One upon a time, airline food was a joke. Literally, many standup comedians would start with "Airline food, what up with that?" and head into a joke about its awfulness. Then in the US, airline food just went away, and so did the jokes. But the problems remain for international flights, and for non-US airlines. How do you make mass quantities of meals ahead of time that are both portable and tasty in high altitudes when our senses are dulled? A look at Singapore Arlines meal service shows how much goes into those in-flight meals, from developing and testing new recipes to batch cooking to plating the silverware before takeoff. It's complicated, but they manage to pull it off for 77 departure cities.