October 15 2024  |  Airline & Terminal News

Air France unveils autumn Michelin-starred menus on departure from Paris

By PAX International Magazine Staff


A Premium Economy meal by Frédéric Simonin for Air France

This autumn, on departure from Paris (CDG), Air France has announced it will be unveiling new menus, available in its airport lounges and onboard its flights. Triple Michelin-starred chef Jérôme Banctel, and Josselin Marie, passionate about responsible cuisine, are the latest chefs to join the prestigious Air France team, alongside Nina Métayer, Glenn Viel, Philippe Rigollot, Frédéric Simonin, Michel Roth and Alain Ducasse and his teams.


(Left to right) Frédéric Simonin, Jérôme Banctel, Josselin Marie, Glenn Viel, Philippe Rigollot, Nina Métayer and Michel Roth

To create these menus showcasing French fine dining, the chefs work together with Servair, inflight caterer, using fresh, local produce that varies by season. In a responsible approach, the meat, poultry, milk products and eggs on each menu are of French origin, and the fish is sourced from sustainable fisheries. Vegetarian menus are also systematically available in all airport lounges and onboard the airline’s flights.

Triple Michelin-starred chef in the long-haul Business cabin

For the first time, Air France is entrusting chef Jérôme Banctel with the dishes on the menu available in the long-haul Business cabin on departure from CDG. Awarded three Michelin stars this year, the chef draws inspiration from his native Brittany in creating dishes to be enjoyed all over the world. For Air France, he uses produce evocative of his childhood, enhanced by his own special culinary signature; delicious sauces, without butter or cream. Chicken, buttermilk sauce, buckwheat risotto and parsley oil, and haddock, lightly spiced carrot sauce, carrot variations with orange and ginger feature among his ten dishes to be enjoyed over the next eight months.

“I wanted to offer travellers a glimpse of my cuisine, a blend of gourmet delicacy and unexpected flavours,” said Banctel.

For the desserts, Nina Métayer will continue working with Air France as part of the partnership initiated in April. Crowned World Pastry Chef 2023, she will be signing a selection of gourmet yet light pastries, including a crunchy hazelnut and caramel pleasure and the mango coconut slice with a hint of lime.

Triple Michelin-starred chef Glenn Viel will continue to sign the entire menu in the La Première cabin. Ingeniously combining his Breton roots with Provençal cuisine, this lover of local produce has created a total of twelve exceptional dishes to be enjoyed until the end of November. To bring an elegant and sweet touch to the cabin’s menus, Meilleur Ouvrier de France and world pastry champion Philippe Rigollot showcases French pastry-making expertise with his lightly-textured and innovative desserts. Strawberry gateau, Black Forest gateau and an apricot tartlet and rosemary whipped cream are among the six desserts created by the chef for Air France.

In the Premium cabin, the one-starred chef Frédéric Simonin continues his work as part of an on-going partnership initiated with the company in 2023. A perfectionist at heart, he has created a new series of dishes prepared with the greatest respect for the products chosen.

Michel Roth and Josselin Marie as a new duo

On its short and medium-haul network, Air France also offers a refined gourmet selection. In the Terminal 2F lounge at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Michelin-starred chef Michel Roth, Bocuse d’Or and Meilleur Ouvrier de France, is now signing a range of delectable dishes. To create a rich and varied menu, he has teamed up with Josselin Marie, a chef committed to responsible, gourmet vegetarian cuisine. An original duo of chefs illustrating Air France’s determination to take inspiration from the very roots of French haute cuisine and promote the promising young talent behind today’s inventive cuisine with a view to transferring and sharing know-how.

With Michel Roth’s chicken in red wine sauce with lardons accompanied by gnocchi fried in butter, button mushroom and pearl onion medley, and Josselin Marie’s creamed celery with truffonade and celery pickles, the two chefs are presenting new hot dishes that change with the seasons and complement the offer available in the lounge.

Passengers continue their gourmet experience onboard the flight. On Air France’s short-haul network, Roth has created a new range of “signature” sandwiches for Business customers, to accompany the in-flight service and adapted to short-haul flight times. With a choice of farmhouse bread with shredded beef and mustard, celery, apple and mild curry, or two types of bread, with creamy goat’s cheese, onion and walnut chutney, the offer changes every month. On the medium-haul network, customers travelling in Business class can enjoy the chef’s cold dish that accompanies the meal proposed during the trip. With a choice of lightly seared prawns, leek fondue and pot-au-feu style beef ragoût, the dishes are also renewed monthly to continue to surprise and delight the company’s frequent travellers.

Menus signed by talented chefs in all Air France’s Paris airport lounges

Air France also cultivates its art of fine dining for passengers in all its long-haul lounges. In the La Première lounge at CDG, Alain Ducasse, the world’s most starred chef, and his teams, create exceptional dishes. The prestigious menu includes the chef’s famous coquillettes with ham and black truffle and his rum or Armagnac baba, just like in Monte Carlo. The Ducasse Paris teams have also developed new dishes to be enjoyed in the long-haul lounges in terminal 2E (halls K, L and M). Passengers can enjoy the “Burgal” signed by Ducasse Paris, a fully veggie, healthy and locally-sourced alternative to the traditional hamburger made from locally produced French cereals and vegetables. And at Paris-Orly, in the international lounge located in Terminal 3, travellers can discover the refined cuisine of Banctel, whose dishes are regularly renewed in line with the seasons.

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