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

You said what? Mindful Eating?

make every effort to keep up with all the current and trending diet and eating plans that are floating around and that might make it into our kitchen as a catering request.

Rarely am I surprised by, or taken off guard by, a catering request; but I must admit that I recently received a call from the kitchen asking: “What is Mindful Eating? We just received an order and the special diet request stated: Mindful Eating.”

Well, I know what clean eating is; I know about local sourcing; and I’m familiar with organic food preferences. I’m also up with healthy eating and farm to fork - but this was a new one on me. So I looked into Mindful Eating to determine what and how to prepare for this client’s Mindful Eating request - and I thought you too might be interested in what I discovered.

It goes something like this illustration I found in my research . . . 

My next question was, how am I - the aviation caterer - involved in this cycle?

It seems to me that the person eating is the one who’s making all the choices. Not me. It appears to be all about choices. Their choices at the time of eating. This is not a diet. It’s a state of mind. It’s the way the person feels when they choose to eat. No menus. No recipes. No points to count. No calorie counting. No off-limit foods.

So I kept wondering how do I prepare a Mindful Eating passenger request? With a bit more research, I discovered that Mindful Eating has wrapped up multiple trending eating preferences into one big plan.

It includes clean eating, organic preferences, non GM (genetically modified) foods; being socially receptive to how animals are treated from birth to the table; how employers treat their employees and their relationship to the community in which they work. And it goes on to include local sourcing, portion sizes, the convenience of food availability - as well as how often, when, where and why the eating occurs.

The mindful eater gives thought to the reason for eating: Am I hungry and is it meal time? or am I eating because those around me are eating? Am I stress-eating, or am I just eating because of habit?

Eating is a natural, necessary act we do in order to survive and to satisfy our hunger. It should at least be pleasurable, right? It’s not a ‘diet’, it’s a lifestyle whose roots go all the way back to ancient practices that help resolve our ‘love-hate’ relationship with food. We should eat for the enjoyment of eating rather than the worry about a specific diet or the consumption of high fat, or high sugar. We should think about eating as we take each bite (or even before we take a bite) - similar to a yoga-like thought process of consuming food . . . peaceful.

It should be "Eating with Intention and Attention" (I found this definition during my research on AmIHungry.com). Simply stated, eating with attention is that you select foods that are enjoyable while paying attention to how it actually effects your body. And eating with intention is that you are eating to care for your body.

You are not binging, skipping meals, allowing your body to go without needed nutrients or eating foods that cause your body stress (like eating too fast or eating while multi-tasking) but eating should also be for the health of your body.

Now this is how we, the aviation catering source, handled this client’s special request.

I looked at each of the points and then looked at what we at Tastefully Yours provide that fit those categories and then planned the menu selections based on the items in common. Mindful Eaters believe that Mindful Eating encompasses the entire process of eating:

Awareness of their physical and emotional cues

This is related to your passenger or flight crew asking themselves, “Am I hungry?” “Is this food just a filler to kill time, is it a meal time, am I going to eat this because everyone else is, or am I distracted with other things and I’m eating just out of habit?” You, the catering source or person placing the catering order, should look at the time of day. Is it a meal time? Are you just trying to find a snack to fill flight time or because providing food on every leg is expected?

Recognition of their non-hunger triggers for eating

If food is simply placed on the table in front of the passenger are they going to eat because it is there? If so, then the selection should be something to nourish the body - something that will make them feel good about eating it. Locally sourced foods, hand-made foods (without processed items) send a message that you, the provider, do care about what goes into their body, showing through the appearance of the food that it was prepared with tender loving care.

Choosing food for both enjoyment and nourishment

Food should provide pleasure. This is the perfect chance to get creative, play with packaging and presentation to allow the passenger to choose to eat the food because it entices and stimulates their taste buds.

Eating for optimal satisfaction

The portion provided shouldn’t overwhelm the person eating – just enough to satisfy them. As a catering source, double check the portion size.

Using the fuel you’ve consumed to live the vibrant life you crave

Our passengers and flight crew live a hectic life, with irregular rest periods. The job is stressful and requires foods that enable their body to process those food and to provide them with energy or rest, depending on their particular situation. They may need mood lifting foods (which is the topic of one of my next articles: Winter Food Blues) because of the season or the individual’s emotional health.

So, Mindful Eating has and continues to become a way of life for a growing number of health- and environmentally-conscious passengers and flight crews, who are not only scrutinizing the food sources they use, but also the menu items offered. Evidence of this can be seen in the prevalence of organic food, natural products, and locally-sourced ingredients.

My suggestion to the catering sources: It may be time to step up your game and to those responsible for ordering catering . . . ask questions.

 

 


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 over 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 | 22nd January 2015 | Issue #304
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