Special to Road Trips for Foodies
From Lufthansa Group Americas

Belgian Star Chef Thierry Theys from Michelin two-star restaurant Nuance in Duffel, Belgium, has created a new Business Class menu for Brussels Airlines’ intercontinental flights in 2019. With its 10th Belgian Star chef, Brussels Airlines continues to promote the Belgian gastronomy on board of its flights to the United States, Canada, and Africa.

Every year, Brussels Airlines works with another talented Michelin-starred chef, each one promoting a different region of Belgium. By incorporating local ingredients, the chefs bring the best of Belgian cuisine to the skies with their Business Class menus on long-haul flights.

Together with his wife, Sofie Willemarck, Chef Theys opened the restaurant Nuance, located in Duffel (Antwerp), in 2008. Serving a menu built upon French haute cuisine, Nuance has gone straight to the top of the culinary charts. Thierry Theys was previously chosen as ‘inventive Chef of the Year’ and ‘Top young Chef in Flanders’. Nuance has been awarded two Michelin stars and Gault&Millau, the renowned French restaurant guide, consistently awards the restaurant marks of 16 and 17 out of 20.

Chef Theys has designed an exclusive menu for every quarter of this year, using Belgian seasonal products supplemented by a touch of international ingredients, perfectly combining intriguing and complex flavors to present a delightful dining experience at 30,000 feet.

The first menu contains a truffle and pecorino biscuit, a starter of crispy duck salad, grapefruit and crispy rice or king crab, potato, citrus and Japanese curry. For the main course, guests can choose among beef cheek “à l’orange”, carrot, spinach and garlic, salted cod, celery, miso and yuzu or feuilleté, sunroot, silver skin onion and plum with cabernet vinegar. To round off the menu a fine selection of cheese is followed by a dessert of sable shortbread biscuit, lemon cream and kaffir lime.

As an ambassador of its country, Brussels Airlines brings the best of Belgium to the world. The airline offers its guests a choice of eight Belgian beers on board, whereof one ‘beer of the month’ is always chosen by the Belgian Star Chef and has its roots in the chef’s region. For the first two months of 2019, the François Grand Cru Beer and 888 Tripel Eight are chef Theys’ choice.

“We continue to invest in the experience for our guests on board, as well as on the ground. Together with Thierry Theys, we are able to offer our Business Class guests on the long-haul, a premium culinary experience. It is a great challenge for a chef to bring his meals to the air as many restrictions apply and tastes change at higher altitudes. It was an intense collaboration, but we are proud of the result.”, said Gregory Baillet, Head of Product at Brussels Airlines.

Thierry Theys’ menus will be served on board until December 2019.

Brussels Airlines connects the “capital of Europe” to more than 100 destinations, including three destinations in North America: New York, Washington DC, and Toronto. Belgium’s national airline also offers flights to 23 destinations in Africa, as well as to Tel Aviv and 90 cities in Europe.

(Photos courtesy of Deutsche Lufthansa AG)