Airline food is the butt of jokes, but the cuisine on business jets is haute. Even snacks need to be several cuts above what your local convenience store has to offer. That’s where Torn Ranch comes in.
Located in Petaluma, Calif., Torn Ranch (Booth No. C7926) has been creating gourmet food and gifts for almost 40 years. At NBAA 2013, the company is showing some of its latest offerings for private aircraft. These products include new dark chocolate, sea-salted caramels, milk-chocolate caramels and items in its corporate gifting line.
About 70 percent of Torn Ranch’s aviation customers are companies and private owners, some 15 percent are charter and fractional operators, 10 percent are FBOs and 5 percent are caterers, according to a company spokesperson. Regular customers include Beechcraft, Boeing, Bombardier, Cargill, Cessna, Dow Corning, Dassault Falcon and Gulfstream, he said.
Torn Ranch has numerous popular items among its bizav customers. By category, these include: nuts, either roasted dry or in organic canola oil (jumbo cashews, almonds, pistachios and peanuts); trail mixes (berry blossom mix, spa mix, southwest mix, berry healthy mix); house-made baked goods (chocolate chip cookies, snappy ginger cookies, and double chocolate hand-rolled biscotti); and confections (caramel-almond popcorn, gummy bears,Swedish fish, jelly bellies and construction candy); and dried fruit (Turkish apricots and ruby-red plums).
Also popular for use on business aircraft are the company’s banquet bags. “About five years ago we offered around 40 different options,” said Rich Shaffer, director of sales and marketing. “Today we have more than 80.”
Asked if Torn Ranch has had any particularly unusual (even wacky) orders from the bizav crowd, Shaffer said, there are very few odd requests with snacks. “Customers know what we have and they ask for it,” he said.“But I fully expecta company to request all blue or all red jelly beans or Swedish Fish in their bags some day.”
Torn Ranch prides itself crafting products that are a “quality alternative to mass-produced and pedestrian snacks” and that more than 90 percent of the fruits and nuts it uses in its products are sourced from California. The company says it ships orders within 72 hours of receipt, putting the orders together on the day of shipment and date-coding them.
