Olivier Chaignon, the new Air France signature chef on flights from Japan
Starting January 2025, La Première* and Business customers travelling from Tokyo-Haneda and Osaka-Kansai to Paris-Charles de Gaulle will enjoy new menus specific to each travel cabin, designed by triple Michelin-starred French chef Olivier Chaignon.
To create his dishes, Olivier Chaignon has combined his French savoir-faire with local, seasonal Japanese produce. He has designed all the main dishes on the menu in both cabins, including vegetarian options as well as meat, poultry and fish dishes.
‘For Air France customers, I wanted to create elegant, gourmet cuisine, showcasing Japanese produce while retaining a French taste and spirit’, says the chef. As a result, La Première customers will soon be able to enjoy a maki-style seabass with champagne sauce, potatoes with shiso flowers and fresh cheese gnocchi, or a blanquette-style veal dish with truffle Yukitsubaki rice and a bouquet of vegetables. In the Business cabin, the menu will include potato gnocchi accompanied by aubergine caviar and stuffed grilled courgettes or prawns, lobster jus with aniseed, with simmered vegetables and green pasta.
In all, the chef has created no fewer than twelve exclusive dishes for the La Première cabin and twelve for the Business cabin, all available on board in 2025.
The arrival of Olivier Chaignon marks the first time that Air France has teamed up with a top French chef to sign its menus on departure from Japan, illustrating how the airline is continuing to expand its team of prestigious French chefs on departure from its main stations around the world.
This new culinary offer is in addition to the exceptional menus already created by leading French chefs on all the airline's long-haul flights departing from Paris. Currently, triple Michelin-starred chefEmmanuel Renaut is joined by Claire Heitzler, Gault & Millau’s elected pastry chef of the year, to delight our La Première guests. In Business, triple Michelin-starred chef Jérôme Banctel has teamed up with Nina Métayer, ‘World’s Best Pastry Chef 2023’, to create a high-flying gourmet duo. Finally, in the Premium cabin, Michelin-starred chef Frédéric Simonin continues to delight Air France customers.
As part of the fight against food waste, the airline is enabling all passengers to pre-select their main dish in the Business cabin, including on departures from Japan. This service combines the guarantee of availability of the customer's choice with fairer consumption on board.
This winter, Air France is operating up to 14 weekly flights to Tokyo-Haneda and 3 weekly flights to Osaka-Kansai from Paris-Charles de Gaulle.
* La Première suites are available on selected flights operated by Boeing 777-300 ER between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Tokyo-Haneda.
Air France signature dishes on departure from international stations
In the La Première and Business cabins, on departure from certain international destinations, Air France works with the best French chefs on the international culinary scene, emphasizing fresh, local ingredients and offering French-inspired dishes, which always includes a vegetarian option.
On departure from Singapore, the triple Michelin-starred chef Julien Royer signs a selection of original dishes on the menu that is regularly renewed for Air France’s La Première and Business customers travelling to Paris-Charles de Gaulle. In tune with the city-state, the chef offers a cosmopolitan cuisine, with carefully selected products. Born and raised in Auvergne, Julien Royer currently works at the Odette and Claudine restaurants in Singapore.
On departure from Reunion Island, the Air France Business menus are signed by chef Jofrane Dailly. Born in Reunion, he combines the island’s local produce with his traditional Indian origins to create original, gourmet and refined dishes. Jofrane Dailly’s cuisine can also be enjoyed at the Diana Dea Lodge, the five-star hotel overlooking Saint-Anne.
On flights departing from the French West Indies (Pointe-à-Pitre, Fort-de-France, Saint-Martin) and French Guiana (Cayenne) to Paris as well as on flights in the Caribbean Regional Network**, Air France offers delectable dishes signed by Martinique chef Jean-Charles Brédas in the Business cabin. Awarded the Médaille du Tourisme in 2011, Maître Cuisinier de France in 2012 and Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite in 2015, the chef also runs his own restaurant ‘le Brédas’ in Saint-Joséph.
On departure from all the company’s Canadian destinations (Montreal, Toronto, Quebec, Vancouver and Ottawa), chef Olivier Perret is committed to showcasing French gastronomy made from local produce for customers in the Business cabin. Originally from Burgundy, he is currently the chef at the Le Renoir restaurant at the Sofitel Montreal Le Carré Doré hotel. He is also a member of the prestigious Maître Cuisinier de France organisation, a Maple ambassador and a member of the Académie Culinaire de France.
On departure from its stations in the United States, Air France has teamed up with Dominique Crenn, the only woman with three Michelin stars in the United States for her Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, to offer inventive and poetic French cuisine for its customers. The chef signs two dishes in La Première and Business cabins, including a vegetarian offer and a fish dish, in addition to the rest of the menu.
And as from January 2025, on flights departing Japan, Olivier Chaignon, head chef at the restaurant L’Osier in Tokyo, will be the latest addition to this team of exceptional signature chefs that Air France intends to continue developing in 2025.
** flights in the Air France Caribbean regional network linking Cayenne to Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre to Miami and Pointe-à-Pitre to Montreal.
About Olivier Chaignon
Originally from the Loiret region of France, Olivier Chaignon began his apprenticeship at L’Auberge de la clé des champs in Courtenay, a Michelin-starred establishment run by chef Marc Delion. After two years, he was awarded the title of Best Apprentice Chef in France, followed by the title of Vice Best Apprentice Chef in Europe. He went on to work in several Relais et Châteaux with the Fourret family in Valençay, then at the two Michelin-starred Auberge des Templiers. He moved to the capital to work in the kitchens of the Opéra restaurant alongside chef François Rodolphe, before moving on to the two-star Relais d’Auteuil. In 2001, he joined the team at the triple Michelin-starred Taillevent restaurant with chef Michel Del Burgo. In 2002, he met Pierre Gagnaire, who suggested he move to London to open the Sketch, where he stayed for two years before returning to the three-starred restaurant on rue Balzac in Paris. In 2005, at the age of 27, he headed to Japan as executive chef to open the ‘Pierre Gagnaire à Tokyo’ restaurant and was awarded two Michelin stars when the Michelin Guide Tokyo was first published in 2008. In 2011, he returned to France to become executive chef of La Cantine du Faubourg, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. At the beginning of 2013, he returned to Japan to reopen the legendary restaurant L’Osier after a two-year closure. After just one year, he was awarded two Michelin stars in 2015 and in 2019, he was awarded his third Michelin star, which he still has. In 2017, he was named Chef of the Year by the Gault et Millau Japan guide and in 2024, he was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole medal. As from January 2025, he will sign the menus in La Première and Business cabins on board Air France flights departing from Japan.
