China Airlines has partnered with Tokyo restaurant Toutouan to launch a Japanese menu from January 15.
The Japanese cuisine, and matching tableware, will be available within premium business and business class cabins on all Japanese routes.
This includes flights from Taipei (Taoyuan) to Tokyo Narita, Osaka Fukuoka and Nagoya, as well as Taipei (Songshan) to Tokyo Haneda, and Kaohsiung to Tokyo Narita and Osaka.
The Japanese inflight cuisine will be created by Araki Hironaka, head chef of the original Toutouan in Tokyo, and Wei-Ting Chen, head chef of the restaurant’s only overseas outpost in Taipei.
The seasonally changing menu will launch with ‘Imperial Cuisine of Early Spring’ as the first offering, with all ingredients grown in Taiwan. The entrée is based on the “eight-inch” element from kaiseki cuisine, with seasonal ingredients presented in bite-sized portions on one plate. The main dish will be teriyaki Wagyu beef served with wasabi and Hokkaido Yumepirika rice, followed by a dessert consisting of taro, ginger lily, red guava, brown sugar and purple sweet potato.
The menu also features signature dishes ‘Magatama tofu’ and ‘brown sugar steamed bun’ from the Tokyo restaurant.
China Airlines has also partnered with JIA to introduce co-branded tableware to complement the cuisine. The design has been inspired by traditional lacquerware and gold lacquer crafts of Japan, with the tableware guiding travellers through the four seasons of Japan – from a starter featuring cherry blossoms in spring to a main plate with a summer fireworks motif, rice and miso soup bowls featuring the red leaves in autumn, and finally the snows of winter represented in the dessert plate, fruit plate and Japanese teacup.
There will also be a surprise on the base of the tray for travellers to enjoy once they finish their meal. The containers have also been made from internationally certified recycled materials as part of the airline’s sustainability programme.
Last month China Airlines partnered with Michelin-starred restaurant Yang Ming Spring to introduce plant-based cuisine to its inflight dining menus.
