DUBAI, United Arab Emirates >> On many American airlines the in-flight meal is a vanishing amenity or a subject of derision. But on international carriers meal service is a point of pride.

At Emirates Flight Catering, Honolulu- born James A. Griffith serves as assistant vice president, having settled in Dubai — on the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea — after training in Bahrain, Switzerland and Germany. “I saw surf and palm trees and said, ‘Why not?’” Griffith said.

Today he helps oversee the largest stand-alone airline catering facility in the world. Emirates Flight Catering produces 157,000 meals for 375 flights a day, amounting to nearly 60 million meals annually for Emirates and other carriers that operate out of Dubai International Airport.

It requires 10,000 employees, including more than 500 international chefs and 42 quality-control personnel, covering three shifts a day.

Because food safety is a major concern, entering the facility is harder than passing a TSA safety check. First, we must fill out infectious and communicable disease questionnaires and surrender our passports. All bags must pass through an X-ray machine before we walk through metal detectors.

Our four cameras, revealed on the X-ray machine, are confiscated for safekeeping, but the machines don’t pick up our cellphones, also capable of storing visual information. Once inside, we don white coats and hairnets and wash our hands. Then we can enter the kitchen areas.

It’s easy to assume that all over the globe, hundreds of passengers on the same airline are receiving the same meal. But Emirates Catering creates 136 different menus each day to meet each region’s unique flavor demands.

“A large country like India has five main regions, and each of those regions has another five subregions,” said Griffith, who works with a concept development team to develop menus based on cultural preferences, religious requirements, distances to destinations and timing of flights.

The San Francisco-Dubai route that brought me to the country continued on to India. “It’s not predominantly Americans on that flight; it’s Indians,” Griffith said, so while the menu includes Western options, much of it comprises curries, to satisfy the palates of Silicon Valley engineers and their families traveling between the countries.

A typical menu might offer chicken stroganoff but also lamb biryani, paneer and vegetable korma or chana masala. In addition to a main course, coach passengers are offered such appetizers as a lentil or chickpea salad.

In keeping with UAE’s Islamic customs, all meals aboard Emirates flights meet halal standards of preparation, including omitting pork and alcohol.

Meals start with fresh ingredients, and throughout the facility an army is at work chopping vegetables, slicing chicken, pouring curry over breakfast eggs, baking fresh bread, making strawberry shortcake for first class, and plating medium-rare slices of steak for business-class travelers.

Hot foods are blast-chilled, Griffith said. “From cooling to eating, we’re allowed 72 hours to serve the meal, but we do it in 36.”

Timing is crucial. Griffith explained that late delivery of a meal in a restaurant might be assuaged with a complimentary dessert. Late delivery of food for an airline means losing its departure time slot and a late arrival for passengers resulting in missed connections, and for the airline, another delay in the aircraft’s return flight.

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