Making a Cake at 30000 Feet and a medical emergency

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Making a Cake at 30000 Feet and a medical emergency

WHEN I was starting out as a chef, flying anywhere was difficult. I had no money, so when I could fly someplace, it was always exciting.

As I got further along in my career, I started traveling all the time. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some anxiety. It used to be all about the journey, now it’s about getting to the destination as quickly as possible.

But on the other hand, I get to go to a lot of places I never thought I’d see. When we were shooting Bravo’s “Around the World in 80 Plates,” I got to go to Thailand and Uruguay, among other countries, and that’s really phenomenal for me.

I’d also be lying if I said it wasn’t fun being recognized. Some of the questions I get are kind of over the top. When I was on “Celebrity Apprentice,” people would want to know about Donald Trump’s hair and personality and whether some of the contestants I was pitted against were really as aggressive as they seemed on TV. The answer to that question was always “yes.”

Sometimes I actually get to cook on board.

I was traveling alone on my birthday a few years ago, and an attendant I was speaking with asked me if I wanted to make a cake for myself. She had a specialty chocolate cake box mix that she had just purchased during a layover in Germany, I believe. I wasn’t sure if the cake mix would actually work at 30,000 feet, and it would be pretty embarrassing if my cake came out flat. I was relieved when it actually came out looking like a cake. It was pretty good, too, no thanks to me. I did share.

When you fly a lot, you learn to expect the unexpected. One flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne really took unexpected to a new level. About midway through the first movie, I heard an announcement asking if there was a doctor on board. That’s not something anyone really wants to hear. Surprisingly, no one rang the call bell.

A few minutes later, they started asking for a midwife or nurse. I was thinking this can’t be good since again I didn’t hear any call bells go off. I started getting a little nervous. I’m qualified in first aid and I was thinking, “Man, do I need to do something?”

The next thing I know an obviously pregnant young woman was taken to the galley area. The attendants closed the curtains. I was sitting just a few feet away, so I could hear everything. Apparently, the woman was just a few weeks away from the cutoff point where she was no longer allowed to fly during pregnancy. But she was experiencing labor pains and had all the signs of an imminent delivery.

There’s a lot of water between Los Angeles and Melbourne, and the pilot said we were going to make an emergency landing in Hawaii. It was the first time I didn’t hear a lot of grumbling from passengers about a diversion.

The woman was obviously in distress, and gave birth before we made that emergency landing. It was very quiet.

Once we made it to Hawaii, a bunch of medics came on board and whisked her and the baby away. The pilot then made the announcement that the woman seemed fine and had given birth to a baby boy.

The entire plane broke out into applause. I was happy for her, and relieved that I didn’t have to do anything. I’m much better in the kitchen than I am in the delivery room.

By Curtis Stone, as told to Joan Raymond. E-mail: [email protected]

Spanishchef Note: A few years ago we had a similar experience. When we were house hunting in Spain, we had our son and daughter-in-law with us. Karen is a doctor. On our way back to Gatwick, we heard the same dreaded call, “is there a doctor on board”. Karen rang the bell and was whisked away to the front of the aircraft where an old woman was unconscious. The flight crew supplied Karen with the ‘doctors kit’ which all aircraft carry for emergency use by qualified doctors. The old lady had suffered a stroke. The pilot came to Karen and said you have charge of the aircraft, where would you like me to go? The pilot said that we were 30 minutes from Paris or 35 minutes from Gatwick. Karen had stabilized the lady and said to declare an emergency and go direct to Gatwick.

I contacted one of the aircrew to alert the pilot to the fact that Karen was in fact pregnant and that as she was attending the lady, and she wasn’t strapped in. The pilot was informed. We had such a perfect landing that nobody had realized that we were on the ground. These pilots can do it when the need arises. Again, there was a spontaneous round of applause for Karen, the aircrew and the pilot.

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