Page 70 - Vía Libre Special - 25 Years of Spanish High Speed Rail

SPECIAL

years of Spanish high speed rail

Temperatures are controlled throughout the entire
For the last four years Ferrovial Servicios has been process of production and distribution of set meals.
the company responsible for providing services on The maintenance of the cold chain requires special
board the AVE. diligence and is given the utmost importance.

beginning. The aim of this rotation is to prevent
a frequent AVE passenger who makes a return
journey on the same day from having the same
set meal at dinner as he or she had at lunch, for
example. And if that passenger travels every week,
he or she will not be offered the same choice on
two consecutive weeks.
in order to prepare the annual set meal
menus, Serunion is advised by two renowned chefs,
the Torres brothers. Following Renfe guidelines as to
their needs, the creative work of the chefs is married
to the work of experts in production to provide some
meals that combine quality with creativity, but which
also meet the requirements of cost, functionality, and
food safety. Twice a year the Torres brothers make Each train is fully loaded and unloaded, often several
suggestions to Serunion which are then submitted times a day, depending on occupancy.
to Ferrovial for some technical tweaking. These set
meals are presented to Renfe for their final approval
in each season before they are ready to be served on
board the trains. to the orders made by Ferrovial. Twenty-four hours
before each train departs, Ferrovial places the orders
Orders and production corresponding to the tickets sold up to that moment
in Preferente class. A certain percentage is added to
in order to find out exactly how the dishes that figure, given that tickets will still be on sale in the
served in AVE’s Preferente class reach the passengers following twenty-four hours. The service must never
we would need to go to one of the two kitchens used be allowed to fail. Six hour before each train leaves a
by Serunion to provide Renfe with its meals; one is in new adjustment is made to the orders, always erring
San Fernando de Henares in the province of Madrid on the side of generosity so that no meal will ever
and the other in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, in Barcelona. run out and, of course, trying to ensure that not too
From these kitchens, which cover around 70% and much is left over either. There are a succession of
30% of Renfe’s catering needs, respectively, between orders and adjustments to those orders throughout
5,000 and 9,000 trays (and as many as 10,000 on the day, up to minutes before each train is due to
many occasions) are dispatched every day, bound leave.
for the stations of Atocha in Madrid, and Sants and As well as the normal set meals, Renfe offers
Francia, in Barcelona. Once at the stations, meals are as many as ten special set meals in order to meet all
distributed for all the AVE trains scheduled for that kinds of special needs: baby food, meals for diabetics,
day. for gluten intolerants, for ovo-lacto vegetarians
At Serunion they produce meals according and vegans, low sodium meals, lactose free meals,

70 Vía Libre • Special 25th Anniversary of the AVE Edition