The Program
United Airlines is deploying 30 new dishes across its Polaris international business class cabin beginning November 1, the second menu rotation under its collaboration with Chef's Table, the Emmy Award-winning Netflix documentary brand. The expansion covers 11 chefs operating out of ten cities — from Los Angeles and Chicago to London, São Paulo and Tokyo — and runs through December 31, with seasonal rotations planned into 2027.
The first cycle, launched August 1, reached more than 60,000 customers and generated satisfaction scores nearly 20 points higher than other pre-ordered meals in the Polaris program. That performance metric is a meaningful signal for airline foodservice operators: pre-order attach rate and post-flight satisfaction scores are the primary levers carriers use to justify culinary investment at the premium cabin level.
The Operator Investment
United has committed more than $150 million to food and beverage improvements since the start of 2025, a figure that spans onboard meals, its United Clubs lounge network, an upgraded wine program, and test formats including action stations and passed bites. The Chef's Table partnership extends that capital deployment into chef-driven menu development — a format more commonly associated with select-service hotel F&B than commercial aviation.
Aaron McMillan, United's Managing Director of Hospitality Programs, framed the program as a culinary positioning play tied to route identity: dishes are matched to the chef's home hub city and served on departing flights from that market. Nancy Silverton's spiral meat lasagna with passato and taleggio sauce, for instance, is exclusive to Los Angeles-origin Polaris flights; David Barzelay's grilled rack of lamb with carrot barbecue sauce boards in San Francisco; and Tomos Parry's roasted pumpkin with rosemary stracciatella departs from London. The city-of-origin structure differentiates the offering from generic premium cabin catering and gives the program a geography-linked culinary narrative — a format with direct parallels to hub-specific menu development strategies seen in airport foodservice.
Chef Roster and Menu Scope
The 11 participating chefs bring significant independent-restaurant credibility: the group includes multiple James Beard Award winners and holders of Michelin stars across their respective markets. Chicago's Jenner Tomaska (Esmé, Petite Edith, The Alston), Houston's Justin Yu (Theodore Rex), Denver's Penelope Wong (Yuan Wonton), D.C.'s Isabel Coss and Matt Conroy (Lutèce, Pascual, Maison Bar À Vins), São Paulo's Manu Buffara (Manu), and Tokyo's Tashi Gyamtso (Jimgu, Enowa Yufuin) round out a roster that spans French-Mexican fusion, Brazilian farm-to-table, and Japanese hyper-local sourcing philosophies.
Each city contributes a three-course structure — appetizer, salad, and entrée — giving Polaris customers nine dish options per hub at any given time. Pre-order is available five days to 24 hours before departure through United.com or the United mobile app. The program is complemented by exclusive seatback video content and select episodes of the Chef's Table: Talks podcast, both delivered at the seat — an extension of the dining experience that mirrors experiential F&B programming increasingly common in premium hospitality.
For the broader foodservice and hospitality supply chain, the United-Chef's Table model is a case study in how high-volume airline catering can integrate fine-dining talent without full kitchen customization at scale — the actual production is handled through airline catering infrastructure, while the menu intellectual property and flavor direction comes from the chef partners.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
