Fresh from his restaurant being awarded Asia’s best, chef Julien Royer is now creating dishes for Air France.
As of the writing of this story, the waitlist for a table at chef Julien Royer’s contemporary French restaurant, Odette, stands at about three months. This comes as little surprise, given that the twoMichelin-star restaurant recently also clinched the number one spot on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list – knocking out Bangkok’s Gaggan, which had previously held the title for four consecutive years. On Air France’s Singapore to Paris leg, however, Royer’s cuisine is a matter of course.
The topic of airline food might be a dated, low-hanging fruit for comedians, but it is serious business for France’s national carrier, which has a long history of working with renowned chefs as part of its “Oh My Chef!” programme – names on the roster include Anne Sophie Pic of the three-Michelin-star Maison Pic; and French-American restaurateur-chef Daniel Boulud.
Until the end of next March, Air France will be serving 12 main dishes created by Royer as part of its “Oh my Chef!” series of collaborations. Each dish will be on the in-flight menu for two months before changing, with six created for business class, and six slightly more luxurious ones for La Premiere — the French airline’s equivalent of first class.
CALLED TO SERVICE
The carrier’s collaboration with Royer began when its country manager for Singapore, Nicolas Ricard, fi rst tasted the chef’s food. “I first discovered Julien’s food when he was at Jaan, and followed his career to Odette.” After hosting some very well-received meals for Air France’s clients at Odette, the decision to go with Royer for the collaboration was clear.
Ricard explains: “(French cuisine) is part of our heritage, and Air France has a long history of working with these great chefs. Everybody is more or less buying the same types of airplanes, and there are limited suppliers for the airplane seats. Cuisine opens up a much larger world of creativity and possibility.”
With this, Royer joins the ranks of other French culinary greats like Michel Roth and the late Joel Robuchon, both of whom have created dishes for Air France’s long-haul flights departing from Paris-Charles de Gaulle. “It’s a great honour, like if you were a footballer and you were being called up to play for the French national team,” shares Royer.
MAKING A MENU
Revealed (on the ground) during a press lunch at Odette, Royer’s in-flight dishes comprise modern, luxurious spins on hearty classic French food. They’re not unlike his usual fare, but a little more restrained in their complexity. While recreating Odette’s signatures like its intricately constructed variations of beetroot might be patently unfeasible for an in-flight meal, the dishes that Royer has designed for Air France are no less considered – something straightforward like chicken ballotine is spruced up with crayfish, asparagus gnocchi and Albufera sauce.
There are even plenty of homages and nods to culinary history that travelling gourmands will appreciate. Mushroom ketchup, the more savoury historical ancestor of tomato ketchup, is a condiment for roast beef. There’s even “Apicius” duck leg – roasted duck glazed with honey and coated in spices – served with apples and confit lemons that riffs on a creation by a pioneer of nouvelle cuisine, Alain Senderens.
It’s not as simple as conjuring dishes out of thin air to be replicated and served on the plane though. Putting together an in-flight menu means considering the fact that these dishes have to be produced repeatedly by the catering company, stored, then reheated, and finally served on a metal tube at 10,000m elevation. Royer explains: “You have to approach this with a totally different mindset compared to doing service in a restaurant. It’s more planning, preparing, and logistics.” To do this, Royer worked closely for several months with Sats, which produces a majority of the in-flight meals for flights leaving from Changi Airport.
The first challenge for the chef was to address the diminished sense of smell and taste – which can decrease by up to 30 per cent – that people experience in the plane due to the low pressure and dry air. Dishes were tested and their seasoning adjusted in Sat’s Simulated Aircraft Cabin, an enclosed room that replicates the conditions during a flight: These include the limitations of meal preparation in the galley, service at the seats, and most importantly, the decreased pressure and humidity.
Looking for the right ingredients is also key, since the food is reheated in the plane galley’s convection oven. Says Royer: “We have to consider how the texture of the ingredients will change because the food gets heated at a constant 140°C. For the proteins, you need something with sufficient fat content because something too lean will dry up.
“We tried beef filet, which didn’t work well as it dried up. Anyone with a bit of common sense will understand that we can’t exactly duplicate the food we serve in the restaurant. The idea is to have the flavour profile and the DNA of the cuisine.”
IN THE AIR
At Odette itself, a dish of grilled scallops with carrot mousseline and aromatic saffron nage comes garnished with pickled onions, fresh herbs and crispy fried sage. In the air, the same dish served in business class comes close in flavour, but is served without the fried sage, which would have turned soggy. Because the dish is pre-prepared, with all its elements reheated on the same plate, individual ingredients tend to bleed into each other a little, like rounds of scallops picking up some flavour from pickled onions.
In first class though, the experience is a little more rarefied. Ingredients used are a little more luxurious, with produce like cod being served alongside Paimpol “coconut”, a prized white bean with a protected designation of origin (meaning that this particular produce, grown in this area, can be labelled as “coco de Paimpol”) that’s farmed in Cotes d’Armor in Brittany, France. Plates too, are constructed a la minute by the cabin crew, so the meal is presented with more finesse, without the risk of condensation watering down a sauce or fresh herbs wilting in the heat.
TO AN OENOPHILE’S DELIGHT
Predictably, much attention is given to the on-board wine list for France’s national carrier, which serves over 800,000 bottles of wine and 750,000 bottles of champagne on its flights every year.
The airline works with Paolo Basso — who won the title of the World’s Best Sommelier in 2013, as voted by the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale. Basso, who is the latest in a list with names like Olivier Poussier (voted best sommelier in 2000), does the sourcing for the entire airline network, picking domestic wines and champagnes to serve on flights.
Wine in the air, just like the food, is a different ball game. The perception of tannins and acidity increases, while many of the fruit flavours, sweetness, and umami become more muted. Perusing the wines for La Premiere and business class reveals all the big-name appellations — but the selection goes beyond recognition, and also considers how a glass tastes in dry air and lowered pressure.
Royer’s dishes for La Premiere and business class will change every two months.
Served on La Premiere: Chicken ballottine with crayfish in Albufera sauce with green asparagus gnocchi
What makes premium class on Air France?
01 RESTAURANT IN THE SKY
Naturally, Air France went with French craftsmen for their place setting. Mealtime sees a tablecloth and table set designed by award-winning French architect Jean-Marie Massaud; tableware includes plates from 150-year-old fine porcelain manufacturer Bernardaud.
02 AERONAUTICAL AMENITIES
Besides a bathrobe, slippers, and socks, amenities in the travel kit include products from the Carita Beauty Institute Paris — moisturising cream, antifatigue eye patch, hand cream and lip balm.
03 SLEEPING WELL
Le Premiere suites come with seats that transform into a 2m by 77cm bed with memory foam mattress, down pillows, and a soft duvet. Business-class seats, meanwhile, recline flat with almost two metres of space too.
04 GET CONNECTED
We live in a time when the most luxurious of creature comforts won’t be able to replace an internet connection. Air France offers free Wi-Fi for messaging apps like Whatsapp and iMessage; a paid high-speed connection for streaming shows is also available.
05 LOUNGE ACCESS
Those flying from Singapore check in from the exclusive Jet Quay lounge, where staff will provide any assistance guests might require. Departures from Paris - Charles de Gaulle will grant passengers access to the La Premiere lounge, where food by legendary French chef Alain Ducasse awaits.
