and expandable plastic or that
lentil soup that is thoughtfully laced with liquid adhesive. Most of the
stuff that are on airline menu seem directly sourced from the cargo department.
With such things in the mouth, nobody can ever manage to open it (mouth)
for anything else. Most turbulence that flights experience mid-air are
in reality a manifestation of the collective turbulence in the stomachs
of the passengers after partaking of airline food. Most airlines go out
of the way to strictly maintain this assiduously-set industry standard.
But SriLankan Airlines seems to have moved away from this high tradition and is providing food that can be actually ingested and enjoyed. For this you have to blame the SriLankan Catering (Private) Limited, a fully-owned subsidiary of SriLankan Airlines. Situated cheek by jowl Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake, the swanky and squeaky-clean building, where nearly 15,000 meals per day are despatched out to over 14 airlines that touch Colombo, the whole facility in itself is a huge attraction and deserves a visit for the way in which culinary art has been templated to rigorous engineering standards and specifications. Perhaps, that is why we, a group of visiting journalists from Tamilnadu, were straight away taken to this place, upon touching down at the Colombo airport. In many ways, it was also reassuring to know that the food that one ate in-flight had gone through such rigours of hygiene standards and attention to taste and feel. The stomach could rest easy. |
| The thing about this catering facility
is that it is a happy mix of mechanised efficiency and human ingenuity.
'After all, we are dealing with food, something that ends up in stomach.
Its origin, however, should always be from the heart,' Orreal rationalises
his culinary concept.
Sudhish Kumar Pande, Production Manager, an Indian, also shares this simple philosophy. Orreal and Pande, who showed us around the sprawling complex and the way various items are prepared, say 'Once prepared the meals are placed in cold storage, usually 18 hours prior to a flight's departure.' Close interaction between catering and cabin staff helps them understand and appreciate the importance of heating in-flight meals to the right temperatures,' he points out. SriLankan Catering has also got its own laboratory and employs microbiologists and technicians to constantly analyse random food samples during various stages of preparation. The facility, as Orreal says, has the capacity to make nearly 25,000 meals a day without really stretching. The company has won several awards for both standardisation as well as quality and taste. And, as Orreal says, it is still improving. Now that is a frightful thought. It is like the present Australian team still improving. How better can it get? Well, talking of cricket, it is the only problem for Orreal. Being an passionate Aussie in a passionate Sri Lankan company, he is at a loss to support which team in the World Cup finals. 'It is a difficult choice,' he says as he points out the two nations' colours in his collar. It is perhaps like finding out whether food should appeal to the heart or the stomach. |
facility near Colombo. |