Cooking at high altitude

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Kimberly Lalley
  • 514th Air Mobility Wing public affairs
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  On a recent flight from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Technical Sgt. Todd Dallman, 76th Air Refueling Squadron boom operator, treated his fellow crewmates to a German feast.

Dallman loves to cook, but travelling the globe on a KC-10 Extender has forced him to make concessions when he's a chef in the sky.

"At home, I'll only use fresh garlic. On the road, I use minced garlic," said Dallman, who as the son of a home economics teacher, has been cooking all of his life.

The menu for this crew included brats, sauerkraut with minced apples and caraway seeds, roasted potatoes with olive oil, garlic and some seasoning, asparagus with lemon and garlic salt, and biscuits with butter.

His secret is the seasoning. When you're cooking for a lot of people, you need to go easy on the spices, he said. Temperature gauges are also difficult to judge, as they are different on each plane. 

Imagine cooking a feast for ten people with limited space and two small convection type ovens. Convection ovens have a fan which pushes hot air onto the food.  Dallman had to learn how to warm the dish thoroughly from the bottom up.

According to Sophie-Claire Hoeller of Thrillist Travel, cabin pressure affects the palate, and as a plane takes off, change in pressure numbs one-third of taste buds. Even the sound of the engines affect how taste is perceived; loud, constant noise deadens taste buds.

"Asparagus can be hit or miss," he said. He bought biscuits in packages of eight. "If you're going to eat on the jet, do it right."

Dallman said he was tired of frozen meals due to their lack of nutrition.

Another secret of Dallman's is AeroPress coffee. It's a device for brewing coffee that was invented in 2005. Coffee is steeped for between 10-50 seconds and then forced through a filter by pressing the plunger through the tube. The result is an espresso strength concentration of coffee.

Capt. Pete Nelson, a pilot in the 76th ARS, supplied a favorite bag of coffee and enjoyed his first cup as he was flying over Europe at daybreak. He said he enjoys the strong coffee Dallman brews and the meals he cooks.

On the trip home, Dallman provided the pilots with an afternoon pick-me-up of caffeine. Dallman creates his meals depending on the trip. On a flight from Hawaii, he served the crew pineapple, teriyaki chicken with jasmine rice. On a 10-hour flight to Hawaii, the crew ate pot roast, potatoes, and steamed green beans. He includes a protein, starch and green veggie for each prepared meal.

He doesn't showcase his skills on every trip. He says it depends on the crew, the length of the trip and the availability of groceries. 

"The circumstances have to be just right," he said.   

The flights have to be long enough, with big enough breaks between his boom operator duties and training to allow time to spend in the galley. In this case, the  eight-hour flight from Germany allowed plenty of time. 

Sometimes, he will treat his fellow Airmen to cookies.

"Sugar is a mood elevator," he said.

The oven's small size allows him to bake just six cookies at a time, so there's a continuous pleasant smell, a continuous stream of sugar and a continuous mood elevator.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there is a primary rule to cooking in an aircraft galley.

"No fish," he said. "It just stinks."