La Compagnie Has Partnered With Some Great Chefs To Seriously Elevate Its In-Flight Dining Game

There's no other airline out there that's quite like La Compagnie, and you can be forgiven if you haven't heard of it. It's a boutique airline with two 757s in its fleet, flying twice daily between Newark Airport (just outside New York City) and Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Both of its planes have only 74 seats, and here's the kicker: They're all business-class. Along with comfortable seats, high-quality food is one of the most important aspects of the business class experience, and La Compagnie has recently seriously upped its game by bringing young and talented guest chefs on board to develop menu items.

Each chef has worked extensively with La Compagnie's culinary team (including its head chef, Christophe Langrée) to create one signature dish that represents his or her style of cooking, and during the months of September, October, and November travelers will be able to try these dishes during flights as part of an initiative called Chefs & Co.

The partnership launched in July with chef David Toutain (of Paris' Restaurant David Toutain), who served a cold appetizer of gravlax-style salmon with diced vegetables in basil mayonnaise rolled up in a ballotine with blanched cabbage (above). In September, chef Frédéric Duca (of Paris' L'Instant d'Or and currently chef at New York's Racines NY) will be serving cod with fennel purée, chorizo, squid, and citrus. In October, chef Jody Williams (the chef and owner of New York's Buvette) will be serving chicken pot au feu with horseradish vinaigrette. And in November, Christophe Saintagne (formerly of Paris' Le Meurice and currently head chef at Papillon) will be serving duck raviole with cilantro and celeriac.

We had the opportunity to sit down with chef Toutain to discuss the process of creating this dish, and it was a lot more complicated than you might imagine.

"The dish had to fit into certain constraints that are different from a restaurant," he told us. "We had to be careful about allergies, it had to be able to be prepared in advance, the vegetables have to be diced the right way, and it can't take too much time to prepare. It was a brand new challenge."

The actual experience of dining on an airplane is different from dining in a restaurant, too. "When you're flying, you're not there just for the food, like in a restaurant," he added. "We have to catch you for one small moment, when you can forget about everything else and just enjoy the dish. It was tricky and difficult to pull off, but I think it turned out very nice."

Because La Compagnie is still a very small airline in comparison to the major ones like Delta, adding new menu items and hosting special events like in-flight book signings are much easier to pull off; chef Toutain even made an in-flight appearance to serve his dish last month. About 60 percent of all La Compagnie passengers are business travelers, and many are repeat customers so regulars will recognize each other as well as the in-flight staff, another benefit of it being a smaller airline; The company is also constantly looking for new ways to improve and grow; in 2019 they're be replacing their current aircraft with Airbus A321s. So if you're traveling between New York and Paris and want to fly business class, we suggest you not book your airfare without checking out La Compagnie first.