What's new on Emirates' Business Class menu for summer 2025?
Curated by top chefs, 18 new dishes offer global flavours tailored for high-altitude dining
DUBAI: Emirates is taking inflight dining to new heights with the launch of 18 brand-new dishes in Business Class this summer.
Carefully curated to enhance the travel experience, the menu features diverse flavours from across the globe, developed in collaboration with the airline’s Vice President of Culinary, Doxis Bekris, and Moët & Chandon’s Head Chef Jean-Michel Bardet.
The additions are the result of a year-long culinary collaboration designed to refine Emirates’ Business Class offerings, with each dish tested and tailored specifically for the high-altitude environment. The focus is on rich textures, balanced seasoning, and a menu that appeals to international tastes while maintaining restaurant-level quality in the sky.
What’s new for passengers?
Passengers can now choose from an elegant array of starters, mains and vegan options that draw inspiration from French, Middle Eastern, and Asian cuisines.
Among the starters is a poached scallop dish served with green melon, kumquat, lemon gel and roasted almonds – a light yet flavourful way to begin a journey.
For those following a plant-based diet, a vibrant vegan starter featuring silken tofu, poached asparagus, soy emulsion, lemon gel, olive oil and cashew cream offers freshness and complexity.
Refined mains with global flair
Main courses reflect the same attention to detail. Highlights include roasted duck with raz el hanout-spiced couscous, cherry tomatoes, aubergine and chickpeas – a nod to North African flavours – and a comforting roasted turkey with sage jus, mashed potato, fennel and almonds.
Seafood lovers can opt for seared Chilean seabass accompanied by artichoke purée, lemongrass sauce and sugar snap peas, while a second vegan option features braised coral lentils with coconut, spiced cauliflower, green peas, basmati rice and naan – a hearty, flavourful combination perfect for longer flights.
The dishes were specifically crafted to retain their flavour and structure during reheating and service at cruising altitude, where taste buds tend to dull and textures are harder to control.
Designed for the skies
Creating fine dining at 40,000 feet is no easy feat. Chef Bardet and Chef Bekris spent over 12 months designing the new dishes, running trials in France and Dubai to ensure every element worked in an inflight setting. Ingredients were selected not just for their taste but for how they perform in a pressurised cabin environment.
Each dish had to meet strict standards of quality, consistency and ease of assembly for the airline’s cabin crew. Emirates serves over 77 million meals annually, or 149 meals per minute, across all its cabins – a logistical feat that requires each recipe to work flawlessly in large-scale catering facilities while still delivering a premium feel onboard.
Meet the culinary architects
Jean-Michel Bardet brings decades of high-end culinary experience to the table. With a background in Michelin-starred restaurants and luxury hotels like Claridge’s London and the Yacht Club de Monaco, Bardet now serves as Head Chef for Moët & Chandon. His approach to culinary design focuses on simplicity, texture, and seasonal balance – all of which are central to the new Emirates menu.
Doxis Bekris, a veteran of the global hospitality industry, was appointed Vice President of Culinary Design at Emirates in February 2025. He leads the airline’s culinary strategy, drawing on his Greek heritage and international experience to create menus that reflect Emirates’ diverse passenger base and global reach.