Westin Hotel

I really don’t have much feedback on this experience since we didn’t order very much.  However, I do remember that they had a cafe in the hotel, which is attached to the kitchen that prepared my catering.  They had beautiful desserts displayed.  I would recommend picking out desserts by trying them first.  Also, just make sure you can keep your food cold from the hotel to the airport.  I had asked for ice to be packed with food and didn’t get it.  I should have showed them exactly what I wanted.  The following are the notes I took:

DATE – used Westin Hotel for catering. Contact was Jahid: kitchencoordinator.dhaka@westin.com, Mobile: 880.175.210.7008. He did a great job. The passengers only had red lentil soup and naan. The soup was VERY good.  They all cleaned their plates. Crew ate the simosas and the tomato and cheese puff pastries. They were not great, but not bad. Didn’t have a chance to eat anything else. I had requested that ice be put at the bottom of the crate holding the food to keep it cool on way to airport, but they packed the crate without the ice. I gave them a box of zip lock bags, plastic containers for liquids and oven tins for the food. It all worked out well. The naan is VERY good from here. Got dry ice and wet ice from FBO. Got newspapers from The Westin. Jahid met with us 36 hours before delivery to discuss order. This was very helpful.  I also had a chance to go through order one hour before we left hotel to make sure it was all there. 

VIP Jet Girl

Finnair Catering

I used Finnair out of Helsinki.  I have only been there once, but here are my notes on them:

DATE – Finnair Catering –  Contact was Marja: marja.ruuhamo@finnair.com, Mobile: +358 50 393 5046. They were easy to work with. They were waiting at aircraft when we arrived to aircraft. Beef Panini was chunks of filet cooked medium rare, pax ate all. The omelets were a great size, they came individually in economy size oven tins. The bratwurst sausage was very good. The potatoes were very good. All 3 pax ordered omelets with sausage and potatoes and cleaned their plates. The breakfast bread selection was nice. The bleu cheese quiche was outstanding. They were out of crème brulée cake, so ordered tiramisu cake. Cake was good, but so soft, almost mushy. Thought yogurt + muesli dessert would be like cold oatmeal that other crewmembers were discussing, but it wasn’t. It was just plain yogurt with granola and honey. 

Overall I was very impressed.  I definitely won’t hesitate to use them again.  I don’t have a website for them, but they will work with you if you call Marja.

VIP Jet Girl

TajSATS Air Catering

This is the cater I used in New Delhi.  They were recommended by Universal Aviation.  These are the airports they serve: Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Amritsar, Goa and Bangalore

Here are the notes I have on them:

DATE – used Tajsats Catering. They are associated with the Taj Palace hotel. My contact was Bipin: bipin.upadhyay@tajhotels.com, DID: 91 11 2566 0040. His colleague is Sanjeev.gujral@tajhotels.com, mobile: 9899448484. They met with me at the hotel to review the order. This was very helpful. The mulligatawny soup was very good. The timbale of salmon filet with pernod sauce was very good. They had dry ice and wet ice, flowers and newspapers. Next time need to specifically request FT and Wall Street Journal as airport had these papers, but they were not delivered with catering order. Caterer recommended the Indian dishes chosen and they were all excellent.  I gave them oven tins and zip lock bags and plastic containers and asked them to label every single container.  They did a great job.

Here is their website - http://www.tajsats.com/srv_food.htm.

VIP Jet Girl

Gourmet Inflight Catering

This is the cater I use in New Jersey.  They service: TEB Teterboro, EWR Newark Intl', MMU Morristown, JFK John F. Kennedy, LGA La Guardia, FRG Republic, HPN Westchester, ISP MacCarther Islip, SWF Stewart Intl'.  

Here are my notes exactly as I typed them for myself:

Spoke to owner/chef of Gourmet Inflight Catering (Aret – pronounced like Aaron). He spent 15-20 minutes with me going over good options for pairing food and making other suggestions. His email is Gourmetair5@msn.com. He also owns restaurant called Martini Grill and gives 20% discount to crews.

DATE – They did an excellent job on everything. The catering was on time. They picked up the plates from the FBO and pre-plated the salads. The skewers were amazing along with the Caribbean type glaze they sent for cooking. The Sea bass was a hit and they were huge. The potato leek soup was really good and portioned properly. The key lime mousse was a hit with the crews. Their lemon wraps were very simple. Not pretty like (Abby’s in Houston). I didn’t try the Caribbean vinaigrette, but the passengers ate most of their salads. The only problem was that the dressing separated really bad.

DATE – Turkey club sandwich did not come with cheese, must request that cheese be on sandwich. Sandwich had 3 slices of bread, which was a bit overkill. Next time ask for 2 slices bread. I asked that the bread come not toasted, just a few grill marks at the most because I was going to heat it in the oven. The bread came crisp. The minestrone looked good and the pax ate it all. The cob salad didn’t look great. The avocados looked old and the eggs had dark rings around the outside. The lettuce was slightly wilted. Dressings came in nice small bottles. Flat bread cracker basket only had one kind of cracker in it. Boxed lunches looked good; my mushroom ravioli was very good. The Caesar salad was good. The chocolate mousse cake had a beautiful presentation with grapes, a flower and an orange rind in the shape of a rose. Dry ice came in one big block even though I asked for 3 3x5 pieces. The dinner rolls were long (like hoagies). I had to cut them in half.

DATE – Everything was good. Ordered crab cake salad with lemon vinaigrette dressing. Salad was BEAUTIFUL. Both pilots and passengers ate both crab cakes and loved the salad. Passenger ate all the minestrone soup. I ordered a cracker basket and all they went were packets of oyster crackers. The cookies and cream cake was excellent, passenger really liked it.

DATE – Ordered souffléed omelet with roasted cauliflower, spinach and gruyer. It was really good, although (pilot) didn’t like it as well as regular omelets. It was light and fluffy and reheated nicely. Turkey sausage was good, but next time need to specify diameter. They were big circles, but flat. The lox display was nice. I didn’t order everything (like eggs or tomatoes) but they included it in the order anyway – that was nice.

I ALWAYS appreciate a caterer who will spend time helping me plan menus.  They know what they do best and what is best from their region.  So, of course I like that I can call Aret and he will work with me. 

You can get their menu here - http://www.gourmet-air.com/index_airports.html.  Their number is (201) 460-0777.  I also have a second number (201) 460-0743.  The email address you can use is gourmetair5@msn.com.

VIP Jet Girl

Danielle’s Catering

Danielle’s Catering is my preferred caterer in Boston. 

These are my notes exactly as I took them:

Danielle’s – danielleinflight@aol.com – DATE – spent about 10-15 minutes on phone with me suggesting items for good seafood plate. Ordered lobster, seared scallops, shrimp. Everything looked wonderful. They labeled all the sauces as “hot” or “cold”. The broccoli and cheese soup was really good. The stuffed clam appetizer went over really well with passengers. The wedge salad was plain with only crushed black pepper and blue cheese on side. Next time need to order it with bacon crumbles, chopped tomatoes, eggs, crumbled blue cheese and ranch or blue cheese dressing. Have caterer wrap wedges in damp paper towels in plastic bags. Chocolate covered strawberries looked great.

Danielle’s –  DATE – Everything great! I ordered cold seafood platter for 4 and asked them to send all sauces. Need to order more portions than needed of cold seafood platter. I barely fed 4. Grilled veggies went well with cold seafood platter. Stuffed crab with spicy marinara was huge hit. Assorted mouse cakes went over well. Spinach ravioli with grilled chicken was great. They sent marinara and pesto. The pesto was excellent. The marinara was also very good - lots of compliments on how it looked. Every bite of clam chowder got eaten.

It’s been over a year since I’ve been to Boston, so I can’t remember a lot of specifics.  This is all I have to share.  They really are great though. 

They don’t have a website, but their phone number is (781) 853-6330.  I have a mobile number as (617) 460-5996.  You can get a sample of their menu here - http://www.allmenus.com/ma/revere/236684-danielles-catering/menu/

VIP Jet Girl

Kincaid Grill

Kincaid Grill is located in Anchorage.  They are the only caterer I have used in Alaska, but they are very good.  Kincaid Grill is a restaurant near the airport, but they work with at least one other restaurant in Anchorage – Bridge Restaurant, which is nice, upscale establishment.

Kincaid Grill specializes in Alaska regional cuisine, but they can do anything.  My very favorite thing is Reindeer Sausage.  I never go to Alaska without ordering it.  They do not provide dry ice or newspapers, but they will work with the fbo to get them for you.  I have used them multiple times.  The following are my personal notes about them:

• Reindeer sausage – Excellent
• Apple wood bacon – excellent flavor, but need to order crispy next time
• salmon scramble is good
• Reindeer sausage breakfast burritos very good 
• They did a great job with the stuffed mushrooms
• They artichoke dip was good and the bell pepper bowls worked great
• They bundled crudités in cucumber rings just like I asked
• They send purple orchids when you ask for orchids
• The halibut is excellent
• The lemon, caper butter is very good and looks nice to serve over food
• I ordered sautéed chicken with sautéed bell peppers to serve over penne pasta with lemon, caper butter – it was light and very good
• The sushi trays were great.  They sent real wasabi on the tray, and the passengers ate every bit of it
• I ordered tabouli and hummus with veggies crudités and pita bread triangles.  The hummus was really good.  The tabouli was dry – I’ve definitely had better.  The veggies were fresh and looked great
• I ordered assorted mini cakes on trays.  The passengers didn’t eat any, but the cakes looked great
• I ordered freshly squeezed orange juice and grapefruit juice – they were regular juice with sugar
• They do shaped butter if you order it

Kincaid Grill does a great job.  The chef is Drew Johnson.  His email is chef@kincaidgrill.com.  His phone number is (907) 243-0507.

You can get their inflight menu here: http://www.kincaidgrill.com/inflight.html.

VIP Jet Girl

DeLuxe Executive Catering

DeLuxe is a company that most flight attendants LOVE, and I have never heard anything bad about them except for one one mess-up my company experienced.  We had multiple airplanes in one of the cities leaving within 30 minutes of each other.  DeLuxe saw that there were multiple orders and assumed it was a mistake on our part, so they only delivered one order and left the other planes without catering.  IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE AIRPLANE MAKE SURE THEY KNOW THAT.  (I have also had this happen in Alaska, so it is a good rule of thumb to make sure caterers are aware of multiple aircraft no matter where you go.)  I have been told that DeLuxe does all of the catering for the Royal Family, which should be referral enough, but I was not overly impressed with my experience.  I had a better experience with Air Culinaire out of London.

I will say that they have a fabulous menu that I use for ideas when I am planning menus. 

This is a list of the cities they serve (UK): Biggin Hill, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, Brize Norton RAF, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Exeter, Farnborough, Gatwick, Heathrow, Lasham, London City, Luton, Lyneham RAF, Manchester, Manston, Northolt RAF, Oxford, Southampton, Southend, Stansted

Here are my notes on DeLuxe:

• They don’t do direct billing, so I had to give them a credit card.
• I ordered a chicken and rice soup at the last minute for a sick passenger. Driver stopped and picked up a creamy chicken soup (need to be more specific about broth based soup in other countries).
• Since we were meeting the aircraft and doing a crew change I asked that the driver arrive at 10:45 and be able to stay until noon.  This wasn’t a problem.
• They asked over the phone what I meant by orchids (blooms or stems). I said I wanted 6 of just the blooms. They sent 6 stems. I need to figure out how to be more specific about that or just order one stem with 6 blooms on it.
• Fresh fruit basket looked good.
• The shepherd’s pie from Air Culinaire was to die for. I was not impressed with Deluxe’s shepherd’s pie. It was greasy and didn’t have much flavor.
• The roasted new potatoes were nothing special.
• The Portobello mushroom was good, but tasted like it had been marinated in red wine, which is not my favorite.
• The cauliflower au gratin was a letdown.
• The sushi and sashimi tray looked really good. They sent wasabi in a tube.

I hate to tell you not to give them a try because everyone else that I talk to raves about them, and because the Royal Family uses them.  So, you can find their website and menu here.

Safe flying and safe food handling,

VIP Jet Girl