 Hey, welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're at San Francisco International, gauge 54B, and we're not flying anywhere today, which is kind of nice. It's the Alaska Airlines event, really talking about their elevated experience, and it's everything, it's flying, but it's also before you get to the plane, lounges, et cetera, and we're really excited to have somebody who's really important to your flight experience, and he's the guy responsible for the food. So we're excited to welcome Joshua Rappaport. He's the executive chef, meal design for LSG, food provider for Alaska Airlines. Great to see you, Joshua. Thanks a lot, great to be here. So food is something that probably people don't really think about unless something goes either really bad or really good. So you think about it every day. What are the key things you think about in delivering a better experience for people in planes? Well, you know, for me, the biggest thing is freshness, and I think one of the most common misconceptions that people have about airline food is that it can't be fresh. And we actually have flight kitchens in every location the Alaska flies at. The food that you're eating on board was prepared within hours of when you took off. Within hours, literally. Within hours, literally. And we have a small army of people in these kitchens ensuring that you're getting the freshest food possible and the best meal experience possible. Before I started doing this, the logistics involved in getting fresh food onto an airplane were something that had never occurred to me before. I mean, there are layers of complexity that are really kind of mind-blowing at times, but when you do everything right, when you plan well, when you design effectively for that space, you can provide a great, fresh experience for your passengers, first-class and main cabin. So really more of a logistics challenge to get through before you get to the culinary challenge. Can you get a fresh tomato from the farm to your facility packaged up and onto the plane? Exactly, it's almost equal parts, culinary and problem-solving, and that's part of what I love about the job. I've been a chef my whole life. I've done fine dining, hotels, restaurants, corporate dining, but this is the most fun I've ever had because there's that added component of trying to solve for how you provide this absolutely elevated experience for your passengers within the restrictions that you have. Especially with all the distributed kitchens all over the place, even if it's the same company, you've got different suppliers, you've got different food suppliers, different local foods. So do you incorporate the local food at the different locations? Do you try to be consistent across? How do you deal with so many kitchens loading planes at so many locations? I spend a lot of time traveling to our different kitchens to make sure that food is being executed consistently. That's a big part of my job is just managing the menus once they're actually in flight. It doesn't end when the designs are approved and the food is flying. I work a lot with local vendors in individual cities to make sure that the product that we're getting is up to standard and exactly what we need. And because Alaska is leaning in so hard to trying to feature great West Coast producers on our flight, I work a lot with distributors trying to get hyper-regional product from San Francisco, Seattle, LA distributed nationwide so that we can feature those great local flavors on our menus. Right, and then just kind of philosophy for feeding people in airplanes. Is there certain things that you always want to do or certain things that you want to avoid just in terms of the comfort and kind of the experience that they're going to have? I try to avoid anything that's going to be too polarizing or that's maybe going to scare people off as something unfamiliar. The challenge for me is to try to introduce really great, innovative, on-trend flavors but to do it in a recognizable and approachable way. We like to say adventurous but approachable as kind of our catchphrase. And so I might take something like Zatar or Ras al-Hunut that's a spice that's very much on trend right now in West Coast restaurants, but I'll incorporate it into a chicken dish that people can recognize as something familiar and then they'll find that they're really enjoying this cool new flavor that they may never have had before. All right, well Josh, thanks for taking a few minutes. We look forward to seeing what you're going to have for us on the plane in a few minutes. My pleasure, thanks a lot. Great talking to you. All right, it's Josh from I'm Jeff. You're watching theCUBE. We're at San Francisco International Gate 54B for the elevated Alaska flight experience. Thanks for watching. See you next time.