taupo

Best part of AC 40’s dinner

MillennialMiles

If you are complaining about AC's food then wait until you see what the US Big 3 offer on their flights....

Can AC provide better catering? Of course they can but compared to other airlines they compete with in the same market, they are above-average.

songsc

Best part of dinner is the man in the iPad?! 😳

Has food on AC got this bad?

zkzkz

That looks like Patriot https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4687882/ which was I think the most surreal TV series I've seen. I still can't quite wrap my head around that series and really can't figure out how they ever managed to get that made.

Foboscan

They are competing against many other airlines on most international destinations (transatlantic, etc.) Air Canada International J soft product is definitely not above average.

zkzkz

This is just my opinion but for what it's worth I really don't think this is a "you get what you pay for" or "they could order better food if they wanted to" thing. I think AC actually intends for the food to be pretty high end and competitive with the best J products around the world. I think that because if you look at the menus they're pretty ambitious with lots of expensive ingredients. Things like Foie Gras, Octopus, etc are not items you put on your menu when you're trying to cut corners.

I think this is really an "execution" problem. They just don't have the organizational structure with the right people in place given sufficient authority and time to make things happen the way they want. In my past job experience I've seen consultants hired given a mandate and then not been supervised and managed closely enough afterward. What was delivered checked all the boxes but failed to actually deliver the business value that was needed. I'm sure the meals being shown to AC management to get signed off are truly superior but nobody's checking on the performance afterward or they don't have the authority or time to correct problems continously to ensure the meals actually delivered on the plane maintain that standard. And the executives that signed off them aren't spending the energy or time to follow up and make sure it's happening.

A lot of the things that are wrong with AC meals are little things that require attention to detail, not big things like ingredients that show up on contracts. Things like whether butter and cheese is served ice cold. Whether meals are soggy or crispy, whether the salt levels are consistent or all over the place, etc. These things require management that's closely engaged with front line staff and involved in day to day operations, not just signing off on contracts once and then hoping it works out on the ground (or in the air).

songsc

This is an interesting perspective, and I think you are right. On most international routes, the ingredients AC offers are indeed on par with other carriers. The black cod/sablefish from the 2015 Hawksworth menu is the only premium ingredient that has been missing I think. One reason I feel like AC is trying to cut costs is that the overall meal quality has been getting worse over the years. The portion size seems to be getting smaller, cheese has been missing in J salad, and the preparation and/or reheating has been getting much worse.

The Lev

To zkzkz 's point, I also wonder how much of this rests with the caterer - Gategroup.

I'm curious, are the Asian carriers offering a significantly better J meal on their flights leaving Canada. I ask because there isn't a lot of choice of caterers serving airlines from Canadian airports.

songsc

CX, BR, TK, EK all offer slightly better to much better meals IMO but the meals out of YYZ are usually worse than the meals from their hubs. TK also offers rubber steak out of YYZ but usually have no problem offering at least medium well steaks from IST and other airports. Some carriers offer braised beef/lamb instead of steak out of YYZ.

My understanding is that the better carriers are more aware of the catering issues at YYZ and they try their best to offer meals that are hard to mess up. Having onboard chefs or FAs who really care about reheating and plating also helps.

EdmFlyBoi

It is about attention to detail, and also caring to deliver on that detail, that really separates BR and SQ apart from many others. AC, and many other carriers just don’t attend to the details that matter.

songsc

Another difference is PAX/FA ratio. On TK B777s there are 7-8 FAs serving 49 passengers. Two chefs, one in each galley, 4 FAs working on each aisle in each cabin, and 1-2 FAs walking around with bread basket and handling drink refills. You won't wait too long between each course and the meal won't be sitting too long in the oven or getting cold. There are many small details such as the appetizer plate is cold but the main course plate is heated. I don't have the exact details of other carriers I mentioned, but my observation is that there are at least 5 if not more FAs serving J cabin with 40+ seats.

There are many great FAs on AC, but can they really do twice as much work as the average TK FAs?

canadiancow

I've smelled cooking food shortly after pushback.

I've been served (still) frozen food.

I suspect the former is when they want to be fast, and the latter is when they don't want to overcook everything.

But I agree. The change from 1:40 to 1:50 was extremely noticeable in J. And that's insignificant compared to the differences between AC J and certain OAL J.

Stranger

We don't fly West Asian or middle eastern airlines. This said, my take has long been that service in J deterioration has clearly been associated with the last reduction in cabin staffic. Now a while again, perhaps closer to tn years than five.

Stranger

At least they finally figured the proper English name of turmeric. While in the past they had been using the French word, curcuma, on gtheir English menu.

StuckInYYZ

I'm curious if anyone has done a "test kitchen" run with Air Canada. It just seems to me that some of the stuff appears tested while others have not. While the photos give us some idea of what happens, but it'd be interesting to see meal prep, selection, build and then reheating. We get some idea of how some airlines work, but I'd like to see the process for AC.