This Michelin-Starred Chef Is Bringing Fine Dining to Your Next in-Flight Experience

Chef Brandon Jew is taking fine dining to new heights—literally. The Bay Area culinary stalwart—who is best known for serving up creative Chinese-American cuisine at San Francisco hotspots Mamahuhu and the Michelin Star-minted Mister Jiu’s—has teamed up with Alaska Airlines to whip up a mouth-watering in-flight menu.

The collaboration, which serves first-class passengers traveling between San Francisco and New York City, features a thoughtful array of Chinese-American dishes. That said, don’t write this partnership off as a carbon copy of his other properties. For Chef Jew, it was important to make his own mark. “I didn’t think it was realistic to bring the expectation of Mister Jiu’s or Mamahuhu to the in-flight experience, so that’s why you don’t see either of those restaurants’ logos on the menu,” he shares. “It’s really just me as a chef. It’s trusting to me to do my homework on what can be really executed well up here and be really delicious.”

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Chef Jew did have some new learnings to consider—for example, he had to perfect the placement of each item so the entire dish could seamlessly reheat together—but the menu doesn’t skimp on taste or creativity.

“A lot of times, food on a flight can feel one-note,” he explains. “I think that’s just the nature of how it’s cooked and rewarmed. I think executing what I’m hoping to do on the flavor, texture, and marinating color are achievable: It takes a bit of ingenuity and experience.” 

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Those flying to San Francisco from John F. Kennedy airport will enjoy a roasted black cod topped with ginger-scallion sauce as well as silken tofu and mapo sauce. This savory sensation is served on top of a quinoa and farro blend with roasted shiitake mushrooms. Heading to JFK from SFO? You can enjoy braised duck leg—which is sourced from Liberty Farms in Sonoma, where Chef Jew sources his signature Peking Style Whole Duck Roast at Mister Jiu’s—as well as sesame egg noodles and gai lan. Wood-ear mushrooms, tofu skin, and cucumbers accompany the dish. Meanwhile, early-bird first-class passengers on either route can enjoy brown rice congee with soy-cured eggs and braised pork belly (pictured at the top of this article) for breakfast.

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The menu officially lands on August 28, and guests can pre-order their meal two weeks in advance or up to 20 hours before takeoff. However, Chef Jew says the seed for a partnership was planted many years ago. “We started talking about potentially working together on in-flight meals right before the pandemic,” explains Chef Jew, who first became acquainted with the airline through local community events. “But everything came back around—and we’ve been actively working on this for about a year and a half.”

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But for Chef Jew, what makes this dream partnership taste even better is the opportunity to highlight Chinese-American cuisine from coast to coast. “I’m really proud to represent Chinatown and, really, Chinese American food,” he explains. “It’s a really beloved cuisine, and I think that gives me a lot of footing to start to bring in other ingredients, techniques, and flavors. There’s an opportunity to have people learn more about cuisine and the history of Chinese food in America.”