Catering to your aircraft in Merced.
Central Valley harvest meets a quiet general aviation field. At Merced we pack fresh, seasonal dishes for your galley and hand them over at the FBO, with crew meals on request.
We know the galley, the diet card and the 5 a.m. re-plate — because we lived them. So we built the caterer we always wished we could call.
Fourteen years on VIP and head-of-state cabins. Can plate for twelve in a G650 galley and still land it hot.
The one who reads every diet card twice. If it says no cross-contact, it means no cross-contact.
Answers at 5 a.m. when the leg moved overnight. Same-day swaps are her love language.
California's Central Valley around Merced is farm country, and the private jet menu at KMCE reads like it. Almonds, walnuts, peaches, nectarines, tomatoes and sweet corn come from the surrounding fields, so private jet food here leans fresh and seasonal.
The inflight menu for Merced uses these local specialities the way a galley can handle them: stone fruit and citrus served chilled, almond-crusted proteins finished in the oven, sauces in their own pot. Private jet platters of Valley cheese, charcuterie and fruit travel well, while gourmet inflight meals such as grilled salmon or roasted chicken with seasonal vegetables are plated for re-plating on board. Private jet snacks run to roasted almonds, dried fruit and fresh berries.
Around Merced, the Mexican-American kitchen is part of the local table too: carne asada, grilled vegetables, fresh salsas and tortillas are common requests, packed with the salsa apart so nothing goes soft before service.
Tail, pax, diets, timing. One message — no portal, no quote form. Answered at any hour, by a flight attendant.
Leak-proof boxes, marked by guest and restriction, with reheating times written on the lid.
Two minutes out of the drawer. Whatever you ordered for the crew comes in the same delivery, and one clean invoice follows.
Merced Regional Macready Field sits at 155 ft in the flat Central Valley, a field where the produce is grown within sight of the ramp. Private jet catering here starts from that: almonds, peaches, tomatoes and citrus, packed for the galley you actually have. We write inflight catering and in-flight catering orders for business aviation catering at KMCE, from executive jet catering to diplomatic flight catering for visiting delegations, and we pack cabin crew meals for the flight deck on request. It is aviation catering built by former VIP flight attendants, handed over at the FBO in Merced.
Executives flying out of KMCE tend to ask for light, seasonal food. Our private jet chef writes a bespoke menu for business jet catering, adapted for corporate jet catering, VIP flight catering and charter flight catering. Luxury inflight catering at Merced means good ingredients, careful packing and nothing the galley cannot finish.
Official and delegation flights are rare at KMCE, so the process matters. Government flight catering is agreed with the protocol office, head of state flight catering is packed with traceability on every dish, VIP aviation catering is kept discreet and state visit aircraft catering is delivered under seal.
Kosher, halal, vegan and gluten free requests at Merced are handled as a procedure, not a label: each special meal is packed on its own board and marked with the seat number. In a kitchen built around nuts, especially almonds, allergen free orders matter most, so a nut-allergic passenger gets a plate cooked and sealed apart. Kids meals and other special meals are confirmed with the order.
A sheet per guest. Separate boards, separate boxes.
Sealed, certificate in the same box.
Their own menu, nothing to cut at altitude.
Vegan, low-carb, light — composed, never compromised.
When the aircraft is waiting in Merced for the return leg, crew catering is what keeps duty time workable. We prepare flight crew meals as boxes with the role on the lid, pilot meals that eat well without a table, and cockpit meals that hold their temperature. Crew meal boxes are ordered on request and invoiced with the rest, and different meals for pilots are offered when the operator's policy needs them.
FBO catering at Merced is handed over at the general aviation terminal, to your handling agent or directly at the aircraft. We coordinate catering delivery to the FBO with ground handling catering on your slot, and handling agent catering is packed so one person can carry it.
Most aircraft that use Merced Regional Macready Field are light and midsize jets, so galley catering is carried to the door by hand and does not need a high loader. For a larger cabin or a charter with a full crew, we agree the airside catering delivery with your handling agent before the slot. Aircraft provisioning is planned around the galley fitted to your type: one oven, a few drawers, limited chilled space.
Mention it when you orderCertified, inspected, with cold-chain records filed against your trip.
Whichever terminal you park at, handover is at the aircraft, on your slot.
Allergen sheet per guest, halal and kosher on request, sealed and labelled.
Itemised and trip-report ready, sent after the leg.
KMCE is a regional field in California's Central Valley, with a long runway and a quiet ramp, used by general aviation and by occasional corporate traffic. Airport catering at Merced reaches the aircraft through the FBO services and ground handling services on the field, and a small but steady business aviation hub like MCE rewards an order that is planned around the galley rather than the clock.
MCE is a business aviation hub in miniature: mostly general aviation, with corporate and owner flights arriving in light and midsize jets. Business aviation catering and executive jet catering are the usual requests, and inflight catering or in-flight catering is packed for small cabins with one oven and few drawers. Aviation catering for a visiting group or diplomatic flight catering is rarer, and cabin crew meals and crew meals are ordered together with the flight.
Merced is a US field, so food rules follow the country: domestic catering needs no customs clearance, while a flight arriving from abroad meets agricultural inspection that can stop fresh fruit, meat and dairy. Because MCE works as a business aviation hub for arrivals as well as departures, we shape the order so nothing is left on board that the next border will refuse.
Average rating from the cabin crew and pilots we cater for.
“Menu approval at KMCE covered mini sandwiches and individual desserts for 9 guests, leaving us to organise the service around a family lunch request. The Galley Girls talked through the quantities of snack boxes with us before confirmation, rather than leaving us to guess the portions. There was enough information about the sandwiches to brief the crew without making assumptions about what had been ordered. The order made private jet meals feel manageable because the cabin service sequence had been considered beforehand.”
“Service planning came first at MCE, with 8 passengers choosing fresh fruit and breakfast pastries and an evening cabin service influencing our preparation. The Galley Girls labelled the starters in line with our brief, so the cabin team could identify the relevant portions quickly. We could distinguish the desserts at a glance instead of lifting lids just to establish what belonged to each service. The order made private jet menu feel manageable because the portion planning had been considered beforehand.”
“A request for mini sandwiches and individual desserts, 4 passengers, and limited fridge space: that was our brief for the departure at Merced Regional Macready Field. The Galley Girls understood why we wanted the side dishes readily accessible instead of spread across several different boxes. I want a private jet chef to understand cabin service sequence, and this order gave us a useful starting point. That left time to check the fruit plates properly before the passengers were ready for the next part of the service.”
The figure is built from what is on the plates. For a long flight out of Merced with two services, we price hot dishes, cold plates and snacks separately, so you see where the cost sits. Almond-based and citrus dishes tend to be the easier line items.
Lead time depends on how fixed your menu is. At MCE, a changing passenger count is common with owner flights, so we build the order around a base menu and add or remove plates as the count settles. Last-minute orders are handled.
Domestic catering for a delegation needs no customs paperwork. If the aircraft arrives from abroad with provisions, US rules on agricultural items apply and we plan the outbound order so nothing awkward is left on board. Discretion and a named contact come with government flights.
Bringing food aboard is up to the operator, but for a child's meal or a strict religious diet we handle the whole chain: sourcing, packing, sealing, labelling. At Merced, that also means keeping nuts away from any allergen-free plate.
Not as a rule. A private jet charter into Merced does not include food, so the operator or the passenger orders it and we invoice it on its own. Where the crew is waiting on the ground, we also pack crew meals on request.
Tail, pax and diets — a flight attendant takes it from there, day or night.
