How do flight attendants prepare the fancy in-flight meals for business and first class?

Certain airlines cook fresh eggs made to your order in a skillet for breakfast. I am also almost certain an Asian airline has a rice cooker on-board, but Rocky got most of it, most of the food is pre-cooked [to a point where they are just before serve-able] before the flight and then heated [to finish] on board. Edit: Cathay Pacific has skillets, toasters, and rice cookers on board for First Class. http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_HK/whatonboard/meals/wineanddine And based on the below + message boards, it looks like Gulf Air has some cooking involved, although I don't know to what extent, as they have a Sky Chef on board every flight and take orders on board before making the meals. http://www.gulfair.com/English/info/OnBoard/Pages/SkyChefs.aspx

It varies by airline. American Airlines typically heats entrees directly in China dishes and serve them on a tray along with a salad and appetizer which have been kept chilled until meal time. Bread is heated in plastic bags and then served on the side. The mixed nuts are heated in one-time-use aluminum trays and then scooped into the ramekins to serve with the first round of beverages. Many airlines heat the entrees in shallow aluminum pans and then the flight attendant plates the food. This usually results in a nicer looking meal but it takes longer. Rakesh's answer has a good picture of these pans. Most aircraft just have convection style ovens which heat things to their final serving temperature. The cabin crew insert long trays of entree pans (or oven safe china baking dishes), nut pans or cookies laid out on a sheet and let the oven warm it up. To add a bit, the galley areas are small. Most experienced cabin crew will try to get a few things done before take off. For example, they might prepare the nuts and insert them into the oven during boarding, and then turn on the oven above 10,000 feet. On larger aircraft, there is typically a flight attendant dedicated to "kitchen" duty while one or two others serve. On single aisle planes, one flight attendant might have to prepare and serve everyone in business/first class. Each flight attendant has their own preferred flow, and most will spend time moving things around and setting up so that the area is the way they like it before they start serving.

I used to work for an overseas airline stationed US and used one of third party caterer. Our HQ would provide the menu/spec and they would make the meals according to that plan. One of my job was to visit the caterer and do a routine inspection. One thing I found out was it's like a production line    Since they are making hundreds of same meal this is obviously a more efficient method. They actually have to make/cook all the food and place them in trays. They have to let it cool down completely and then chill it. Once they are chilled, then they are loaded into food carts for transportation to aircraft. Before they are served to passengers, they are reheated. Basically you are all eating reheated food no matter what class you travel in. This is nothing to complain about really. It's for safe food handling (spoilage) issue. Now I see people saying Etihad, Emirates has chef cooking in first class. I do not have first hand experience, but I would venture a guess that it is probably very minimal cooking. More of a "show" to show high paying passengers that their meals are individually prepared.

There were at least 8 chefs standing at a kitchen that stretched the entire length of  the business class section, on their feet over 21 hours, making from scratch anything 1 or the 4 other passengers in First Class might order from 4 different menus. This Thai Air 747 was specially configured for use by the Royal family and during the Asian economic collapse I got a First class ticket for about $2000. The Business class section was divided in half, lengthways, to make room for the kitchen. The 4 menus were Thai, Continental, American and something else.You could order at any time, breakfast, lunch, or dinner from 4 regional cuisines.The food was fit for a King. The seats were actually beds that converted into seats, not seats that converted into beds. There was unlimited Russian caviar and Dom Perignon. Thai Air and Singapore airlines are normally rated at 80-90% on a scale of 100, while the best US carriers are rated 25%. I have talked to American Airlines flight attendants who say they always bring their own meals. Leaving Paris on Delta, I was told that none of the wine in First or Business was French.

As probably other people have mentioned replying to other questions , there are MANY kind of business and MANY kind of first class. In Austian Airlines for example, for either business and first, there's one chef preparing the plates: he will also serve some different side dishes and the presentation it's "part of the taste" ( in italy we say that "the eye want its part"). Etihad is doing the same (but only for the First class as far as I know)  and probably those two are not the only one. A lot of companies have the "Flight Kitchen Assistant" role, a person specialized in the specific job - that probably it's a chef herself- Then... well.. you can have some "business class" (especially for short leg flight) where the food it's a packed lunch, heat up in a microwave oven.

In the U.S meals are pre cooked and loaded into carts which are stored in galleys.  Once the plane is in the air, Flight Attendants retrieve the meals from the carts and warm them up in ovens located in the galleys.  When the meals are ready they are put on plates and served accordingly...