Meet Olivier Chaignon, the New AF 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.

Michelin Experience on Board

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.

AF Signature Dishes

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.