BlueSky Business Aviation News
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Paula Kraft, founder and President of Atlanta, GA-based Tastefully Yours Catering. 

NBAA: Something for everyone!

he NBAA wrapped up another successful conference last week as about 26,000 attendees including 1100 exhibitors departed sunny Orlando, Florida.

It was a jam-packed conference with sessions too numerous to attend all the ones I had placed on my wish list. The selection was well rounded and there was something for absolutely everyone.

I wish I could have had a few extra days added to the conference in order to meet with everyone I wanted, to see all the exhibits, and to visit every aircraft at the static display. With so many awesome exhibitors, three days is just not enough time to see and do everything.

I’ll make a suggestion that I think could help . . . the Orlando Orange County Conference Center needs to build a tram that runs between the north, south, east and west, convention halls. It felt as if I was constantly running between the halls. If the tram idea doesn’t go over, wouldn’t it be fun to ride those stand-up scooters around the hall? They would need blind spot indicators for me. The exhibit hall is HUGE!

One event I was able to attend was the Women in Corporate Aviation (WCA) luncheon.

I was fortunate to hear Amelia Rose Earhart (the youngest female to circumnavigate the globe in a single engine aircraft) speak and present an extremely motivational program about her journey around the world on the same path as the first Amelia did decades ago.

Totally inspiring! Impressive journey! At times, I was even moved to tear up over her speech.

Amelia Rose Earhart 

Isha Jordan entertained us with a dynamic production of scholarship presentations totaling over $90,000.00 USD, which included a $ 22,000.00 USD scholarship award to Rachel Borsa offered by CAE SimuFlite for a Citation 3 initial simulator training and if that was not enough Flight Safety International offered a $27,600.00 USD for a Cessna 560XL or Citation 560XLS type rating.

Scholarships were also awarded for three FAA Dispatcher licenses, corporate flight attendant training from Susan Friedenberg, and Initial training from Beyond and Above, MedAir offered a two day medical training to name just a few. In all seventeen scholarships were awarded bringing the yearly total of scholarships awarded by Women in Corporate Aviation (WCA) to $96,070.00 USD. It is such an honor for me to be part of this group of stellar women and men working together to enhance and to assist anyone who has the desire and passion to succeed in business aviation.

WCA is a non-profit organization and our mission is to provide the mentoring, the scholarships, and the networking to help these individuals move forward with their careers and education. Dr. Peggy Cabrian, President of Women in Aviation International (WAI), spoke and invited our guests and scholarship winners to attend the WAI conference in 2015. The primary WAI direction of focus, in my opinion, is commercial, military, and airline. There is some cross movement between the two organizations, but I felt that my involvement in Woman in Corporate Aviation would be more focused in the same field as my passion . . . general aviation. I want to assist in mentoring, providing and searching for corporate scholarship donations and networking introductions along the side of its founder, Liz Clark.

The International Flight Attendant committee was officially born this past week and was given the right to spread its wings under the direct guidance of EBAA.

For the past 5 years this conference has been coordinated by the NBAA Flight Attendant Committee’s International Steering Committee of which I was a part. This group now flies with European board members under the capable direction of Anne Chuard of Gama Aviation and EBAA. An official EBAA sponsored flight attendant/flight tech conference is now being organized to be held in Brussels, Belgium for September 2015. The European Flight Attendant Crew Symposium breakfast will be held at this year’s EBACE conference in Geneva Switzerland. May 2015. Mark your calendars and help us celebrate the beginning of the New EBAA Flight Attendant Committee!

Since conference time was a precious commodity, Air Culinaire decided to host a trial run of their new culinary, food safety and food allergy training the day after the conclusion of BACE. I was honored to attend. John Detloff, VP of Flight Attendant Services for Air Culinaire was the chef who prepared, organized and planned the program.

I arrived at Air Culinaire World Headquarters and was given a tour of their facility by President Paul Schweitzer before arriving a bit late for the culinary class (my fault as I haven’t mastered google maps yet and tend to always get lost). I was impressed with their facility, their staff, the friendliness of everyone there. I had no idea they had grown by such leaps and bounds since I last visited. The culinary classroom was awesome! My compliments to the Air Culinaire team and John Detloff - truly wonderful!

Each Student had his/her own preparation station, fully stocked, and John led our group through a shortened review of their food safety program. The food safety presentation was very well done, tied directly to aircraft and flight attendant needs and idiosyncrasies. John presented food safety with some humor, inserting antidotes of his personal experience as a flight attendant, but, with every bit of well-deserved attention to the knowledge that we needed to understand. I was so pleased to see that spark in the attendee’s eyes, at the moment they “got it”. Again…Well Done John!

When I first started to speak about the need for food safety training years ago, I could empty a room by saying “hi, I am here to talk about food safety”. It was a subject no one wanted to hear . . . Pilots and others told me they had cast iron stomachs and never got sick. Fortunately, people did listen and programs are being developed that are aviation specific. We now have three that I personally recommend which are all very different and teach to different levels and with different formats within the subject matter.

GA Food Safety Professionals (www.aviationfoodsafetytraining.com ) has an on line program, Yasmin Lee-Milner (YMilner@corporateflighttraining.com) from Europe has a program she presented at last year’s EBACE Flight crew symposium - all well done. Air Culinaire also offers a short program in food allergies, and gluten free catering, service, and regional caterings to name a few.

This half day would have been enough to make the journey worthwhile, but there was more. John had more surprises. With our Air Culinaire chef’s coats on, and a fully stocked work station, we prepared our lunch under John’s watchful eye. Beginning with a pear and feta salad garnished with fresh pomegranate seeds and our own vinaigrette creation, then creating both a seared shrimp and sea scallop meal and a Korean Pork Tenderloin meal, I felt I needed to waddle back to my station when John whipped up an incredible bombshell making a quick and easy chocolate mousse with an avocado base. That’s right - my nose turned a bit and I really questioned his judgment, but when I braved the taste I was in shock! Fantastic and truly giving new meaning to a healthy dessert . . . avocado and Spanish chocolate! How could anyone resist? I must compliment John and Air Culinaire on their new training.

I liked the fact that we were given ingredients and challenged to create our interpretation of the plating. Everyone looked at the pieces differently which made everyone have a different finished product but, just in case that “isn’t your cup of tea” as they say, Air Culinaire will provide you a color photo and on line plating guide to follow John’s expert plating vision for each of their menu items. I must say that I was impressed with the organization of the training day, the flow and content of the program John presented. We were given a taste of just a few of the programs that will be offered through Air Culinaire new Corporate Flight Attendant Wings Program - CFA Wings.

In conclusion to our day’s taste of new training, John showed each of us the new microsite that was built just for the flight attendant. It is private to each one who signs on, is not open to any other company or individuals to view. It contains simple forms to create profiles, favorites in meals, hotel preferences, and catering sources (including those not in the Air Culinaire network or areas where there is no Air Culinaire affiliate if that happens to be your personal preference). Air Culinaire has numerous new programs all created with the flight crew member in mind to lighten and assist in organizing the crew members numerous responsibilities. www.CFAwings.airculinaireworldwide.com

I really do love attending the various aviation conferences each year. I am inspired, challenged, and feel that my creative spirit is revived at the conclusion of the conferences.

Will I see you at the next one?

 

 


Let me introduce myself . . . 

My name is Paula Kraft and I am founder and President of Tastefully Yours Catering, an aviation specific caterer, located in Atlanta, Georgia for 35 years.

Aviation Catering is a science not taught in Culinary School; it’s a function of experience, experimentation, basic trial and error, with constant feedback from flight crews and clients. It is a two-way communication. It is vital that this information and knowledge be shared throughout the industry. To this end, I have worked as the Chairman of the NBAA Caterer’s Working Group, a subcommittee of the NBAA Flight Attendant Committee, the NBAA Caterer Representative to the NBAA Flight Attendant Committee, for 9 years. 

Currently I am an active member of the NBAA Flight Attendant Committee Advisory Board and the NBAA International Flight Attendant Committee, Women in Corporate Aviation, Women in Aviation International, National Association of Catering Executives, International Flight Catering Association, the International Food Service Association and the International Caterer’s Association.

I have coordinated training programs and clinics for NBAA, EBAA and BA-Meetup conference attendees for over 10 years, created mentoring programs for caterers and flight attendants to broaden their aviation culinary skills, and to assist them in adapting to the unique challenges and constraints found in catering for general aviation. I recognize the need for training and have worked closely with flight departments, flight crews, schedulers and customer service reps at the FBOs to ensure that catering specific training provides information and skills necessary to reduce risk while assisting them in their job duties that include safe food handling, catering security, accurate transmission of food orders, and safe food production, packaging and delivery.

I fell into aviation catering quite by accident. I was the in-house caterer and bakery supplier for Macy’s department stores in Atlanta when catering was ordered for a Macy’s customer which was soon to change my life. After the client enjoyed the catering provided, I was summoned to the client’s corporate office to provide several of the items delivered through Macy’s to the executive dining room. Within a week, I was providing food for the flight department and my first order was for the President of a foreign country (as I was too be told soon after). So, here I am, some 35 years later, still loving every minute of every day in aviation catering.


Got a question?

Paula welcomes your comments, questions or feedback
email: paula.kraft@blueskynews.aero

 

©BlueSky Business Aviation News | 30th October 2014 | Issue #294
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