Japan Airlines (JAL) is giving their in-flight meals a significant upgrade by now offering Michelin star meals on select Business and First Class flights. JAL has enlisted a couple of new chefs to help re-design their menus based on signature dishes. The new meal offerings will be available beginning Spring 2019.

Shinobu Namae

Shinobu Namae is a two Michelin starred chef. He’s the famed head chef at L’Effervcence, a Tokyo Michelin-awarded French restaurant. Chef Namae’s skills were developed through studying under Heston Blumenthal at Fat Duck, another Michelin-awarded restaurant. Authentic European cuisine will now be available on JAL thanks to the new additions from Chef Namae.

Chef Namae included two new main dishes that passengers can choose between steak with port wine sauce and peppered butter, or seafood with anchoïade sauce. They will also have a choice of sides such as horse mackerel, escabeche, asparagus, ratatouille with conger, or burdock salad. These meals will be available on March 1, 2019, on international flights from Narita or Haneda airports in Tokyo.

JAL Michelin-starred meal
JAL Michelin-starred meal from Chef Namae via JAL.

Sota Atsumi

Sota Atsumi is bringing delicious Parisian cuisine to the JAL menus. He’s a Michelin starred chef based in France. He is currently the opening chef at Le Clown Bar, a 100-year-old establishment that was named the Best Bistro in France by Le Foding. Later this year, he will be opening his restaurant called MAISON. The meals prepared for JAL brings a sample of his talents to the sky.

Chef Atsumi has included the main dishes of beef cheek with simmered chile-anchovy sauce or scallops and squid ink risotto. Passengers in first class will also have a choice of duck confit cannelloni. Sides for the meals can be mozzarella burrata with beets or salad with strawberry and hibiscus sauce. These meals will only be available on JAL flights between Paris and Tokyo.

Other Menu Changes

It’s not the first time that JAL has made some changes to their meal offerings. In 2018, JAL announced a food program called JAL BEDD SKY AUBERGE, which was developed by a pair of Michelin chefs. This year the program will be collaborating with Chef Namae to deliver new menu items on flights from Tokyo’s Narita to Honolulu and Kona.

Another familiar dish that was offered previously on JAL flights will be making a temporary comeback this year. Soba noodles from the famed Michelin-starred restaurant TSUTA will be re-added to the menus during the period March 1 to May 1. The noodles will be specially made with chicken oil and truffle. It will only be available on select routes from Tokyo and Osaka to destinations in the US and Europe.

TSUTA Soba Noodles
TSUTA soba noodles available for a limited time on JAL airlines via JAL.

Other dishes that will be included on the new menus are Baumkuchen, a traditional cake snack, and donburi, a rice bowl.

JAL hopes to end the airline food stigma by offering its passengers some of the top cuisines that you’ll find in Tokyo and Europe. Now, passengers flying in business class or first class get an additional perk to their in-flight experience.