China Airlines has partnered with Toutouan, a
famous restaurant in Tokyo, to offer Premium Business and Business
Class passengers with “natural style” Japanese cuisine on all the
Taiwan-carrier’s Japan routes.
Scheduled to commence on 15 January 2023, the food
will be served on new Japanese tableware to enhance the
experience.
Toutouan, a premium banquet restaurant passed down
through three generations of the same family, is part of the
Kurochaya Restaurant Group which was founded more than fifty years
ago.
Passengers flying Premium Business and Business
Class on China Airlines’ flagship Japan routes, including Taipei (Taoyuan)
to Tokyo (Narita), Osaka Fukuoka and Nagoya, Taipei (Songshan) to
Tokyo (Haneda), as well as Kaohsiung to Tokyo (Narita) and Osaka,
will be able to enjoy Japanese in-flight cuisine created by Araki
Hironaka, the Japanese head chef of the original Toutouan in
Tokyo, and Wei-Ting Chen, the head chef of Toutouan in Taipei, the
brand’s only overseas restaurant.
The first offering will be the “Imperial Cuisine
of Early Spring” with Teriyayki Wagyu Beef as the main dish.
Premium Japanese Wagyu Beef is served with wasabi and teriyaki
sauce alongside Hokkaido Yumepirika rice famed for its fragrance
and sweet taste. The menu will change to reflect main dishes made
with seasonal ingredients.
The entrée of “Imperial Cuisine of Early
Spring”
incorporates the “eight-inch” element from kaiseki cuisine.
Arranging seasonal ingredients on one plate requires a chef with
adept knife skills as every piece must be cut into inch-long,
bite-sized portions. The main ingredients are locally sourced
enoki mushroom, amaranth, and smoked aigamo duck. Those are turned
into eight portions in the Japanese manner to create a feast for
the senses that blends Taiwan and Japan. The simmered dish
consists of carrots, chestnut pumpkin, shiitake mushroom and
winter bamboo shoots. The fried dish consists of fried karage
burdock and the pickles include persimmon and cucumber. The
dessert consists of taro, ginger lily, red guava, brown sugar and
purple sweet potato. All the ingredients are grown in Taiwan.
The menu also features “Magatama Tofu” and “Brown
Sugar Steamed Bun”, signature dishes from the original Toutouan
restaurant in Tokyo. Magatama Tofu is made from cashews,
arrowroot, milk and fresh cream, and served in konbu and bonito
jelly with wasabi. The 5-step tofu-making process takes 40 minutes
and is topped off with a sprinkle of powdered Taiwanese mullet
roe. The Brown Sugar Steamed Bun has an outer skin infused with
the fragrance of brown sugar and a creamy filling of Taiwanese
purple sweet potato. The steaming and frying require the precision
of a master to produce a signature dessert that is crispy on the
outside, soft on the inside, and with a texture that is everything
in between.
China Airlines has also partnered with JIA to introduce
all new co-branded Japanese tableware to complement the new
cuisine.
JIA has won many international design awards and is the
supplier of choice to many Michelin-starred restaurants and 5-star
hotels around the world. Its designs have also won recognition
from the likes of the Victoria & Albert Museum in the U.K. and Wallpapermagazine.
The design inspiration
for this latest collaboration came from the traditional lacquerware and gold lacquer crafts of Japan. The tableware
features cherry blossoms in spring, fireworks in summer, red
leaves in autumn and fun in the snows of winter.
The new bowls
incorporate motifs based on the four seasons of Japan and the
theme, “experience the beauty of all seasons through cherry
blossoms, fireworks, red leaves, and snow”.
A surprise on the base
of the tray will await travelers when they finish their meal,
adding a memorable element to the meal.
The pickles plate, entrée plate and chopstick
stand are shaped like “Spring Cherry Blossoms”. The
chopstick stand itself cleverly links the plum blossoms that form
the China Airlines corporate logo with the cherry blossoms of
spring.
The main plate and stew plate follow the “Summer
Fireworks” and have a starburst shape reminiscent of fireworks
expanding outwards. The fireworks motif becomes visible at the end
of the meal.
“Red leaves in autumn” is embodied by the rice and
miso soup bowls, with varying hues that capture the red leaves of
fall. The autumn leaf motif can be found at the bottom of the rice
bowl.
“Winter snow” is presented at the end of the meal in the
form of the dessert plate, fruit plate, and Japanese teacup.
The
dessert and fruit plates are a two-piece plate that comes together
to form a cute little snowman. The tea saucer is decorated with a
snowflake motif that pops into view when the teacup is lifted,
fitting perfectly in with China Airlines’ plan to give every
traveler an unexpected surprise.
The elegant Japanese tableware from China Airlines
takes travelers on a guided tour through the four seasons of
Japan. The oval-shaped food containers come with either black,
blue, red or gray lids to easily distinguish between cold and hot
dishes.
The containers themselves are made from
internationally certified recycled materials that reduce carbon
emissions during production by at least 70%.
